http://www.che.com Chemical Engineering en-us 2010 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:13:48 EST Powder agglomeration is used in a wide variety of the chemical process industries (CPI), and a virtually endless number of process options are available. Selection requires engineers to make a substantial number of design decisions, such as the choice between wet or dry processing, the intensity of mixing and shear rates, continuous versus batch operation, cross contamination of products and ease of cleaning. These choices must be made in light of desirable agglomerate end-use properties. Key agglomeration mechanisms and their impact on agglomeration processing are reviewed in this article. The impact on process selection is also touched upon within the context of mechanisms.... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5497.html Mon, 1 Mar 2010 0:00:00 EST The problem of cleaning coke-cooling wastewater has vexed engineers for decades, but effective solutions have remained elusive. Without a low-cost technique to treat coke-cooling wastewater, environmentally inocuous production of petroleum is impossible. The process discussed here represents an improved method for purifying coke-cooling wastewater and offers a path toward cleaner petrochemical production.... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5498.html Mon, 1 Mar 2010 0:00:00 EST The solubility of water in the hydrocarbons that comprise crude oil is an increasingly important issue in view of processing, safety and environmental considerations surrounding product quality and equipment sustainability. Water in the reacting hydrocarbon species may result in the formation of undesirable by-products. To illustrate the importance of water solubility in hydrocarbons, we offer the results of solubility studies involving water in benzene derivatives. The results for both solubility and Henry’s Law constant for water are provided in an easy‑to‑use tabular format for a wide variety of benzene derivatives contained in crude oil.... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5499.html Mon, 1 Mar 2010 0:00:00 EST An alternative to thermal oxidation is catalytic oxidation of VOCs, which runs at much lower temperatures — about 500–900 ºF. A regenerative catalytic oxidizer (RCO) uses the same operating principle as RTO, but consumes substantially less auxiliary fuel. The authors have found that in many situations, RTOs can be retrofitted to RCOs. Energy savings after such a retrofit can quickly justify the costs for the catalysts and installation. This article discusses basic RTO and RCO technology with an emphasis on thermal efficiency and energy balance. ... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5500.html Mon, 1 Mar 2010 0:00:00 EST With today’s state-of-the-art digital technology, the sky seems to be the limit for doing everything with one system platform. However, with the exception of a few very specific... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5501.html Mon, 1 Mar 2010 0:00:00 EST This article describes an algorithm that end users can use to develop a program on a personal computer to assess the technical and economic feasibility of installing a variable frequency drive (VFD) on centrifugal pumps. This simple algorithm serves a variety of useful functions.... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5445.html Mon, 1 Feb 2010 0:00:00 EST A survey of tower failures [ 1 ] ranks kettle reboilers as the most troublesome reboiler type in the chemical process industries (CPI). Excessive pressure drop in kettle reboiler circuits is the... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5453.html Mon, 1 Feb 2010 0:00:00 EST Today’s high costs of energy make an energy audit evaluation of process facilities a must. Most plants were designed and built when energy costs were low by today’s standards. This... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5454.html Mon, 1 Feb 2010 0:00:00 EST For valves operating in hazardous environments, certification testing is critical to ensure the reliability and safety of the equipment. But this testing process has historically required facilities to shut down and sacrifice valuable production hours to check each valve. Built-in self-test (BIST) capabilities in smart, electronic valve actuators were developed in response to these testing challenges. This article examines how BIST simplifies valve testing and reduces the cost, while increasing the level of confidence in valve and actuator safety.... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5459.html Mon, 1 Feb 2010 0:00:00 EST Particulate buildup and other material flow problems are common hurdles wherever dry materials find application in the chemical process industries (CPI). Since manual intervention is costly in... http://www.che.com/technical_and_practical/5399.html Fri, 1 Jan 2010 0:00:00 EST