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The New Year Brings Solid Progress

Dec. 9, 2015
January ushers in some noteworthy developments at Chemical Processing

The start of 2016 is a good time to introduce some changes at Chemical Processing. We’re adding to our coverage of solids, and welcoming a new member to our Editorial Board.

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Starting this issue, we are launching a column called “Solid Advice” that will appear every other month. Many plants handle powders or other solids, either during processing or as a final product, but chemical engineers learn little in college about the special issues that such materials pose. So, we regularly publish articles providing practical pointers about successfully dealing with solids, such as the recent “Flow Meters Achieve Solid Success,” “Preclude Powder Problems,” and “Make the Most of Flow Additives.” However, we feel many readers would value a regularly appearing column devoted to solids.

We’ve convinced Tom Blackwood, a veteran engineer who has dealt extensively with solids over the course of his career, to share some of his insights in this column. He’s certainly not a stranger to CP, having written articles such as “Clamp Down on Clumping,” and “Avoid Blending Blunders,” as well as serving as the solids processing guru on our online Ask the Experts Forum.

Tom currently is director of technology for Healthsite Associates, St. Louis, Mo. Prior to that, he worked for Monsanto and related companies, serving for more than 20 years as an internal consultant on solids processing. He has written many internal design guides as well as numerous articles, and has expertise on design and operation of units for crystallization, precipitation, evaporation, drying and solid/liquid separation.

Check out his first Solid Advice column.

Like many trade magazines, Chemical Processing has an Editorial Board. However, unlike others in our field, we treat the members as far more than just “window dressing” — names to add prestige to a masthead. We hold quarterly teleconferences and rely heavily on our Editorial Board to alert us to topics we should address, fine-tune our coverage, offer critical feedback, and more.

We are fortunate to have a truly engaged board with many long-tenure members. One, Jon Worstell, who served on the board for more than a decade and had retired a while ago from Shell, recently decided to leave the board. We have lined up a top-notch replacement: Julie O’Brien, director of sustainability for Air Products and Chemicals, Allentown, Pa.

Julie has worked for Air Products for nearly 30 years. In her current role, she is responsible for integrating sustainability into company businesses and work processes. She has been involved in a variety of areas, including sustainability, environmental, health and safety management, product safety, public relations and process engineering. She has a B.S. in chemical engineering from Notre Dame and an M.S. in civil engineering from Lehigh.

I’d be remiss not to use this opportunity also to mention a change on the board that took place last summer. Another long-serving member, Ben Paterson of Eli Lilly, resigned, and we enticed Dan Brown, another Lilly veteran, to replace him.

Dan has been with for Lilly for more than 25 years. Currently, he works for Elanco Global Engineering in Indianapolis, supporting manufacturing of animal health and vaccine products. His prior experience includes production of bulk active pharmaceutical ingredients, scale-up, instrumentation, process safety and air-emission modeling, as well as capital project delivery, commissioning and qualification. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Iowa State.

Find more details on the members of CP’s Editorial Board and their contributions.

MARK ROSENZWEIG is Chemical Processing's Editor in Chief. You can email him at [email protected]
About the Author

Mark Rosenzweig | Former Editor-in-Chief

Mark Rosenzweig is Chemical Processing's former editor-in-chief. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers' magazine Chemical Engineering Progress. Before that, he held a variety of roles, including European editor and managing editor, at Chemical Engineering. He has received a prestigious Neal award from American Business Media. He earned a degree in chemical engineering from The Cooper Union. His collection of typewriters now exceeds 100, and he has driven a 1964 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk for more than 40 years.

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