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• Distillation: Do You Understand Partial Pressures?

  By Earl Clark, Energy Columnist

  As we work on various refining trains and columns, we oftentimes take for granted how and where they work. Partial pressures are one of the basic facts in separations. However, what happens when a partial pressure causes poor performance in ancillary equipment? Many of us have performed binary…

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• Compliance: CDR Rule Shows Room for Improvement

  By Lynn L. Bergeson

  This summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report titled “EPA’s Chemical Data Reporting Rule Largely Implemented as Intended, but Opportunities for Improvement Exist.” The OIG conducted an audit to determine how the EPA is ensuring…

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• Proof Test Prudently

  By Denise Chastain-Knight and Jim Jenkins, exida

  The functional safety lifecycle covers a safety instrumented system (SIS) from concept to retirement. While important activities occur in each phase of the lifecycle, operation phase activities stand out because they are performed repetitively and are critical to long term reliability.An SIS is a…

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• Chlorine Cathode Activity Gets a Closer Look

  By Seán Ottewell, Editor at Large

  According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC), Washington, D.C, polyvinyl chloride manufacturing consumes around 40% of the 12 million t/y of chlorine produced by the U.S. chloralkali industry. The rest goes to make basic organic chemicals, solvents and hydrochloric acid. Around two-thirds of…

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• Take a Key Step Against Combustible Dust Hazards

  By Robert Gaither, DEKRA Process Safety

  Effectively Managing fire and explosion hazards posed by combustible dust can be a challenging task. After all, this requires not only a detailed understanding of the fuel/combustible material (dust) but also an understanding of the process equipment, operating conditions, maintenance practices,…

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• Drying Research Heats Up

  By Seán Ottewell, editor at large

  Major research initiatives underway in the United States and European Union (EU) are striving to better understand industrial drying and to address the technical and economic issues posed by such operations.Speaking in July 2016 at the opening of the Center for Advanced Research in Drying (CARD),…

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