Gaskets and seals: Strengthening the Weakest Link
Chemical processors rely on seals and gaskets to stand up to aggressive media, high temperatures and high pressures. However, due to leaks and failures, seals and gaskets are often considered the weakest link in chemical processing systems. But seal manufacturers are strengthening this link via new materials and designs in an effort to make seals and gaskets as robust as the rest of the system....

Renewable Feedstocks: Trading Barrels for Bushels
With traditional petroleum-derived feedstocks facing relentless economic and environmental pressures, it’s no surprise that stakeholders throughout the chemical process industries (CPI) have been in hot pursuit of alternative routes for producing commodity and specialty chemicals and polymers from cheap, plentiful renewable feedstocks. Today, parallel efforts are beginning to bear fruit. According to market analyst Frost & Sullivan (London; www.chemicals.frost.com), the global market for renewably sourced commodity chemicals earned revenues of $1.63 billion in 2008, and this figure is projected to reach $5.01 billion by 2015....

Licensure around the globe
Chemical engineering principles do not differ by geographical location. The same cannot be said, however, about the established criteria for certifying that an individual has mastery of those principles. Requirements for obtaining a professional license or charter in the field vary widely from country to country, and in the U.S. they even vary from state to state. Such inconsistencies further complicate an initiative that has recently gained momentum — and criticism — in the U.S. and elsewhere: raising the educational prerequisite from a bachelor’s to a master’s degree....