M.A. Manja Wühr

The process industries must establish efficient and circular processes that do not require fossil raw materials and energy. But what does that mean for the careful use of water as a resource? We talked about this with Dr. Thomas Track, Head of Dechema’s Water Management Department.

An ancient tree, hundreds of years old, is an impressive sight with the wide, far-reaching branches of its huge crown. Even more impressive would be the root network — if we could only see it. This is a perfect analogy for the Gea Group, which has grown from around 250 companies. Many of these have a long history of their own, and even under the umbrella of the parent corporation they still develop with their own impetus and momentum. Today, the complementary skill sets and expertise in the field of thermal separation technology are bundled at Gea Wiegand, while Gea Westfalia Separator covers the area of mechanical separation technology.

There is a wide selection of heat transfer oils out there to choose from, and each product has its own specific properties. But how do you find the right one for your particular application? A few key criteria will help you make the best choice.

The process industries must establish efficient and circular processes that do not require fossil raw materials and energy. But what does that mean for the careful use of water as a resource? We talked about this with Dr. Thomas Track, Head of Dechema’s Water Management Department.

At the start of 2020, Gea embarked on a new course — two functional business areas were divided into five divisions, including Liquid & Powder Technologies with the business unit Chemical Technologies (BU CT). Dr. Christopher Braun, who has been managing the business of Gea Wiegand for 19 years, is expecting this to deliver clearer responsibilities. He believes that areas of growth for thermal separation technology will be found particularly in attractive niche markets.

Slowly rotating vertical mixing systems for powdery goods have been around for a long time. Their area of use was primarily where large quantities of bulk goods had to be blended and the proportional composition of the components was to a large extent similar.

Pumps may grab the headlines in industrial applications, but mixers are the leading technology for many critical mixing and blending tasks, provided they are configured and utilized properly.

Chemical companies are filling up plant order books: Between 2005 and 2015, global investment in the sector increased by nearly a factor of three and currently stands at more than $ 200 billion. Most of these plants are based on conventional design and construction, but the engineering departments at chemical companies and EPC contractors are about to make major changes to the engineering process.

The Institute for Bioplastics and Biocomposites forecasts a global production capacity of 4,3 million tons of bioplasics in 2022 — a real growth market. A US bioplastic resin provider wants to be part of this success story and invested in a tailor made production plant. For the challenging handling and processing of the natural raw materials they found in Azo the right partner.

The 6 key considerations for selecting the right conveyor —  Selecting a conveyor for a batch or continuous processing application is not always as straightforward as you might think. In fact, it almost never is. Moving material consistently can be a challenging endeavor for process engineers and procurement personnel.

The new Evonik group structure is close to its implementation. In this article you read which segments are centralized under which legal entitie and who will manage their business dealings from the January 1, 2015.

The first Rembe rupture discs came onto the German market in the early 70s — at that time they were still completely machined by hand. Today, the company from the Sauerland region does not just develop and manufacture safety concepts for plants and equipment of the process industries. The focus is always on finding the optimum solution to protect the plant, people and the environment.

Vacuum dryer system for API, fine chemicals and intermediates—Maximum ease of cleaning, maintenance and internal inspection even for multi-product applications: The horizontal paddle vacuum dryer by Italvacuum is the result of a deep analysis, conducted in cooperation with the most demanding operators, regarding the most urgent requirements of their production.

Expansion projects are a chance but also titanic work: For a German producer of derivatives from milk and whey Derichs cope with high requirements in terms of dust-free system, high hygiene, Atex, batch tracking and gentle powder processing.

Coating of particles is a critical process step for many manufacturing processes. After all, coating essentially determines the product quality. The appropriate process must be found to determine the properties of as needed for the application. The following article describes, what need to be considered when developing particles.

The engineering, construction and services company KBR has signed an agreement with Chiyoda, a leading engineering and construction firm in Japan, to license its CT-Acetica technology.

For brewers malt is an essential ingredient. But for workers of the packing unit it means hard work: Malt producer Thomas Fawcett & Sons required a more efficient system to pack pale ale malt into 350 kg to 1000 kg bulk bags, sold across the UK and internationally.

For the first time in a lithium extraction project, Australia leaves all process steps from ore mining and separation to refining in the country. In this context, Gea has received an order from Albemarle to supply screening and pusher centrifuges, peeler centrifuges and decanter centrifuge plants for the treatment of lithium derivatives in various process stages.

Blending is an important process step in the manufacture of pills and other oral solid dosages. The latest FDA Guidelines focus particularly on a continuous verification of this process step. Learn more about monitoring the blend by means of NIR spectroscopy.

Flowability, dustlessness and easy dosing — these are some of the plus points of granulates produced by fluidized or spouted bed technology. The product design can be specifically influenced by process engineering.

Carbonization processes such as pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) expected to fulfil important roles in future bio-refinery concepts. However, until now a major problem is: These processes form waste waters that contain various environmental hazardous substances. Researchers in Potsdam/Germany seem to crack it.

For the first time at K, Brabender presents the redesigned dosing models DSR28 and DDSR20.

Peruvians want to drink more non-alcoholic beverages. In order to meet the growing needs the beverages producer Arca Continental and Corporacion Lindley, the official Coca-Cola bottler in Peru, together have started up production of a new plant in Pucusana/Peru.

What do tile adhesive, medication in the form of tablets and yogurt have in common? With all of these products, a specific formula needs to be followed to the letter to make sure the required quality can be guaranteed. To do this, the individual raw ingredients not only need to be safely stored, conveyed and processed. Ultimately, they also need to be added with precision to the production process. This is sometimes a tricky challenge — and one that AZO has been living up to for nearly 70 years. Starting with the development of a cyclone screening machine, the creative engineers from Osterburken/Germany are responsible for numerous innovations in the field of bulk materials handling. Today, the AZO Group automates raw materials handling in the food, pharmaceuticals and chemicals sectors all around the world.

From bio-refineries to special chemical plants and food and pharmaceutical production – mixing technology and mixers are a key part of every production process. A visit at this year's Achema revealed three important trends in mixing technology.

Around 7,990 visitors came to Asia’s biggest trade fair for mechanical process technology – the 14th International Powder & Bulk Solids Processing Conference & Exhibition (IPB) in Shanghai. 142 exhibitors from 14 countries stood ready to present specific solutions in mechanical process technology.

Potash, Sugar or APIs are commonly formed by crystallisation. In an optimised crystallisation system the particle size distribution can be narrowed and the impact on the crystals, e.g. breakage or the production of fines, will be reduced.

Powder coatings technology dates back to the 1960s, when pure epoxy systems were first used. These had very slow curing times, due to the raw materials in use at the time, and this restricted their areas of application considerably. Nowadays, however, a much wider variety of suitable raw materials is available. This makes it possible to vary the optical and mechanical properties of the coatings. Proven modern materials handling systems improve the economics of coating powders, both in production and in application.

New containment cyclone screener — Screening products under containment conditions is one matter. Maintaining and inspecting cyclone screeners without exposure is another. Now Azo has designed a new real containment solution that utilise a flexible film liner technology.

The mills used to manufacture pharmaceuticals are becoming increasingly diverse: New requirements are demanding optimised processes and innovative approaches. But the sums all have to add up in the end despite all the technical possibilities.

BASF and Petronas expand their integrated complex in Kuantan/Malaysia and build a new world-scale production plant for 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid (2-EHAcid).

There are some substances you take no chances with — and one of these is phenol. When heated above 54 °C it becomes a viscous liquid that is highly toxic and hazardous. Therefore the SI Group was looking for safety phenol-handling applications.

At the Frankfurt-Höchst industrial estate, AkzoNobel is converting an amalgam electrolysis plant to the modern membrane process and has commissioned ThyssenKrupp Uhde to design and supply the energy-saving ThyssenKrupp Uhde membrane cells.

The Chinese company Cepsa Chemical will build a new production facility for phenol and acetone at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park. The plant utilizes Honeywell's UOP phenol process technology.

For BASF Nigeria is a particularly dynamic growing market for construction chemicals in West Africa. The new production plant for concrete additives in Lagos/Nigeria will help the construction industry to become less dependent on imports and reduce long lead times for supplies. Besides Nigeria BASF concentrates on neighboring west African countries, too.

After the expiry of the legally stipulated cooling-off period of two years Prof. Dr Wolfgang Reitzle could be elected as the new Chairman of the Linde Supervisory Board.

Regardless of whether for distillation, filtration, drying or clarification — without separation technology, nothing goes. After all, most raw ingredients and products of chemical reactions are mixtures of substances that need to be separated for further processing. So it is good to have a partner who is a single provider capable of supplying everything from mechanical separation systems to exhaust air purification.

Johnson Matthey has created a new and cost effective method of synthesising small quantities of urea formaldehyde concentrate (UFC). The ingenious twist in the process is that it allows urea producers to generate significant savings on the ammonia-urea complex.

Operational safety needs reliable partnerships — when it comes to safety, there should not be any compromises. But how do you find the right supplier for safety-relevant components? And how do you ensure that you will ultimately receive the optimal solution to protect your plants and your employees? Stefan Penno, Managing Director of Rembe, and Nils Lange, Process Engineer at Rembe, know that the details matter.

Several people injured as toxic cloud emerges from chemical factory in Igualada, Spain: An accident during the unloading of chemicals at a Simar plant have caused and explosion, followed by a tocxic orange brown cloud.

Fertiliser producers are searching for a way to incorporate sulphur into their urea. Now Shell and Uhde Fertilizer Technologies work out a Fluid Bed Granulation Process, that enables the production of sulphur-enhanced urea fertilisers.

The process industries are under pressure - literally. If the pressure is too high or too low, the affected plant parts can suffer severe damage. Here, reliable and fast reacting relief devices are absolutely required. Rembe has been dedicated to protecting plants and processes for more than 45 years. What once began with a single rupture disc is now comprehensive expertise in the field of process safety and explosion safety.

Azerbaijan has huge gas and crude oil reserves. But its processing facilities are not up to date. Azerbaijan's state energy company Socar plans to construct an modern oil, gas and petrochemicals processing complex.

Due to their high fineness and throughput hammer mills are enormously popular. But if production calls for explosion-safe processing in a cleanroom special technical Know-how must be assured.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), jointly with Apex Energy of Malaysia, and PT Rekayasa Industri in Indonesia, has received an order from Petronas Chemical Fertilizer Sabah for a project to construct a large-scale ammonia/urea fertilizer plant.

The color, smell and taste — what would cuisine be without spices? Presumably bland. But how could producers extend the shelf-life without compromising the magic of spices? Ava has found a way.

At the middle of the year BASF will change the management of its Oil & Gas division. For this reason Mario Mehren will also head the BASF subsidiary Wintershall.

With a special accessory for small sample volumes, the particle counting systems Pamas SVSS and Pamas SBSS can now be upgraded, so as to meet the regulations of the USP 787 pharmacopoeia for Subvisible Particulate Matter in Therapeutic Protein Injections.

Learn how Antares Vision kickstarted the packaging industry into the future — Health and safety: Two small words that mean everything to a company like Antares Vision. They are the leader in the pharmaceutical market, which is now ten years ahead of other industries in terms of regulatory tracking requirements.

Turning Danube water into pure process water: The reverse osmosis facility at the Slovnaft oil refinery in Slovakia utilises 630 Lewabrane RO B400 HR membrane elements for water treatment. Read how this plant performs.

Containment of a solid drugs production is incomplete where the production environment is neglected. Closed process equipment and the production environment need to be considered as an integral solution. There should however be a reasonable balance between protective effects and plant productivity.