Michael Mc Murray will be succeeding Thomas Aebischer who will be retiring from office by this year end. Prior to his appointment at Lyondell Basell, Mc Murray held an eleven-year career at Owens Corning.

Europe’s chlorine industry enters the post-mercury era — The shutdown of the last amalgam systems are taken out of service in December 2017, a technological era will come to an end. However, with membrane electrolysis technology underway, it will not mean the extinction of the industry. Plant operators and engineers are moving on on to the next level of the chlorine (r)evolution, balancing sustainability, energy efficiency and safety.

Enhanced plant management helps to realize smooth and safe operation — Maintaining a safe operating state is essential in process industries, as any incident or malfunction may have fatal consequences. State-of-the-art control technology is designed to supervise and control a process within a defined and safe operating state. But there are always risks for deviation caused by interruptions or unplanned conditions. Plant personnel need to be aware of differences between actual and planned operating states — and eventually to take action to quickly bring the process back under control.

Double ball-valve dry disconnects set new standard in chemical handling — Operators that handle hazardous liquids or toxic chemicals have high demands for loading systems, hoses, pipes and couplings. But how to design such a system? Are traditional bayonet-and-plunger styles still the go-to-solution for chemicals or has the time of new coupling technology finally come?

The separation of two immiscible liquids contained in the same tank or vessel is a fundamental aspect of many production processes. Optimising the performance of these applications can have a significant effect on final product quality. To achieve this, plant managers need to implement devices that can accurately and reliably measure the interface level between the two liquids.

In addition to its range of instruments based on the thermal and Coriolis measuring principle, Bronkhorst has introduced a unique series of low-flow ultrasonic flow meters and controllers for liquids.

In all segments of the water and wastewater industry, there is still plenty of scope for innovations, as the sector will be amply demonstrating at this year’s IFAT. The exhibitors will come up with plenty of new ideas in water and wastewater treatment. Here are just some examples …

Textile dyeing industry is one of the most water consuming industries after thermal, engineering pulp and paper industries. In India water consumed by textile industries in the year of 2010 was around 1900 Mm3 (Million cubic meters) and effluent water generated was around 75 per cent of its intake. Discover the dos and don'ts of industrial water treatment...

Cleaning in Place (CIP) has been around for approximately 50 years, and is commonly used in hygiene critical industries, such Food, Beverage and Pharmaceutical, to clean a wide range of plant. CIP refers to the use of a mix of chemicals, heat and water to clean machinery, vessels or pipe work without dismantling plant. The process can be one shot, where everything goes to drain, or recovery, which recycles most of the liquid. Overall, CIP can be a very efficient way of cleaning.

Refinery modernizes safety systems in just two weeks and assures plant availability for the future—In September 2014, the German refinery Heide Refinery used two weeks of planned downtime at its pyrolysis plant to migrate to new safety systems. The technology selection emphasized plant availability and a high level of investment security, while extensive preliminary testing guaranteed a smooth changeover.