Sustainability for Agriculture Irrigation
Did you know agriculture irrigation accounts for 70% of the water used worldwide? That’a a lot. At the same time, most of the world relies on flood irrigation to water crops as a more efficient alternative has proved elusive. Any innovations have not been widely adopted due to expense. Yet, one Israeli soil physicist has provided a sustainable solution in a tiny plastic widget. This modest innovation in drip irrigation could forever change agriculture, especially in resource-starved…
Clarifying Process Liquids: New Approaches for Chemical and Pharmaceutical Applications
Image Source: IFN How can the process engineer successfully automate the clarification processes to improve filtration while minimizing operator exposure? Over my career in solid-liquid separation, I've seen many examples of process engineers struggling with clarifying process liquids. In one resin facility, the slurry was in a formaldehyde process and the "masked" operators were opening up a manual plate filter to dig out the cake. In another case, during the manufacturing of zeolites, the…
Systems Integration Design & Gated Process Development
Recently I have enjoyed a rich collaboration Circular Economy and Closing the Loop in Case Studies with Professor Ugur Tuzun of the University of Cambridge on the important topic of process systems and the circular economy. Our latest article, “Systems Integration Design for Chemical and Biological Engineers: Gated Process Development with Digital Interlinks for Bulk Chemicals and Specialty Products Manufacture,” appears in the Journal of Chemical Engineering & Process Technology. The…
Process Engineering Partnership Provides a Holistic Approach to Operations
Image source: https://www.humanperf.com/en/blog/project-management/articles/holistic-approach-serving-transformation Process engineering cannot succeed in a silo. As I often say, it’s best to take a holistic view of process operations. To that end, I’m pleased to announce my new collaboration with Procegence. Let me tell you more about our process engineering approach. Happily, one of my blogs on batch to continuous processing prompted Nima Yazdanpanah, President of Procegence, to reach…
Take the Gold for Problem Solving — Olympic Style
This blog often shares perspectives on innovation and leadership, traits we see in spades during the Olympics. As this Winter Olympics unfolds in China, though, let’s discuss the awesome problem-solving skills of the Olympians and what we can apply to our own business endeavors. The performances of Olympic athletes can seem unbelievable. Part of the joy of watching the Games is seeing these amateur athletes accomplish seemingly super-human feats. As we all admire the commitment and dedication…