Creative Thriller Explores Octopus Innovations and Human Communication
Wikimedia Commons Octopuses are intriguing creatures. I have written two previous blog posts about their creativity and innovations. In November 2019, I wrote about Creativity and Lessons Learned from Octopuses. That blog talked about how octopuses are creative, intelligent creatures who can problem solve and are masterful mimics. In 2021, I discussed the winner of the Oscar’s best documentary award, My Octopus Teacher, and the power of critical thinking demonstrated by octopuses. I like to…
Lithium Ion Battery Materials and Solid-liquid Separation Safety
In the many lithium ion battery (LIB) plants that I have visited, one critical area of concern is solid-liquid separation safety in manual operations. After all, a LIB is, in reality, a small chemical plant. The detailed structure is as follows: Figure 1. Structure diagrams of LIBs . a) Main components, b) Internal structure and c) Structure of cathode materials and Al foil (Yellow coating represents PVDF film). Reproduced from Global Challenges 2023, 7, 2200237, © 2023 The Authors.…
Reflections & Building Relationships Everywhere
Image: shorturl.at/fhiqv It is now two years since I began this consulting journey and as I reflect on this time, I harken back to the words on my website – Building Relationships Everywhere. Happily, I do have colleagues, coauthors, and clients all over the world. If I put pins in a map for my clients globally, there would be over ten countries including Italy, India, and Canada. Of course, that’s in addition to my domestic clients. The clients include startups, and universities as…
Global Experts Contribute Know-How in Integration and Optimization of Unit Operations
Over my career of 40 years in the process industry and unit operations, writing has always been a passion for me. It represents an opportunity to convey concepts, ideas, and technical information in a manner that makes sense to the audience. My technical and marketing application articles — more than 150 to date — culminated in 2015 with the publication of my first book for Elsevier, Handbook of Solid-Liquid Filtration. On the strength of the Handbook’s market acceptance, Elsevier asked me…
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…