Containment of Slurries in Continuous and Batch Operations
Image source In the 1970s, the chemical operations used acetone and benzene for the main slurries solid-liquid separation process. Next, there was a push to minimize solvent use. We looked to use water as the process liquid, but still had open filter presses and rotary drum filters; the entire plant was white from titanium dioxide or pharma stearates. Today, we all know that processes remain open with filter presses, vacuum filters, and centrifuges. Our job is finding solid-liquid separation…
Elementary, My Dear Process Engineers!
Back in 2013, I encountered an article on Maria Konnikova's book Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. Businessweek had it in their MasterClass section in which they scan the book so we "don't have to." Yet I was intrigued enough to want to read the entire book (and you should too). Solid-liquid separation (SLS) may not have the glamor of investigating blackmail and burglary, extortion and espionage or murder and mayhem, yet I was struck by the similarities between process engineers…