Chemtech

Chemical Engineering World (CEW), the Official Organ of CHEMTECH Foundation, is India’s premier technology magazine for the chemical process industry professionals. This highly reputed monthly publication provides novel insights on the dynamics of Indian and global process industries.

CEW has been disseminating authentic information on process industry innovations for the last 42 years. The time-tested contents of CEW cover advances in science & technology, research & development, reviews & forecasts, new products, processes & technologies, upcoming projects, outstanding performance by individuals and organisations, events, product reviews, industry surveys, news, case studies, and most significantly, practice-oriented articles by industry experts. A niche publication with proven track record, Chemical Engineering World has been chronicling process industry innovation for more than four decades.

December 2011 Issue

LEADERSPEAK

"In the next decade, India to build reputation as a manufacturing powerhouse"

Manufacturing is one of the pillars for the Growth Domestic Product (GDP) of a country. With a significant drop in India's manufacturing output in the year 2011, India would require a prudent and pragmatic approach to bail out the country’s manufacturing sector out of this state. Pothen Paul, Chairman and India Country Manager, Aker Solutions, opines his views on strategies required to strengthen India's manufacturing sector...
- Pothen Paul, Chairman and Country Manager-India, Aker Solutions

"Rare earths sector is likely to grow at 5-6 per cent per year in future"

China sent the world into a tizzy when the country announced its decision in 2007 to curb the supplies of rare earths globally. World over, the governments are adopting prudent and pragmatic approach to conserve these scarce resources for future use. Dr R N Patra, Chairman & Managing Director, Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL), talks about the growing demand of these scarce materials, and IREL’s Greenfield facility which will enter into production in April 2012 in an exclusive interview...
- Dr R N Patra, Chairman & Managing Director, Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL)

"BOC policy - We do not want to harm the people or the environment"

With recent refinery expansions and steel capacity enhancements, the demand-supply situation of industrial gases in India needs to be in sync with the dynamic and volatile market conditions. As BOC India continues its journey with persistence to stand as an undisputed leader in the industrial and medical gases segment since its inception in 1935, Chemical Engineering World explores the future growth strategies of the company through an interview with Srikumar Menon, Managing Director of BOC India Ltd...
- Srikumar Menon, Managing Director, BOC India Limited

"The future of automation will go hand in hand with the IT industry"

With more than a decade of existence of state-of-the-art world class Jamnagar Refinery, Reliance management decided to build new refinery (JERP) in Jamnagar, with unique configurations, technologies, flexibilities and with the aim of automation technology to create next-generation control system. We hereby present excerpts of an exclusive interview of B R Mehta, Senior Vice President, Reliance Industries Ltd, with Mittravinda Ranjan...
- B R Mehta, Senior Vice President, Reliance Industries Limited

FEATURES

White Biotechnology for Sustainable Processes

Nature seems to have the answer to protect itself as the chemical industry is slowly inclining towards enzyme-related technologies, which provide a better option for sustainable development. This article gives an overview of various applications of enzymes that considerably contributed to environmental benefits, process and product improvements...
- Dr Anil Kumar Gupta

Sensitive Industrialisation: A Boon to Economy

Industrialisation is the process of socio-economic change from an agricultural society into an industrial one. The challenge to industrialisation is sustainable development and growth. This article discusses four tracks of Sensitive Industrialisation, i.e., Sustainability, Safety, Best Practices and Energy Abatement that are crucial to address future challenges... - Raj Narkhede

Advancing Towards the Bio-Route

The entire world is charting the bio-based course for energy as an alternative to fossil fuels with India not trailing far behind. India is continuously striving to secure energy and ensure proper utilisation of biofuels. This article presents an overview of developments taking place in India during the slow transition from fossil fuels to biofuels...
- Dr Dilip Kumar Adhikari, Dr Savita Kaul, Dr Thallada Bhaskar and Dr Debashish Ghosh

Environmental Rules Pose Challenge for the Chemical Industry

Products from chemical industries have drastically altered the quality of life globally, but the belief that the industry affects the environment awaits alteration. Environmental rules in India are very stringent in comparison to other developing countries, and there is a need for impetus to foster development of ‘clean technologies’...
- Srikant Kulkarni

Sustainable Chemistry with the Flow

Clean reactions help to paint the environment green. Reaction time and volume would become outdated soon with the advent of sustainable chemistry that concerns mainly with the flow rate of reactants. The article presents an overview of flow chemistry outlining its various advantages over conventional routes of performing chemical reactions...
- Maxime Drobot

Low-Cost Energy from Waste

Process industry is bullish when it comes to replacing fossil fuels and chemicals with renewable feedstock as suitable energy source. The authors explain the gas fermentation process for converting Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)-derived Synthesis gas (syngas) to valuable liquid products with high yields and low operating cost...
- Michael Schultz and Derek Griffin

Green Heat Exchanger for Clean Energy

Green technologies for increased productivity with reduced energy consumption and carbon footprint are the most sought after means to boost energy efficiency, so much so that industries are incessantly pursuing sustainable practices to build a secure energy efficient future. Praveen Saxena, Director and CEO, Blast Carboblocks, talks about a novel heat exchanger, which reduces energy consumption by effectuating efficient heat transfer...
- Praveen Saxena

Holistic Approach for Resource Conservation

Concerns about environmental sustainability, rising costs of raw materials and waste treatment are amongst the factors that accelerate the chemical process industries to opt for more sustainable resource conservation practices. Through this article we present an in-depth study on Pinch Analysis, a holistic approach to conserve various resources in chemical process plants...
- Gopal Chandra Sahu and Santanu Bandyopadhyay

Reducing Carbon Footprint via Zero Discharge

Reducing emissions has become a mandatory trend to be embraced and strictly followed by the chemical industry. The article discusses the zero liquid discharge system, one of the germane approaches for bringing down carbon footprint, which involves recovery and reuse of water and chemicals from effluents...
- Dr Partha Sarthi Majumder

Raising the Safety Bar in Process Industries

After the Bhopal disaster, Indian chemical industries are still reeling through its repercussions and have been striving to improve their safety and environmental performance. This article gives a general idea of process safety practice in Indian chemical industries and areas requiring adequate attention for improvement in safety plans...
- Dr Manju Mittal

Zero Incident Process

Traditional pursuit to avoid accidents has achieved limited success. Neil Iyer, President & CEO, Indian Operations, Chemtex Global Engineers Pvt Ltd, asserts upon the need of top-down approach to create the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) culture in organisation through this guest column. He emphasises that these should be of core value in every organisation in the present times, and at Chemtex, HSE given the attention and importance that is necessary...
- Neil Iyer

Hands-on Approach to Avert Accidents

Prevention is the best mantra for safety in chemical industry. It is critical for industry personnel to be well aware of safety precautions and guidelines to prevent hazards and mishaps at the workplace. The article provides various safety guidelines that applicable while managing lubricants and other petroleum products...
- Naveen Shukla

Safety Management in the Process Industry

Process Safety Management requires that process facilities such as chemical plants, oil refineries, gas plants and offshore platforms operate safely. This management requires that safety regulations with regards to process upsets and hazardous materials be met, such as to increase operational efficiency...
- Rajiv Kurup

Safety Measures in Chemical Research Laboratories

Quality control plays a crucial role in maintaining consistent product quality, while improving performance and efficiency of product. It is required that certain norms be adhered for safe storage of certain chemicals in laboratories to avoid hazards such as explosions and fires, etc. This article enumerates on the precautions to be taken to avoid such incidents...
- Ravinder Tanwar

Corrosion Under Insulation - The Hidden Problem

Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) is amongst the most severe and costliest problems encountered by the petrochemical industry today. This paper examines corrosion mechanisms and discusses the recently revised NACE standard governing the current technology and best industry practices for mitigating CUI using protective coatings. One of the best but most expensive options to prevent corrosion under insulation is the use of protective coating systems...
- Tim Hanratty

Calculating Risks in Numbers

When it comes to hazards and accidents, industry professionals should adopt the principle of ‘once bitten twice shy’. Incidents need core analysis to discover and fix the root cause so as to avoid accident recurrence. The article presents some insights on quantitative risk assessment; a safety tool for cost-effective decision-making...
- Ram K Goyal

Desalination - From Reverse to Forward

Hitches in the current technologies for water treatment have prodded some researchers to explore newer avenues for desalination, one of that is Forward Osmosis (FO). The authors present an overview of the FO technology along with its advantages, challenges, on-going research and its opportunities in India...
- D P Ankit and Asmit Bhowmick

Best Solvent for Gas Treating

With a wide variety of amines available to remove contaminants such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and organic sulfur compounds, selection of the right kind of amines is not a difficult task. Basically primary and secondary amines are used for removal of hazardous pollutants from gas process streams. Use of appropriate solvent can prove to be highly effective and economically attractive for many gas-treating applications...
- Dr Jerry Bullin

Carbon Fibre: NextGen Material Spurs Growth

Carbon fibres are high-strength materials, containing 90 per cent of carbon, obtained by the controlled pyrolysis of appropriate fibres. The carbon fibres are ten times stronger than steel and eight times that of aluminum, not to mention that much lighter than both materials, 5 and 1.5 times, respectively...
- Kalpesh Patel

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