November 1997

ISA, the international society for measurement and control, held their annual conference and exhibit Oct. 7–9 in Anaheim, California. This event has always been a good place to see trends in inst..

Many optimally designed process machines require minimal maintenance. However, if maintenance is necessary and it cannot be easy, then at least it should be possible. What should maintenance engineers..

Need to catch up on your chemical journal reading? Lost that great chemical article that you were saving to read later? Have no fear, my intrepid Internet surfers, now there is a great site with a ful..

Environmental managers have the tremendous task of ensuring that their operating facility as a whole is in compliance. This is an awesome task for a lone manager with a reduced support staff. After te..

Writing books is a roller coaster of emotions: depression halfway through when you think it will never be finished; elation when you send the copy off to the publisher; depression after you send the c..

Return on investment (ROI) is a key meter of performance on executive management's “dashboard.” This is because ROI – sometimes called return on capital employed or return on assets &#1..

Huntsman to expand EO, MEG capacity Huntsman Corporation has announced a major expansion of the company's ethylene oxide (EO) and mono ethylene glycol (MEG) production. The debottlenecking and u..

U.S. chemical exports will account for 17.5% of the total U.S. chemical industry shipments this year – which would be a record, says the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA). This forecast as..

An overview of Institut Français du Pétrole's (IFP) perspectives of the refining industry in the first decade of the 21st century describes the geopolitical, economic, environmental and tech..

Recent currency crises have rocked several Asian economies. Adding to the confusion is a variety of misinformation and poor analysis reflecting short-term concerns or fears. Recent currency devalua..

The springs of 1996 and 1997 provide an excellent example of contrasting gasoline market dynamics, according to a recent Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysis. In spring '96, tightening cru..

Here are summaries of forecasts and analyses of two topics relevant to the HPI. These data are highlights of research from SRI Consulting, Menlo Park, California. Demand for DMT/TPA increasing. The..

In 2005, base stocks volumes will not significantly increase from 1995/96 levels due to drastically increased use of unconventional base stocks (UBS). UBS will account for 30% of the total base stocks..

When an organization has a management system certified to the International Organization for Standards (ISO) 9000 or ISO 14000 measure, it illustrates that an independent auditor has checked that the ..

Java Control and Automation Framework (JCAF) is an industry-driven initiative to bring innovative implementations of Java technology to the process control and automation industry. According to Sun Mi..

Worldwide capital spending for refining-related projects is expected to reach a record $17.2 billion in 1998, according to the recently published 1998 HPI Market Data.1 Spending is up in all regions o..