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Chemical Processing Distilled

Chemical Processing Distilled

chemicalprocessing 169 Episodes Jul 2, 2026

The Chemical Processing Distilled podcast extracts essential elements to serve engineers designing and operating plants in the chemical industry.

Episodes

Powder, Progress, and 250 Years: The Chemistry Behind American Independence Jul 2, 2026 845 Two hundred and fifty years ago this week, a group of delegates in Philadelphia signed their names to the Declaration of Independence. Today, we are going to talk about how chemistry made it all possible.
Mergers, Layoffs and Geopolitical Risk Reshape the Chemical Industry Jun 26, 2026 307 Olin and Huntsman announce a $12.5 billion tie-up, Evonik cuts 3,200 jobs and BASF's CEO warns of an oil shock — while Covestro bets on biology to clean up aniline production.
Pumps, Flow and the Fight Against Wasted Energy Jun 12, 2026 893 This episode digs into three plant-floor challenges that look simple until physics intervenes—bulk solids handling, heat pump-driven distillation savings and a water pump's mysterious cycling problem traced back to Bernoulli's principle. Sources: "Bulk Solids and Powders: Flow, Storage and Conveyor Design in Chemical Plants" by Amin Almasi (Equipment Insights, June 8, 2026) | "Heat Pumps Slash Was
Trevor Kletz Warned Us Jun 5, 2026 327 Decades before the Strait of Hormuz closed and refineries started burning, process safety's great philosopher mapped exactly how pressure corrupts risk decisions.
Distilled News: Dow-X-energy Nuclear Milestone, Fatal West Virginia Chemical Release and More May 29, 2026 409 This month's top stories cover an NRC environmental clearance for an advanced reactor in Texas, a deadly hydrogen sulfide incident under CSB investigation, SOCMA's regulatory priorities and new industry developments.
You've Told Your Team to Speak Up. But Are You Actually Listening? May 22, 2026 394 In every organization, informal hierarchies determine who gets heard, who gets interrupted and whose concerns get taken seriously. In process safety, the cost of getting it wrong is high. In this In Case You Missed It episode, Editor Traci Purdum reads a column from Lauren Neal, Chemical Processing's Workforce Matters expert. You can read the column here.
Perceptual Invariants: The Hidden Key to Operator Expertise May 15, 2026 1307 Experienced operators don't just know what to do — they know what to watch, regardless of how conditions change. That ability hinges on perceptual invariants: the critical relationships and variables that remain meaningful even as everything else shifts. Human factors engineer Dave Strobhar explains how identifying and reinforcing these invariants is the key to effective operator training. Rather
What Do Chemical Engineers Do, Anyway? May 8, 2026 515 If you're a regular listener, you already know the deal — you work in this industry. You've spent your career in control rooms, on plant floors, in engineering offices, running calculations and managing processes that most of the world never thinks about. You know what a distillation column is. But this episode is meant to be shared with a spouse, a parent, a kid, a friend — someone who's asked yo
Concentrate On Critical Thinking May 1, 2026 384 The complexity of the human body makes critical thinking an essential skill for doctors. It’s also important in our work. However, engineers often learn the value of critical thinking the hard way. Dirk Willard, by way of Editor Traci Purdum's spoken word, tells us not to over-concentrate on the zebras... and let the horses run free.
Microplastics, Leadership Shifts and Industry Honors: April's Top Stories Apr 24, 2026 394 From a $144 million federal push to address microplastics in drinking water to a CEO transition at Dow and Edison Award wins for chemical giants, here's what moved the needle in April 2026.
Operator Training: When the Subtask Is the Whole Task Apr 17, 2026 1286 Throwing operators into full simulator scenarios sounds thorough, but it can mask the one critical subtask they actually need to master. Human factors engineer Dave Strobhar argues that effective operator training starts by identifying which subtasks carry the highest consequences — loss of containment, asset destruction, major downtime — and drilling those specifically before integrating them int
Water Is Water — And Other Costly Myths Apr 10, 2026 2330 In this episode of Chemical Processing's Distilled podcast, editor-in-chief Traci Purdum speaks with water treatment expert Brad Buecker about the dangers of the "water is water" mindset in industrial settings. Buecker shares real-world examples of costly boiler failures caused by ignoring water chemistry, explains how water's near-universal solvent properties create scaling and corrosion risks an

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