Chemical Processing Distilled

Powder, Progress, and 250 Years: The Chemistry Behind American Independence

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

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

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 Waste in Distillation Operations" by Thomas Kwan (Energy Saver, Feb. 16, 2026) | "Why This Water Pump Kept Cycling Off" by Andrew Sloley (Plant InSites, Jan. 26, 2026). All published on ChemicalProcessing.com.

Trevor Kletz Warned Us

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

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?

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

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 than relying on years of trial and error, structured training programs — including targeted simulator use — can accelerate expertise dramatically. The goal is moving operators from simple stimulus-response behavior to true skill-based thinking that transfers across novel situations, closing the experience gap faster than ever before.

What Do Chemical Engineers Do, Anyway?

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 you "so what exactly do you do all day?" and you've struggled to explain it.

Concentrate On Critical Thinking

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

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.