Meningkatnya kebutuhan dunia akan bahan bakar, sementara stok bahan bakar fosil tidak dapat bertambah, membuat penelitian mencari sumber bahan bakar alternatif makin intensif. Salah satu alternatif tersebut adalah hidrogen sebagai sumber energi yang ramah lingkungan dan tanpa polusi. Saat ini hidrogen paling banyak diproduksi dari gas alam (48 %), dan merupakan elemen paling ringan di dunia (berat atom = 1 g/mol), sehingga kemampuan difusinya sangat tinggi.

Menurut sebuah penelitian baru-baru ini, memasukkan partikel logam berukuran nano ke dalam karbon nanotubes akan mengubah sifat redoks dari partikel dan dapat meningkatkan efektifitasnya sebagai katalis (J. Am. Chem. Soc., DOI: 10.1021/ja8008192). Penelitian ini bertujuan utama untuk mengembangkan prosedur baru dalam mengubah sifat elektronik dari partikel berukuran nano yang dapat diaplikasikan dalam bidang katalisis, sensor gas, dan peralatan magnetik.

Continue reading »

The original design problem posed to the design team is often ill-defined, even if it appears on the surface to be well-defined. The design team must formulate well-defined design options from the original ill-defined problem, and these must be compared on the basis of consistent criteria.

The design might be new or a retrofit of an existing process. If the design is a retrofit, then one of the objectives should be to maximize the use of existing equipment, even if it is not ideally suited to its new purpose.

Both continuous and batch process operations can be used. Batch processes are generally preferred for small scale and specialty chemicals production.

Continue reading »

When a new chemical product is first developed, it can often be protected by a patent in the early years of commercial exploitation. For a product to be eligible to be patented, it must be novel, useful and unobvious. If patent protection can be obtained, this effectively gives the producer a monopoly for commercial exploitation of the product until the patent expires. Patent protection lasts for 20 years from the filing date of the patent. Once the patent expires, competitors can join in and manufacture the product. If competitors cannot wait until the patent expires, then alternative competing products must be developed.

Continue reading »

Chemical products are essential to modern living standards. Almost all aspects of everyday life are supported by chemical products in one way or another. Yet, society tends to take these products for granted, even though a high quality of life fundamentally depends on them. When considering the design of processes for the manufacture of chemical products, the market into which they are being sold fundamentally influences the objectives and priorities in the design. Chemical products can be divided into three broad classes: Continue reading »

Krisis energi yang bersumber dari bahan bakar fosil sudah mulai dirasakan oleh penduduk dunia termasuk Indonesia. Disebabkan makin menipisnya persediaan bahan bakar fosil dan meningkatnya permintaan dunia terhadap energi, harga bahan bakar fosil yang menjadi primadona sumber energi telah meningkat tajam, khususnya minyak bumi dan produk turunannya. Kelangkaan bahan bakar fosil khususnya Bahan Bakar Minyak (BBM) bahkan terjadi di beberapa daerah di Indonesia. Padahal Indonesia mempunyai potensi yang sangat besar untuk menghasilkan energi berbasis biomassa.

Continue reading »

Environmental Protection:

Chemical engineers are seriously involved in environmental technology to clean up existing problems and to prevent future pollution. Chemical engineers have helped to develop catalytic converters for cars, double-hosed gasoline pumps, and modern jet engines. Scrubbers on smokestacks also help maintain air quality. Continue reading »

Crude Oil Processing:

Chemical engineers discovered ways to use crude oil by breaking down (“cracking”) long carbon molecules into smaller ethylenes, propylenes, etc. These advancements opened the way for the development of many of the petrochemical products use today, including fuels, plastics, pharmaceuticals, etc. Continue reading »