Chemical Processing Distilled

In this episode of the Chemical Processing Distilled Podcast, Brad Buecker of SAMCO Technologies joins editor-in-chief Traci Purdum to dig deeper into reverse osmosis for boiler makeup water. Buecker contrasts RO with sodium softening, explaining how RO removes up to 99% of dissolved ions, cutting corrosion, scaling and blowdown compared to softening alone. He stresses that raw water quality and pretreatment reliability — not snapshot testing — determine RO success and warns against microbiological fouling, chlorine damage and cutting corners on monitoring. Buecker also covers normalization programs, cleaning triggers and design considerations for plants weighing a switch from softening to RO.

An Eastman Chemical veteran-turned-leadership coach explains why technical excellence doesn't translate to leadership skill — and how organizations can close the "broken rung" that pushes women out of the pipeline right after their first promotion.

ICIS's Al Greenwood explains why ethane-fed commodity producers are cashing in while specialty chemical makers struggle to pass on higher costs.  Read the full article. 

This month, we cover the U.S. Chemical Safety Board's final report on the fatal Aug. 11 explosion at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, Argonne National Laboratory's progress on extracting lithium and other critical minerals from oilfield wastewater, and a new $100 million DOE initiative to train the next generation of critical-minerals workers.

From steam trap sprawl to a phenol plant that ignored 400x the recommended organic carbon limit, Brad Buecker walks through why condensate return demands real chemistry — and the tools (ion exchange, activated carbon, film-forming amines) that make it work.