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Liquid Chemicals

Fluid handling technology is the science of moving, controlling, and storing fluids in the chemicals industry. It is essential for the safe and efficient production, transportation, and use of chemicals.

chemical_process_plant_fluidhandlingpro

Many chemical manufacturing processes request cost-effective separation, purification, and concentration of chemical liquids. Ensuring safe chemical fluid handling while maintaining a high quality of products is paramount.

A knowledge of fluid mechanics is essential for the chemical engineer because most chemical-processing operations are conducted in the liquid phase.

Any industry that involves handling liquid chemicals must take great care to follow all safety regulations for hazardous materials. OSHA has specific requirements concerning the safe handling and transporting of chemicals.

Chemical processing companies must have the correct fluid handling equipment to minimize the possibility of accidents, contamination, or exposure to toxic materials.

A view inside a liquid chemical handling unit

Examples of chemical processing operations abound in the biochemical, chemical, energy, fermentation, materials, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, polymer, and waste-processing industries.

Here are some guidelines that can be useful to have while at work to ensure the safe handling of chemicals:

  • Keep track of which liquid chemicals are being used in the business. Keep a list of the substances, the amounts being used, and the risks associated with them.
  • This also applies to gathering information and distributing it to those who need it. Current safety data sheets are one condition. There may be a need for special instructions and training to assure safe handling. It is often necessary to carry out an overall risk analysis to understand the risks.
  • Storing and safely using chemicals is a foundation for working with liquid chemicals.
  • In continuing risk reduction work, it is necessary to decide whether a particular chemical is needed. In many cases, there can be another substance that is less hazardous to health and the environment, or perhaps a different method. Purchasing of chemical substances, therefore, requires special procedures.

A worker in a laboratory handling chemical liquids in a safe way

Proper storage of liquid chemicals is necessary for any factory or institutional setting. While small quantities of flammables can be stored in flammable cabinets, bulk or more significant amounts of chemicals should be stored in chemical storage buildings.

Fabric storing and conveying liquids

Safe liquid chemical storage begins with inventory management. Proper inventory management is also necessary if emergency staff respond to a fire or chemical spill in the area.

All chemicals come with safety data sheets that follow a standard format as
defined by OSHA in their Hazard Communication Standard.

When working with liquid chemicals, safe storage methods must be a priority.

Any chemical, in either gas, liquid, or solid form, that has the ability to cause harm is referred to as a hazardous chemical.

If you are exposed to them, some of these dangerous liquid chemicals can be dangerous to your health.

Some liquid chemicals may also have physical-chemical hazards, e.g., flammable, explosive, or additional hazards if mixed or stored with incompatible chemicals.

Chemicals can also harm the environment if stored, used, or disposed of incorrectly.

A standard benchmark for liquid chemical processing innovations is the industry’s expenditure on research and development (R&D).

Liquid chemicals and allied products have been heavily dependent upon scientific research performance.

However, a laboratory breakthrough is very far from the availability of a saleable product.

Commercial success or failure in the chemical processing industry is essentially what happens after a laboratory discovery.

In a liquid chemical company, especially organic chemicals, the development of innovative products depends on the findings of scientific experiments performed at the laboratory level.

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Experts for Liquid Chemicals

Casey Williamson is Head of Business Development Microelectronics Global Industries for Georg Fischer. For the last 25 years, he has provided support for the semiconductor and photovoltaic sub-segments; through the years, he has been instru­mental in defining fab construction requirements as they apply to piping systems for the conveyance of high-purity liquids, process cooling, and chemical waste streams as well as analytical control systems to optimize the operations of UPW and waste systems.
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Erik Tiemensma, Sales Knowledge Manager, has over 20 years of experience in flow and pressure measurement and control for gas, liquid and vapour. For many years Erik worked as Sales Engineer supporting worldwide sales channels in finding the best solutions for customers’ applications. At Bronkhorst we are convinced that sharing experiences and knowledge is an added value for customers, when discussing the most suitable products for their applications. As part of this expert panel, looks forward to your challenging flow or pressure questions.
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Pete Graniello is a 20-year sales professional in the process automation marketplace. He began his career working for major national distributors of instrumentation, pumps, valves, and engineered thermoplastic piping systems. Pete’s technical proficiency encompasses all these product segments. In his career, he’s served as an operations supervisor, a technical sales support specialist, a sales & product trainer, and a business development rep. As a subject matter expert, Pete has worked closely with clients in the semiconductor, water & wastewater, chemical, food & beverage, automotive, biopharma, and oil & gas markets to help them find solutions to their process automation needs. He has extensive and varied experience in the process automation world. His current position is as a Business Development representative for Macnaught USA flowmeters. Based in Houston, Texas, throughout his career Pete has been responsible for helping customers find the right solutions to their most challenging process measurement applications.
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Dave is Vice President of Sales at Hawk Measurement (HAWK) and has more than 40 years of experience in the process instrumentation industry. Dave started working as an outside sales engineer in 1979 for his father’s company, AO Grumney. While there, he learned the importance of value added selling and superior customer support. He later became a manufacturer’s rep for various companies such as Siemens, Miltonic’s, AMETEK and many others. Several years later, Dave started his own company, Delta Instrumentation, a manufacturers’ rep agency which serves the process instrumentation and automation industries. In 1989 Dave started FLO-CORP, a US manufacturing company of flow, level and monitoring instrumentation. Through manufacturing his own line of process instrumentation, he found it allowed him to gain more control over origin of product, quality and lead times. In 2019, FLO-CORP merged companies with Hawk Measurement, the world leader in level, positioning, asset monitoring and flow measurement technology that provides cutting-edge equipment and complete solutions to the global industrial market. Throughout his wide range of experiences as sales engineer, sales rep, president, owner and CEO, the position he currently holds at Hawk Measurement as VP of Sales, allows him to do what he loves. Dave has always had a passion for meeting new people, building relationships and helping customers solve problems. His values align with HAWK’s as they are committed to providing best-in-class products, services and technologies that will have unsurpassed value to their customers.
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Paul de Waal is Dutch and educated as a Measurement and Control /Electronics Engineer. After a start as Instrumentation Engineer at Delta Controls, often outsourced to Shell, he became Managing Director of Sierra Instruments b.v. for almost 25 years. In 2012 he moved to the UK and now works as Business Development Director at Vögtlin Instruments GmbH in Switzerland. Paul has been active is several ISO committees and has a wide network of international relations that he can call upon to support him. (Vögtlin is part of the TASI group). He has practical experience with about every flow meter principle available. Currently his professional focus is application support, product development and international sales promotions. His main interest and experience lies in non-fiscal gas mass flow measurement/control systems and calibration. Gas mass flow meters and controllers used in applications like consumption measurements and distribution, gas dosing, mixing, (leak) testing, flame control, furnace, glass, heat treatment, packaging and analysers. Application for this can be found in industries like Food, Bio technology, Surface technologies, Welding, Medical, Pharma, Energy (Solar, Fuel cells, combustion, etc), chemical, semiconductor, metal industry and many more..
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A pump is more than just rotary equipment. It is the promise to solve a pumping task safely and reliably. In his function as a product and application manager at HERMETIC-Pumpen GmbH, Dominik Hegen takes care of transparently presenting the knowledge about pump technology and the selection of the pump to the customer. After an apprenticeship as a mold mechanic for high injection tools, Dominik graduated as an industrial engineer and specialized in the field of product management and has 9 years of professional experience in this field in different positions. At HERMETIC – Pumpen GmbH he is responsible for standardized canned motor pumps which are used in chemistry, Petrochemistry and oil and gas applications. With numerous webinars and user-friendly brochures, he supports customers and interested parties in the selection of suitable pumps and works as an interface between sales and technology. Should you want to know more about one of the most safe, cost efficient and reliable pump technologies do not hesitate to contact Dominik Hegen.
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Natalie Waldecker, Portfolio Manager Food and Pharma, knows the challenges of the demanding industries inside out. With her broad application knowledge, she is at home on topics such as hygiene design, certificates and cleanability. As product manager for pressure measurement technology, she is also responsible for one of the most important measuring principles for the industry. Natalie gathers her knowledge as close to the application as possible. Preferably directly at the customer’s site, experiencing “real world” practice. She has thus gotten thoroughly acquainted with international customer requirements and knows the ins and outs of the market. With this background, she is able to not only explain technical relationships in an understandable way, but also offer valuable tips and convincing solutions. In the 12 years she has been with VEGA, she has steadily improved her expertise which makes her the right person to contact for new product ideas and tailored customer solutions.
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Trevor Forster is Managing Director of the internationally respected flowmeter company – Titan Enterprises Ltd. His experience in fluid handling dates back to the mid 1960’s when he started working on rotating seals and flowmeter design for third party clients. Trevor draws upon his extensive experience of using innovative design and production techniques to produce elegant flow metering solutions for organisations around the globe. Titan Enterprises supply a range of off-the-shelf flowmeters, application-specific flowmeters & bespoke flow metering devices & solutions. Their flow sensors are designed to customer specifications & to meet specific flow ranges & environmental conditions.Titan are also a supplier of NSF-approved flowmeters for food & beverage applications.
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Dietmar Saecker is temperature measurement expert at Endress+Hauser in Nesselwang, Germany. His experience covers technical sales support, consulting for difficult temperature measurement applications and international know-how transfers, especially in the Life Sciences industry. He also teaches at the Kempten University of Applied Sciences. Dietmar studied Chemical Engineering with a focus on measurement and control technology at the University of Dortmund. Experience from many customer visits has shown him that many problems arise from an incorrect choice of equipment. In lectures and training courses on temperature measurement technology, he demonstrates the complexity of the subject and regularly surprises numerous listeners with his thoughts and experiences. His recipe: “Recognizing trends and sharing knowledge. Because only when we share knowledge can we develop better solutions together.” Dietmar is looking forward to your questions and the exchange with you.
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Hello, my name is Lee Sandry and I am a Sector Training Manager at Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions. My role primarily involves training sales colleagues to provide customers the best fluid handling solutions in industrial sectors, including water treatment, mining, chemical and construction applications. Being from Cornwall and surrounded by the mining industry, with a father who worked underground, my local environment was always about engineering and mineral processing. My apprenticeship when I left school was with the large mining machinery manufacturer, which has led me onto greater things. My background at Watson-Marlow started in 1996 when I was involved in the production of hundreds of parts that go into the manufacture of our pumps. This was followed with becoming a Technical Support Engineer, working directly with colleagues and customers globally. Site visits and constant customer-facing support at Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions, gave me the opportunity to experience many aspects of installation and operation of our peristaltic and sinusoidal pumps range. My aim is to enable sales teams around the world to provide robust solutions for demanding pumping applications, helping customers improve the efficiency and safety of their manufacturing process. Choosing the right pump can overcome problems that cause other pump types to fail. With no rotors to wear, or seals and glands to flush, peristaltic hose pumps handle abrasive fluids without the maintenance costs of other pumps. Whilst the extremely low shear and high suction sinusoidal pumps reduce product damage and cut waste in high viscosity fluid transfer duties.
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