Read the latest in industry news in this month's Places & Faces.

A recent search showed that three topics have been of particular interest: heat exchangers, thermal fluid heating systems and industrial combustion. 

Wet electrostatic precipitators (WESPs) remove particulate — including extremely small, submicron particulate — from a process airstream. Typically, these airstreams are at near-saturated conditions or contain tacky substances that would cause issues with other particulate-control devices. 

Machine learning detects abnormal running patterns, assists with maintenance activities and can reduce unplanned downtime.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a popular buzzword these days, and with good reason: The inclusion of IIoT technologies on processing equipment can bring increased uptime by predicting impending equipment failures or maintenance needs.

Successful control of your cooling process and selection of a suitable control require a good understanding of the flow of heat in that process. No matter how intelligent or elaborate a control is, it cannot overcome the limits of basic thermodynamics in a system or process.

Read the latest in industry news in this month's Places & Faces.

Industrial boilers do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to keeping production processes or even facilities operating as effectively as possible. Yet, maintenance personnel may forget how important regular service and cleaning are to boiler performance. 

In high temperature applications, monitoring the temperature — by measuring the temperature of the tubes inside the industrial furnace, boiler or oven — is critical.

Some methods of boiler layup can be less than satisfactory. At one end of the spectrum is the option to do nothing and risk whatever rusty consequences may eventually follow. At the other end of the spectrum are measures such as the use of a desiccant or applying a nitrogen blanket. This article will look more closely at using vapor corrosion inhibitors for boiler layup.