Insight Chemicals & materials Sustainability & energy

Water is the constraint nobody put on the bottleneck slide

May 8, 2025 · 1 min read · By Leila Karimi

Two process plants chasing nameplate utilization found the same ceiling: cooling water, not reactors. Debottlenecking the utility system raised throughput 6 percent for a fraction of the cost of a new train.

Utilization programs should read the utility balance before the equipment list. The constraint usually has no e-mail address and no capital request.

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