Chemical Processing Distilled

In this episode of Chemical Processing's Distilled podcast, host Traci Purdum talks with Brad Buecker, senior technical consultant at Samco Technologies, about sodium softening — the workhorse treatment for industrial boiler makeup water. Buecker explains how hardness ions cause scale, why residual bicarbonate drives corrosive condensate return lines, and how to spot early warning signs of a poorly monitored softener. He shares real-world cases where bypassing softeners or delaying maintenance led to rapid boiler tube failures and six-figure losses, walks through the regeneration cycle and its common pitfalls, and compares sodium softening with reverse osmosis for higher-pressure systems.

Inconsistencies found across major references for common substances raise a harder question about what we assume we know and whether that's enough for design, operation and troubleshooting.

This podcast is an In Case You Missed It of the column that appeared on our site July 1. You can read it here.

Two hundred and fifty years ago this week, a group of delegates in Philadelphia signed their names to the Declaration of Independence. Today, we are going to talk about how chemistry made it all possible.

Olin and Huntsman announce a $12.5 billion tie-up, Evonik cuts 3,200 jobs and BASF's CEO warns of an oil shock — while Covestro bets on biology to clean up aniline production.

This episode digs into three plant-floor challenges that look simple until physics intervenes—bulk solids handling, heat pump-driven distillation savings and a water pump's mysterious cycling problem traced back to Bernoulli's principle.

Sources: "Bulk Solids and Powders: Flow, Storage and Conveyor Design in Chemical Plants" by Amin Almasi (Equipment Insights, June 8, 2026) | "Heat Pumps Slash Waste in Distillation Operations" by Thomas Kwan (Energy Saver, Feb. 16, 2026) | "Why This Water Pump Kept Cycling Off" by Andrew Sloley (Plant InSites, Jan. 26, 2026). All published on ChemicalProcessing.com.