Chemical process development overview

The application of computers in the chemical process development industry is a field in itself, beyond the scope of this presentation. However, the following limited overview provides some idea of the chemical engineer s contribution in this area of endeavor. 

Efforts to develop sustainability indicators and metrics have been made at various scales, ranging from global down to local community, business unit, and technology levels. In general, indicators and metrics are designed to capture the ideas inherent in sustainability and transform them into a manageable set of quantitative measures and indices that are useful for communication and decision-making. In this section, we provide an overview of sustainability indicators and metrics, especially as they relate to the chemical industry. This section will be followed by two specific case studies on the uses of sustainability metrics and indicators in product/process development in chemical companies. 

Becker, K.H. Historical Overview on the Development of Chambers for the Study of Atmospheric Processes Presented at the NATO EST-ARW Workshop on Environmental Simulation Chambers Application to Atmospheric Chemical Processes, Zakopane, Poland, October 1-4 (2004). 

Case studies, biocatalysis vs. heterogeneous catalysis, systematic comparison of overall processes and of catalytic steps, ecological parameters Combination of chemical and biocatalytic steps, toolbox of biocatalysts, back integration Recombinant enzyme, process development, process comparison concerning waste Overview of various production methods, types of biocatalysts... 

To carry out process development as efficiently as possible, it is important to avoid duplicate activities. This includes taking account of existing knowledge or exploiting it. For this reason, chemical companies not only buUd up internal data banks but also utilize external data banks [BlaE 1984]. Figure 4-5 provides an overview of the structure of an on-line data bank. 

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