Commercial Situation

The chemistry, important applications, and the market potential of intrinsically biodegradable pol5mciers termed have been reviewed 

However, the true market potential for biodegradable plastics wUl depend on  

These factors are difficult to predict since there are external forces that may not be universally applied in the same manner. The interest in biodegradable plastics has continuously grown as the conventional resources based on petroleum are beginning to decrease. The last two decades of the twentieth century saw a paradigm shift from biostable to biodegradable materials. 

For example, in the next couple of years, many of the permanent prosthetic devices used for temporary therapeutic applications will be replaced by biodegradable devices that could help the body to repair and regenerate the damaged tissues (36). 

Finding applications for renewable pol5maers that lead to mass production and price reduction poses a major contemporary challenge. This can be attained by improving the end performance of the biodegradable pol5miers (37). 

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Heat Transfer. One of the reasons fluidized beds have wide appHcation is the excellent heat-transfer characteristics. Particles entering a fluidized bed rapidly reach the bed temperature, and particles within the bed are isothermal in almost all commercial situations. Gas entering the bed reaches the bed temperature quickly. In addition, heat transfer to surfaces for heating and cooling is excellent. 

These advantages notwithstanding, the proportion of homogeneous catalyzed reactions in industrial chemistry is still quite low. The main reason for this is the difficulty in separating the homogeneously dissolved catalyst from the products and by-products after the reaction. Since the transition metal complexes used in homogeneous catalysis are usually quite expensive, complete catalyst recovery is crucial in a commercial situation. 

Worldwide over 150 demonstration plants have been installed. These represent around 40 to 50 MW of electrical generating capacity. Nearly 75% is installed in Japan, over 15% in North America, and 9% in Europe. The U.S.-based International Fuel Cells (IFC) and its partner Toshiba are responsible for producing over 70%, Fuji over 25%, and Mitsubishi about 2% (WFCC analysis). These phosphoric acid systems are operating in real world commercial situations and have clearly demonstrated their suitability for on-site cogeneration. 

Where arable land is high cost, high value, or in scarce supply the production potential of protein becomes an especially important factor. Fruits and leaves from wild, undomesticated plants provide attractive sources of protein in the diet because of their natural acceptability by local inhabitants and their wide-spread accessibility due to native growth. However, for domesticated and commercialized situations the production of protein per unit area of arable land is an important factor. 

HPhe interest in irradiation processing of food is widespread, and the tempo of effort, stimulated by real problems, is increasing. A recent international conference (14) revealed the volume and diversity of work being carried out around the world. The significant aspect which has not received enough attention is the translation of research results to real commercial situations. 

Table I shows the inspections of the reconstituted SRC-II process product. Chloride was not removed from the samples before hydroprocessing. However, it was shown that water washing can remove most of the chloride. It is our understanding that this would typically be done at the upstream (SRC) processing facility in a commercial situation.

In many commercial situations and under some regulatory requirements, trade-offs arise between measurement costs and the aim of low uncertainty in measurement. Clear relevant statements associated with the protocol are needed. For example, whereas normally U must be made equal to or smaller than a set tolerance, a protocol may for technical and economic reasons explicitly permit a less stringent requirement (see Fig. 1). 

The development of fast, reliable and convenient chemical processes is important for the whole field of organic chemistry. In fact, in many cases even a slight drop in chemical yield is acceptable when compensated for by large gains in reaction time or improved ease of handling [12-15]. These features apply in particular to iterative reaction optimization in commercial situations where the reaction time is an important parameter [16]. In particular, the pharmaceutical industry is continuously on the look-out for new rapid synthetic methods and strategies for the discovery and development of new drugs. 

For copolymers the commercial situation of the 1990s is given in Table 4. 

The proper testing of hydrocarbon conversion catalysts is of interest for the catalyst producers as well as the catalyst users. The deciscion on whether or not to continue the development of a new catalyst technology, or to use a new catalyst in a commercial situation will often depend on the results we see in a laboratory test. 

With time the interest for a better simulation of the commercial situation started to dominate the development of new more realistic test and deactivation methods. Realistic information on what to expect of the catalyst tested became the real target. 

There are other possible unsteady (periodic) operation modes for a packed bed reactor that could lead to process intensification [57]. Indeed, there are several unsteady state strategies available to run a process unit such as a reactor. Pulses of different magnitude can be imposed on an input, or the input could be either changed progressively or varied according to an analytical function. However, not all unsteady state strategies are feasible in a commercial situation. Table 3.2 gives examples of the possibilities. 

Usually, and for obvious reasons, stability is discussed in terms of its benefits. Any such discussion would, however, be incomplete without some mention of commercial situations where stability is undesirable, or even dangerous. Enzymes are used in many food manufacturing processes, mainly in the form of lyases (amylases, phosphorylases, lipases, etc ). Health and safety considerations demand that they must have been removed entirely before the hnished products reach the marketplace. In a similar manner, any extraneous enzymes used as processing aids in protein purihcation protocols have to be removed prior to freeze-drying. 

The main technical drawback of canned speech is that it can only say a fixed number of things. This can be a severe drawback in even simple applications where for example a telephone number is to be read in an answer machine application. A common solution is to attempt to sphce together recordings of individual words or phrases so as to create new utterances. The result of such operations varies greatly from acceptable (but clearly spliced) to comically awfiil. That said, even the resultant poor naturalness of this is often chosen over TTS in commercial situations. 

How much sample can be conveniently prepared for counting This may depend upon economics as much as laboratory resources. A sample may need to be dried, ashed and ground to a small particle size. Can such extra labour intensive activity be justified In a commercial situation, would the client be prepared to pay for it What limit of detection is being aimed for This will be related to sample mass and count period, as we know from Equation (13.1). 

The government sets forth calibration system requirements in MIL-C-45662 and provides a good outline in the military standardization handbook MIL-HDBK-52, Evaluation of Contractor s Calibration System. The principles are equally applicable to any industrial or commercial situation. The purpose of a calibration system is to provide for the prevention of tool inaccuracy through prompt detection of deficiencies and timely application of corrective action. Every organization should prepare a written description of its calibration system. This description should cover the measuring of test equipment and standards, and should ... 

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