Commercial viability

P. C. Northam, "The Commercial Viability of Low Moisture Malting," Twentieth International Congress, European Brewery Convention, Helsinki, Einland, 1985. 

Vapor Permeation Vapor permeation is similar to vapor perva-poration except that the feed stream for permeation is a gas. The futnre commercial viability of this process is based npon energy and capital costs savings derived from the feed already being in the vapor-phase, as in fractional distillation, so no additional heat inpnt wonld be req iired. Its foreseen application areas wonld be the organics recov-eiy from solvent-laden vapors and pollntion treatment. One commercial nnit was installed in Germany in 1989 (Ref. 26). 

Whilst the volume production of completely new polymers which have achieved commercial viability in recent years has been small, the development of polymer blends has been highly significant. Of these the most important involve a glassy... 

In addition to the commercial aromatic polyamides described above many others have been prepared but these have not achieved commercial viability. There are, however, a number of other commercial polymers that contain amide groups such as the polyamide-imides. The latter materials are discussed in Section 18.14. 

The commercial viability of the reaetion depends on the formation of a eatalytic cycle by reoxidizing the palladium metal in situ. This is achieved by the introduction of CUCI2 ... 

In view of the above criteria, the following properties are pre-requisites for the commercial viability of a sacrificial anode ... 

Some of the most important applications for conducting polymers which might show at least some commercial viability in the near future are listed in Table 3. The list is by no means complete, and is growing all the time. However, one should not expect fundamental progress in practical applications until basic research on conducting polymers moves beyond the stage of trial and error, and develops concepts to obtain quantitative information about molecular structures and properties, on the one hand, and the resultant material properties on the other hand. 

Anthraquinone is widely use in the manufacture of a range of dyes. Two possible routes for manufacturing anthraquinone are (1) from the reaction of 1,4-naphthoquinone with butadiene and (2) reaction of benzene with phthalic anhydride. Describe mechanisms for both these reactions and identify likely reaction conditions and any other reagents required. Compare the atom economy of the two routes. Identify three factors for each route that may influence the commercial viability. 

Whilst the acids and many of their derivatives currently find niche applications in the market sectors identified above, factors related to price, volume of supply and consistency have all limited commercial viability. In the longer term, reduced costs and improved consistency through improved growing and harvesting techniques, coupled with an increased requirement for biodegradability, will increase demand for fatty acids. 

Clinical trials are costly to conduct, and results are often critical to the commercial viability of a phytochemical product. Seemingly minor decisions, such as which measurement tool to use or a single entry criterion, can produce thousands of dollars in additional costs. Likewise, a great deal of time, effort and money can be saved by having experts review the study protocol to provide feedback regarding ways to improve efficiency, reduce subject burden and insure that the objectives are being met in the most scientifically sound and cost-effective manner possible. In particular, I recommend that an expert statistician is consulted regarding sample size and power and that the assumptions used in these calculations are reviewed carefully with one or more clinicians. It is not uncommon to see two studies with very similar objectives, which vary by two-fold in the number of subjects under study. Often this can be explained by differences in the assumptions employed in the sample size calculations. 

In general, biomolecules such as proteins and enzymes display sophisticated recognition abilities but their commercial viability is often hampered by their fragile structure and lack of long term stability under processing conditions [69]. These problems can be partially overcome by immobilization of the biomolecules on various supports, which provide enhanced stability, repetitive and continuous use, potential modulation of catalytic properties, and prevention of microbial contaminations. Sol-gel and synthetic polymer-based routes for biomolecule encapsulation have been studied extensively and are now well established [70-72]. Current research is also concerned with improving the stability of the immobilized biomolecules, notably enzymes, to increase the scope for exploitation in various... 

Two technical applications of C = N-X substrates have been reported. Noyori s Ru-PP-NN catalyst system was successfully applied in a feasibility study by Dow Chirotech for the hydrogenation of a sulfonyl amidine [77], while Avecia showed the commercial viability of its CATHy catalyst based on a pentamethyl cyclopentadienyl Rh complex for the reduction of phosphinyl imines [78] (Fig. 34.11). 

Other applications include car rental, shared-car ownership or public transport -these transfer the risk of ownership of a vehicle with a new propulsion system away from the private person. Once established, these niche applications can help to raise the profile of the new technology, increase public acceptance and provide opportunities for feedback that can lead to technology improvement. Once their commercial viability in the niche market has been proved, the vehicles can expand into wider markets. Particularly suitable for introducing hydrogen (or other alternative fuels) are buses, fleet vehicles and rental vehicles (Smith, 2001). 

For a long time, hydrogen has been the fuel of the future. The coming decade will be critical to prove the commercial viability of hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies. It will be interesting to look back in 20 or 30 years time to see how the Future of Hydrogen will have unfolded. 

BP Chemicals developed a batch process capable of producing 100 kg of acetylated fibre per day, and a larger batch process, capable of producing 1 tonne per day, was to be constructed by Depac Engineering Ltd. Sheen (1992) also reported on an analysis of the costs for batch and continuous plants producing 10 000 tonnes of acetylated fibre per year at a WPG of 20 %. An essential part of the process to ensure commercial viability was the recovery of by-product acetic acid. The calculated costs in pounds sterling, based on fully dried fibre and in 1992 prices, are shown in Table 8.3. 

In an MCFC power system, increased pressure can result in increased cathode corrosion. Cathode corrosion is related to the acidity of the cell, which increases with the partial pressure of CO2, and therefore with the cell pressure. Such corrosion is typified by cathode dissolution and nickel precipitation, which can ultimately result in a shorted cell, causing cell failure (37). Thus, the chosen pressure of the MCFC has a direct link to the cell life, economics, and commercial viability. 

In the second approach the reducing equivalents are suppHed by a nicotinamide cofactor (NADH or NADPH) and for commercial viability it is necessary to regenerate the cofactor using a sacrificial reductant ]12]. This can be achieved in two ways substrate coupled or enzyme coupled (Scheme 6.2). Substrate-coupled regeneration involves the use of a second alcohol (e.g. isopropanol) that can be accommodated by the KRED in the oxidative mode. A problem with this approach is that it affords an equilibrium mixture of the two alcohols and two ketones. In order to obtain a high yield of the desired alcohol product a large excess of the sacrificial alcohol needs to be added and/or the ketone product (acetone) removed... 

Only a few years ago it was widely accepted that the cofactor regeneration problem represented a serious obstacle with respect to the commercial viability of enzymatic redox processes. Hopefully it is clear from the preceding discussion that there is no longer a cofactor regeneration problem anymore than there is an enzyme problem . The number of readily available enzymes has increased dramatically in the last decade and advances in in vitro evolution have made it possible to routinely optimize the performance of enzymes. The coupling of enzymes in multi-enzyme cascade processes is an attractive way to regenerate cofactors, shift equilibria towards products and remove intermediate products that cause inhibition. Hence, we expect that multi-enzyme cascade processes will become much more common in the future. 

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