Innovations, capital-improving

The payoffs for established firms in a line of business may be quite different from those for new entrants, either new enterprises or new ventures of existing corporations. The traditional firms may see the new technology as essentially capital destructive. Using purely short term economic criteria, they may reasonably choose a sequence of incremental innovations to improve the old technology over withdrawal and investment in the new until the point at which they go bankrupt. Indeed, it is difficult to clearly see the threat from the new technology at... 

Innovation Primary focus area of the PAT TeamManufacturing Science WG is contributing to harmonization of the PAT framework in ICH Revolutionary, to be a leader Focused applications—project based Significant capital expenditure, ROI, top-down Strong research component Technical experts involved New findings and improved knowledge... 

Improving or even innovating SCM design and operations is a reliable way to boost ROIC and therefore market value, as SCM links nearly all parts of a company s business system and can be a compelling force driving all factors of the ROIC equation cost, revenues, and capital. 

Process innovations have resulted from pressures to improve worker efficiency and the work place environment, to reduce energy consumption, to reduce initial capital expenditure, to reduce air and water pollution, to improve end product quality, and to introduce new products. In the last 40 years, older facilities have been completely redesigned and expanded, and since 1970, 23 completely new wet-milling facilities have been built in the United States. Such installations now require less space than... 

Organic agriculture is a know-how-intensive farming method. To be competitive, organic farmers need to experiment with new techniques, and must manage land, labour, capital and innovations quite differently from conventional farmers. How can research and development improve access for small farmers to this know-how and to specific inputs, such as seeds and biological methods of pest control ... 

An improved cost position. Technological innovation and operational improvements mean that gross margins for petrochemical products will probably deteriorate over the long term, leading to a relentless price-cost squeeze. It is therefore very important for companies to improve their cost positions. This is particularly true for European players, which face increasing volumes of imports from the Middle East - imports that could threaten the viabihty of one-third of the European asset base. The history of most petrochemical sub-sectors shows that only players with first- or second-quartile cost positions have covered their cost of capital across the business cycle. This situation will not improve in the future. 

In recent years, new concepts to produce hydrogen by methane SR have been proposed to improve the performance in terms of capital costs reducing with respect to the conventional process. In particular, different forms of in situ hydrogen separation, coupled to reaction system, have been studied to improve reactant conversion and/or product selectivity by shifting of thermodynamic positions of reversible reactions towards a more favourable equilibrium of the overall reaction under conventional conditions, even at lower temperatures. Several membrane reactors have been investigated for methane SR in particular based on thin palladium membranes [14]. More recently, the sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming (Se-SMR) has been proposed as innovative method able to separate CO2 in situ by addition of selective sorbents and simultaneously enhance the reforming reaction [15]. 

Manufacturing. This is the technical section of the report. It must be quantitative and up to date. Answers are needed to the following questions. What process or processes are used (A simplified process flow diagram with some basic mass and energy balances is necessary at the very least.) How old is the process Have there been any recent innovations What are the major capital costs What are the major operating expenses Is the raw material supply secure Are alternate raw materials available Can productivity be improved (by,... 

An improved magnesium oxide (MgO) flue gas desulfurization process and its comparative economics are described. Innovations made include the use of a spray dryer, a cyclic hotwater reheater, and a coal-fired fluidized-bed reactor for regeneration of the MgO absorbent. Several technical concerns with the proposed design are addressed, including fly ash and chloride buildup. The economic evaluation shows the process to have a capital investment of about seven percent less than that of a conventional MgO scrubbing process and a 40 percent smaller annual revenue requirement. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is shown relating annual revenue requirements to the byproduct sulfuric acid price credit. 

Innovation is an often misused word. Economists have defined an innovation as the first commercial application of a new or improved process or product. Nowadays, we should extend this to include a service or a system—the supermarket, time-shared computer, satellite communications, etc. I have discussed the nuances of the words innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, etc., and their interrelationships in a recent article. Therefore, if the innovation is in an area which must be preceded by inventive investigation of the R D type, the innovation comes into being when the results of the R D are first commercialized, usually by investing capital, thus converting the cost of the R D into an economic benefit (lower manufacturing costs, higher profitability, new or improved products, etc.). 

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