Product design time investment, importance

The possibility of adjusting solubility properties is of particular importance for liquid-liquid biphasic catalysis. Liquid-liquid catalysis can be realised when the ionic liquid is able to dissolve the catalyst, especially if it displays partial solubility of the substrates and poor solubility of the reaction products. Under these conditions, the product phase, which also contains the unconverted reactants, is removed by simple phase decantation. The ionic liquid containing the catalyst can then be recycled. In such a scenario the ionic catalyst solution may be seen as part of the capital investment for a potential technical process (in an ideal case) or at least as a working solution (only a small amount has to be replaced after a certain time of application). A crucial aspect of this concept is the immobilisation of the transition metal catalyst in the ionic liquid. While most transition metal catalysts easily dissolve in an ionic liquid without any special ligand design, ionic ligand systems have been applied with great success to... 

These considerations will influence the choices made as the industry plans its products in a shifting market and policy context. Not all factors are equally important at a given point in time, and so their relative emphasis also determines the choices made. Any option for future vehicle fuel design, including a default slow evolution of existing technology, must compete in order to command the substantial investments entailed in both product development and infrastructure provision. 

The time and money invested in model parameter determination has to be in balance with the aim of a certain chromatographic separation. Very often, only sample products are needed for further studies with the pure substances and, to evaluate a separation process, only a few milligrams of the feed mixture are available. Additionally, time is an important factor and quick and dirty /short-cut methods will be applied to find conservative operating parameter values for a safe separation. A quite different situation is the design of commercial large-scale production plants. Here process economics come to the fore. Therefore, precise parameters are necessary for process optimization. As some parameters may change during operation, repeated determination may be necessary to reestablish optimal production. 

In the second area, a purified compound is needed to obtain a final product, and the cost of the production of the compoxmd is an important cost factor that will have to be minimized. The production will last a significant period of time, whether it is continuous or by batches rrm periodically, and the operation is relatively routine. The cost components, equipment, solvent, packing material, crude feed, and downstream processing become prominent and must be taken into account together. Then significant investment in the design of the separation process is required for a careful optimization of the experimental conditions. Optimization procedures are discussed in Chapter 18. 

In a competitive mining market, it is important for mining companies to provide cost effective projects in the least amount of time, to provide shareholders with the maximum return on their investment. During projects, mining companies are faced with economic and investment decisions, to provide cost effective designs that will ensure sustainable production as well as a facilities which are easy to operate cuid mcuntcun. 

The term design has many connotations, but it is essentially the process of devising a product to fulfill as completely as possible all the requirements of the end user, and, at the same time, satisfy the needs of the producer in terms of marketing and cost effectiveness (that is, return on investment). The efficient use of the available materials and production processes, including the all-important factor of tooling, should be the goal of every design effort (see Fig. 1-3). 

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