Technological innovations

Etom the customer s point of view, there is an optimal level of standardization. Increased standardization lowers costs but restricts choice. Furthermore, if a single minimal performance product standard is rigorously invoked in an industry, competition in a free market ultimately may lead the manufacturer of a superior product to save costs by lowering his product quaHty to the level of the standard, thus denying other values to the customer. Again, excessive standardization, especially as appHed to design or how the product performance is to be achieved, effectively can limit technological innovation. 

In the words of RSPA, the changes to the regulations will (/) simplify and reduce the volume of the HMR, 2) enhance safety through better classification and packaging, (3) promote flexibiUty and technological innovation in packaging, (4) reduce the need for exemptions from the HMR, and (5) facihtate international commerce (3). 

The technology leader must recognize that in the context in which industrial R D is conducted, certain societal concerns over the perceived risks can make specific technologies, products, or processes unacceptable in the marketplace and render some technological innovation unfortunately irrelevant. 

Bubble Policy The bubble concept introduced under PSD provisions of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977 was formally proposed as EPA policy on Jan. 18, 1979, the final policy statement being issued on Dec. 11, 1979. The bubble pohcy allows a company to find the most efficient way to control a plant s emissions as a whole rather than by meeting individual point-source requirements. If it is found less expensive to tighten control of a pollutant at one point and relax controls at another, this woiild be possible as long as the total pollution from the plant woiild not exceed the sum of the current hmits on individual point sources of pollution in the plant. Properly apphed, this approach would promote greater economic efficiency and increased technological innovation. 

Oakley, M. 1993 Managing Design Practical Issues. In Roy, R. and Wield, D. (eds). Product Design and Technological Innovation, Open University Press. 

Martin, G. (2000) Stasis in complex artefacts, in Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process, ed. Ziman, J. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) p. 90. Marzke. O.T. (editor) (1955) Impurities and Imperfections (American Society for Metals, Cleveland, Ohio). 

The chemical industry represents a 455-billion-dollar-a-year business, with products ranging from cosmetics, to fuel products, to plastics, to pharmaceuticals, health care products, food additives, and many others. It is diverse and dynamic, with market sectors rapidly expanding, and in turmoil in many parts of the world. Across these varied industry sectors, basic unit operations and equipment are applied on a daily basis, and indeed although there have been major technological innovations to processes, many pieces of equipment are based upon a foundation of engineering principles developed more than 50 years ago. 

Benson and Ponton (1993) and Ponton (1996) have speculated on the ultimate results of continuing efforts for process minimization. They envision a twenty-first century chemical industry totally revolutionized by technological innovation, automation, and miniaturization. Small, distributed manufacturing facilities would produce materials on demand, at the location where they are needed. Raw materials would be nonhazardous, and the manufacturing processes would be waste free and inherently safe. While their vision of future technology is speculative, we are beginning to see progress in this direction. 

Langdon, J. (1986). Horses, Oxen and Technological Innovation. Cambridge, Eng. Cambridge University Press. 

Proponents also point to the fact that thirty-one scientists associated with the laboratories have won Nobel prizes, and that the laboratories have received more R D 100 awards (award given annually to technology innovations that hold a strong prospect for commercial success) than any other institution. 

Materials and Technological Innovations edited by M.L Octelli and P. O Connor... 

Interdisciplinary and International Consultation (as recommended in the Climate Change Strategy and Technology Innovation Act — USA). 

Henry, J.R., An Overview of the Phytoremediation of Lead and Mercury, National Network of Environmental Management Studies (NNEMS), U.S. EPA, Technology Innovation Office, Washington, 2000. 

U.S. EPA, Brownfields Technology Primer Selecting and Using Phytoremediation for Site Cleanup, EPA 542-R-01-006, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Technology Innovation Office, Washington, 2001. 

U.S. EPA, Database for ET Cover System, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Remediation Technology Innovation Program, 2009. Available at http //cluin.org/products/altcovers. 

Although technological innovation may eventually provide non-polluting alternatives, at present only nuclear power is a cost eflective non-fossil source of electric power. 

Marc Van Regenmortel We have been totally incapable in the past of predicting the technological innovations achieved by human design. Biological systems are considerably more complex than human artefacts or weather patterns and predicting biological evolution or the future of human society is clearly not possible. 

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