The Task of Process Development

In sales for instance several distributors may be appointed for different countries and centrally supplied with products. In development, companies may band together to share the tasks of process development, formulation and clinical research. Discovery research is clearly an area where cooperation and... 

The task of process development is to extrapolate a chemical reaction discovered and researched in the laboratory to an industrial scale, taking into consideration the economic, safety, ecological, and juristic boundary conditions [Harnisch 1984, Semel 1997, Kussi 2000]. The starting point is the laboratory apparatus, and the outcome of development is the production plant in between, process development is re-... 

Many tasks of process development and optimisation can be carried out, or are significantly supported, only if a reaction model and the corresponding parameters are available. However, the reliability and usefulness of the data calculated strongly depend on the chosen reaction model and the quality of the reaction parameters used. A fundamental understanding of the thermokinetics is also a prerequisite for an investigation of process safety. 

Scaling up of chemical and pharmaceutical industry apparatus is a major task for chemical engineers, representing as it does the fundamental step in the realization of industrial plants. The objective of process development is the definition of chemical and physical processes in sufficient detail to build a plant that will operate with predictable output and product quality at a predictable cost that is as small as possible (88). This means that the apparatus... 

Before setting about the task of developing such a model, the product development process requires definition along with an indication of its key stages, this is so the appropriate tools and techniques can be applied (Booker et al., 1997). In the approach presented here in Figure 5.11, the product development phases are activities generally defined in the automotive industry (Clark and Fujimoto, 1991). QFD Phase 1 is used to understand and quantify the importance of customer needs and requirements, and to support the definition of product and process requirements. The FMEA process is used to explore any potential failure modes, their likely Occurrence, Severity and Detectability. DFA/DFM techniques are used to minimize part count, facilitate ease of assembly and project component manufacturing and assembly costs, and are primarily aimed at cost reduction. 

Multiscale modeling of process operations. The description of process variables at different scales of abstraction implies that one could create models at several scales of time in such a way that these models communicate with each other and thus are inherently consistent with each other. The development of multiscale models is extremely important and constitutes the pivotal issue that must be resolved before the long-sought integration of operational tasks (e.g., planning, scheduling, control) can be placed on a firm foundation. 

The task of embarking on method development for a new polymer/additive sample can be intimidating due to the number of parameters that can be varied during an extraction. Because cook-book methods are unavailable for most analyte-matrix pairs, analysts may feel they are condemned to use a trial-and-error approach to optimise extraction-collection conditions for SFE. However, a flow sheet considering the most important parameters in the SFE process is available [3]. There are several approaches to... 

It is doubtful if any design is entirely novel. The antecedence of most designs can usually be easily traced. The first motor cars were clearly horse-drawn carriages without the horse and the development of the design of the modern car can be traced step by step from these early prototypes. In the chemical industry, modem distillation processes have developed from the ancient stills used for rectification of spirits and the packed columns used for gas absorption have developed from primitive, brushwood-packed towers. So, it is not often that a process designer is faced with the task of producing a design for a completely novel process or piece of equipment. 

The task of developing a suitable catalyst for commercial applications involves many considerations, ranging from obvious factors like catalyst activity and selectivity to variables like the catalyst shape and the composition of the binder used in a pelletizing process. This section is devoted to a discussion of these considerations and of the techniques involved in manufacturing industrial catalysts. 

The models which we have developed can be classified as follows. Some are intended to represent physicochemical processes and properties by mimicking quantitatively concepts which have become accepted by chemists in general. A simple example would be the transfer of electronic charge between two atoms of differing electronegativities. Other models are statistical in nature. We have applied parameters quantified by the physicochemical models to series of chemical data. The relationships thus derived by various statistical techniques, and their form, is such that they are readily applicable to the task of quantifying the evaluation process in EROS. Further discussion of these points is a major feature of this article. 

Whereas the Levels I and II calculations assume equilibrium to prevail between all media, this is recognized as being excessively simplistic and even misleading. In the interests of algebraic simplicity, only the four primary media are treated for this level. The task is to develop expressions for intermedia transport rates by the various diffusive and non-diffusive processes as described by Mackay (2001). This is done by selecting values for 12 intermedia transport velocity parameters which have dimensions of velocity (m/h or m/year), are designated as LJ, m/h and are applied to all chemicals. These parameters are used to calculate seven intermedia transport D values. 

With this variable load and the generally complex factors affecting the mercury cell the task of optimising chlorine production is not easy. In a situation such as this a mathematical model of the process can be extremely useful. As a result ICI has taken advantage of a wealth of operational and experimental data for mercury cells, as well as experience in developing process models, to produce a dynamic model of a mercury cell. 

In addition to the development of new products with previously unavailable property combinations, the task of making the process more efficient is important, particularly in this day and age. The cost factor energy can still be reduced if, for example, the heat of polymerization can be better utilized. It has been suggested that heat pumps be used for this purpose and the energy recovered be employed for the devolatilization step (38). In the same paper the author also suggests the integration in one factory of the monomer/polymer and end product fabrication, the latter since the polymer is already available in the molten state. 

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