Types of industrial research and development

The applied or more targeted type of research and development commonly carried out in industry can be of several types and we will briefly consider each. They are (a) product development, (b) process development, (c) process improvement and (d) applications development. Even under these headings there are a multitude of aspects so only a typical example can be quoted in each case. The emphasis on each of these will vary considerably within the different sectors of the chemical industry (see section 3.2.3). 

Note that by-products can have a major influence on the economics of a chemical process. Phenol manufacture provides a striking example of this. The original route, the benzenesulphonic acid route, has become obsolete because demand for its by-product sodium sulphite (2.2 tonnes/1 tonne phenol) has dried up. Its recovery and disposal will therefore be an additional charge on the process, thus increasing the cost of the phenol. In contrast the cumene route owes its economic advantage over all the other routes to the strong demand for the by-product acetone (0.6 tonnes/1 tonne phenol). The sale of this therefore reduces the net cost of the phenol. 

A major part of the process development activity for a new plant is to minimize, or ideally prevent by designing out, waste production and hence possible pollution. The economic and environmental advantages of this are obvious. 

Finally it should be noted that process development requires a big team effort between chemists, chemical engineers, and electrical and mechanical engineers to be successful. 

3 Process improvement. Process improvement relates to processes which are already operating. It may be a problem that has arisen and stopped production. In this situation there is a lot of pressure to find a solution as soon as possible so that production can restart, since down time costs money. 

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