CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING 114 CHIMIA 2002, 56, No. 4 Chimia 56 (2002) 114–118 © Schweizerische Chemische Gesellschaft ISSN 0009–4293 Role and Importance of Chemical Engineering in the Specialty Chemicals Industry – A Point of View from Process Development Lukas Doulakas, Pascal Larpin, Horst Maire*, Laurent Menoud** Abstract: Chemical engineers offer many skills perfectly in line with the requirements of the specialty chemicals industry, especially within process development. One of the main tasks of this department is to recruit and train young talent. A chemical engineer helps in defining new processes, improving established products and solving EHS (environment, health and safety) issues. Thus, the chemical engineer takes an active role in the main stages of a product life cycle and fosters through his communication skills cooperation with other colleagues working in different fields, such as production & engineering, product management, technical services. In order to fulfill the industry requirements, the Higher Institutes of Technology are encouraged to continuously offer the best education in chemical engineering. Keywords: Chemical engineering · Process development · Specialty chemicals · Young talent 1. Introduction The basic questions, which finally safety (EHS) aspects and are well pre- lead to this publication, are: pared to take over other responsibilities Even though the authors are working in • Do we need chemical engineers in the in the company. process development groups within Ciba specialty chemicals industry? The main objectives of a PD group are Specialty Chemicals Inc. the present arti- • Is a process development group the the development of inherently safe, relia- cle reflects our personal point of view right entry point for young chemical ble, reproducible, robust processes at low and is based on our specific experiences. engineers? cost for new or existing products respect- The opportunity to explain, particularly • Do chemical engineers play an impor- ing quality constraints and legal EHS to young students, current industrial tant role in industrial process devel- requirements. In order to fulfill this mis- process development (PD) in a realistic opment? sion, PD groups consist often of an opti- way has been our main motivation. When considering all aspects, posi- mum balance between chemists and tive and negative, which currently influ- chemical engineers, where PD chemists ence and lead process development activ- or PD chemical engineers work in multi- ities in the specialty chemicals industry, skilled teams, where the chemical engi- or what PD offers young talent, the an- neer is the connecting link between tech- *Correspondence: Dr. H. Maire swer to all the above questions is clearly nical (such as production & engineering, Ciba Specialty Chemicals Inc. yes! quality control) and non-technical services Coating Effects Segment One important task of PD is the re- (such as product management, marketing, Process Development Monthey; CE 6.23 Building WM–369B cruitment and training of young ta- product safety & registration, research). Case postale lent and future managers. Assuming an To explain the role and importance of the CH–1870 Monthey Tel.: + 41 24 474 4964 ideal group size, where continuity and process development, we chose the main Fax: + 41 24 474 4979 exchanges could be guaranteed, without stages of a product life cycle as a thread. E-Mail: [email protected] affecting the necessary skills, a young www.cibasc.com graduate (male/female) will stay about **Correspondence: Dr. L. Menoud Ciba Specialty Chemicals Inc. 3–5 years in PD, where he/she receives 2. Process Development and Home and Personal Care Segment and experiences his/her basic training in Product Life Cycle Process Development Monthey; HP 4.37 the company. After this period, which Building WM–374 Case postale serves as preparation for their future ca- The different aspects of process de- CH–1870 Monthey reer, they are well acquainted with prod- velopment work could be discussed and Tel.: + 41 24 474 4052 ucts (chemistry, processes), production illustrated in an exemplary way, when we Fax: + 41 24 474 4079 E-Mail: [email protected] (plant, installation, equipment), working look at the ideal product life cycle as www.cibasc.com methodology, environment – health – shown in Fig. 1. It is obvions that not eve- CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING 115 CHIMIA 2002, 56, No. 4 ry product will follow this profile, but the development work must be made as if for an ideal product as described in the qual- ity management (QM) procedure. During the different phases in a product life, the role and the required knowledge will change with the problems encountered. In a general way, the product life can be subdivided in two main periods, which are separated by the launch of the prod- uct, or, more precisely, when the product passes to the responsibility of production. The subdivision in ‘New Products’ and ‘Range Product’ reflects precisely this fundamental difference. During the first period the product is fully integrated in the ‘innovation process’, where teams (often headed by marketing or R&D) consider all questions and problems to be solved up to the launch. On the other Fig. 1. Sales and cash flow during the product life cycle hand in the second period, when the product becomes a range product, pro- duction takes over the responsibility. Let us have a look now at what happens typically during the above-mentioned phases. 2.2. Growth simply the product of margin multiplied 2.1. Development & Introduction Once on the market, the product by volume (sold quantities), the process When considering the features in this enters into competition with existing development in collaboration with pro- phase, it is obvions that quantities are products. If our perception of the advan- duction & engineering can only affect the rather small: before the first introduction, tages (and disadvantages) of our product, benefit by improving the margin, thus only lab or pilot samples are available. the positioning and the marketing strate- lowering the production costs. And you When the process development is in- gy were correctly made, the sales will can assume that the sales price will de- volved, research work is almost complet- grow more or less rapidly. Then it be- crease all the time. If we have the ideal ed and the chemistry is more or less de- comes increasingly important that the case, that our product is still protected by fined. Following the decision based on margin (simply said the difference be- international patents, the most important a business justification to bring such a tween sales price and total production task of the process development group is product to the market, the registration of costs) in Fig. 2 is maximum and enough to guarantee the lowest production costs the molecule will start and, for products capacity is available; in addition increas- possible in order to remain competitive foreseen to be used in ‘food contact’, ap- ing EHS problems must have been and to raise the hurdle for our competi- plication approvals are needed (e.g. solved. Supposing the company benefit is tors after the patent protection has expired. FDA, GMP, FPL). Project teams will be set up, composed of colleagues from re- search, product management, marketing, registration, production & engineering, quality control and process development. In order to bring the product to the mar- ket as quickly as possible (catchword: ‘faster time to market’) we are asked to accept compromises: first production campaigns will take place in existing fa- cilities, which are often not completely suitable for our chemistry; our process is not fully optimized, EHS problems are only solved in a semi-optimal way (such as incineration of mother liquors instead of solvent recovery), production costs are still too high. There remains a large po- tential for process optimization. Fig. 2. Development of volume, sales price and ‘total production costs (TPC)’ CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING 116 CHIMIA 2002, 56, No. 4 2.3. Maturity 3. The Role of Process document, a complete risk analysis must If a product reaches this phase of its Development within the Different be carried out, which is time-consuming life, we are often confronted with a very Phases in a Product Life and is always a special task performed curious situation. The whole process (in- in groups consisting of representatives cluding solvent recovery units, waste gas 3.1. New Products from production and process develop- treatment) has been optimized over a At this early stage in product life, the ment and other specialists such as safety, number of years. Specific skills and development work is best comparable to mechanical and electrical engineers. Be- knowledge have been built up and docu- the research work at the university. To cause timetables are always ambitious, mented. The quality is under control and follow a product from its birth (first trials this time must be taken into consideration the production costs are (sufficiently) in lab, then pilot), over the project work on the schedule. From the chemical engi- low. It is normal that the process devel- (e.g. definition of product properties, neer, a clear picture and knowledge of the opment decreases or stops its activities process optimization, identification of new process is needed, as every last related to this product. When entering relevant parameters, reaction kinetics, minute process or technology change this phase, the process development preparation of launch), until the first could affect the risk analysis! The chemi- group ‘loses’ more and more specific batch is in production creates in most cal engineer must apply the best method- product know-how. The main reasons are cases a very exciting and satisfying job. ology as economical and time constraints that development is now working on oth- The chemical engineer must build up tend to skip the pilot phase, thus intro- er products; PD must also face a high rate specific knowledge about the product and ducing a lab process directly into full- of personal fluctuation (especially with the process, and a lot of open questions scale production.