An integrated environment for batch process development — from recipe to manufacture

Abstract

Publisher Summary Batch-process development involves the process of converting a chemical synthesis into an optimum, safe, robust, and economical process for manufacturing the chemical of desired quality at the ultimate desired scale. This chapter describes a strategy for developing a set of integrated decision support tools to facilitate this activity. The primary motivator for doing this is to perform fast and high-quality process development, because there is significant economic leverage that can be gained by speeding up this activity while not compromising on quality. The application of the strategy to an industrial case study is also presented. The batch-process development pipeline can be viewed as consisting of the following aspects: process alternatives synthesis, process alternatives evaluation, process operations development, and process operations assessment. This method minimizes rework by avoiding multiple problem setups, thereby allowing faster process development. The quality of the development activity is also enhanced through the sharing of the function across the different tools.