Continuous Manufacturing with Modular Plants for Medicines
'Continuous manufacturing with modular plants for medicines' was the subject of one-day symposium at University Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, March 6, 2025. The symposium was well organized with a shop visit to the construction halls of 18 m height containing...
New phrases added to the Vocabulary of Modern Process Engineering
I have added new terms and phrases to the Scale-up terms in the Vocabulary of Modern Process Engineering. On this page you will find many phrases and terms used in the field of process engineering, Scale-up and Process Intensification. This vocabulary is very useful...
Energiebesparing in bestaande processen door optimalisatie van procescontroleparameters
Energiebesparingen kunnen in bestaande processen bereikt worden door optimalisatie van PID-procescontrole parameters. Vooral in destillaties en in fornuizen kan dit leiden tot forse besparingen, terwijl de kosten niet meer zijn dan een consultancy voor een aantal uren...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Chemical Engineering
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Chemical Engineering was the subject of a one day conference in Paris 13 December 2024, organised by the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. AI and its sub-set Machine Learning (ML) is applied in industry for existing chemical...
The Best Energy Carrier for Heavy Duty Transport
Hydrogen produced from solar energy is the best energy carrier for heavy duty transport This point was made by Adri Huesman, principal hydrogen technologist of Shell. Adri presented his story at the Process Systems Engineering NL Winter Symposium at Institute for...
The Use of Functional Process Steps
Functional process steps can be used for rapid investment cost for start-up time estimations. In this article I explain the use of functional process steps. What are functional process steps? Functional process steps are the steps that fulfill a single function in a...
Circular Plastic from Carbon Dioxide
Annelie Jongerius of Avantium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, presented the formation of the polymer PoLyGlyoxylic Acid (PLGA) from carbon dioxide. The presentation was part of a Sustainable Process Intensification Network (SPIN-NL) and TNO mini-symposium on...
Economical Waste Polymer Recycling – highlights from CHISA 2024
The CHISA conference I visited this August contained many lectures and posters contributing to Sustainable Development Goals. Here are my two highlights concerning waste polymer recycling: Waste polyolefins, polyethylene, and polypropylene, used in textiles, can be...
An alternative teaching approach to Chemical Reaction Engineering
Chemical Reaction Engineering is a central course in any chemical engineering curriculum. It is however, considered by many students as a subject hard to master. A main obstacle for the students is the use of differential equations to describe phenomena about...
Product and Process Design – Second edition
'Product and Process Design: Driving Sustainable Innovation' has been renewed, the second edition is up for sale now (in paperback and digital form) at De Gruyter. Thise second edition contains examples and exercises, so that it can be used as a textbook in education....
Process intensification: The key to sustainability in chemical engineering
I have been discussing real-world applications of process intensification in the 4th installment of the 'Sustainability in Action' webinar series from Elsevier. A key takeaway: “Engineers play a key role in getting the sustainable development goals into actual...
New publication (Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology)
My article about Process Intensification has been published in Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. You can read the entire article here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/0471238961.koe00067
From Batch to Flow Chemistry in Pharma is now Commercial Practice
I attended a mini conference called Advanced Flow Chemistry – Basis and Application, organised by Henk van den Berg, of SPIN_NL (Sustainable Process Intensification Netherlands), in Vugt, NL, 5th of March 2024. This mini symposium shows that continuous processing in...
Webinar Sustainable Innovation in Chemicals: Mastering Process Intensification
On March 13, I will be presenting a webinar on Sustainable Innovation in Chemicals: Mastering Process Intensfication. This webinar is the 4th in the series “Sustainability in Action: Real-world Examples for a Greener Future” from Elsevier Engineering. Sustainable...
Elon Musk’s Innovation Method and its Transfer to Process Industries
I am reading Elon Musk’s biography and found an interesting notion about his way of manufacturing space rockets. He puts the innovative engineers, who design the new rockets and the construction and testing employees all in the same building. When a problem appears in...