Presentations at the Process Development Symposium Europe (PDSE) October 21-22, 2025, Frankfurt, Germany, showed that Sustainable Chemical Engineering Design methods and specific Artificial Intelligence methods, applied in Europe, result in processes that are better in economics and environmental impact than existing commercial scale processes for the same products operating in China.
I visited this symposium and had many interesting conversations during coffee and lunch breaks with the participants and lecturers. What is clear from these conversations is that many major European chemical companies apply presently cost cutting for all activities, even on visiting conferences by their innovators, to face the competition on cost with companies in China. Others, however, are taking up the challenge by being more innovative, and therefore also keep visiting conferences.
Here are some presentations which I found interesting:
AI Integration in Innovation Structure
Michelangelo Canzoneri of Merck gave an overview on how AI is successfully integrated in the complex innovation structure of his company. Essential elements of AI are first of all data base quality improvements, second removing silo barriers, so that knowledge from different business can be extracted and applied over the whole company portfolio. Merck sells 320 000 products in biopharma, healthcare, life science, and electronics. In one product case a cost reduction from 1000 $/kg to 15 $/kg could be achieved.
Continuous Production Process
Edith Lecomte of IPSOMEDIC presented her continuous process for the production of paracetamol, which has lower cost then the batch processes operating in China and India. Her process has FDA approval and is patented in EU, China, and USA. She sells the licensed process. She used, amongst others, a pipe reactor with 3-D printed internals.
Process Concept Design for the Production of Soluble Eggshell Membrane
Ana Carolina Oliveira Alves of TU Delft showed a process concept design for the production of Soluble Eggshell Membrane, from Egg Shell waste, which reduces wastewater and carbon dioxide emissions by over 90 %, and also has a higher profitability, when compared to the existing commercial scale process. The process design is based on Sustainable Process Design methods using, UN Sustainable Development Goal targets, rapid Life Cycle Analysis, and the Circularity Ladder to obtain a circular economy solution, in which all industrial partners make a profit.