Present: Prabir Basu (Searle), Cawas Cooper (Air Products), John Corn (Ashland), Joe Cramer (AIChE), Bob Duggal (Ethyl), David Edwards (Zeton), Juergen Holzhauer (Amoco), Mark Langer (SC Johnson), George Liebermann (Xerox), Rich Palluzi (Exxon).
Agenda:
Proceedings
George Liebermann welcomed all participants to the meeting and thanked Prabir Basu/Searle for hosting the meeting. This meeting was proposed at the Group Committee Meeting in Spring 1997 and has as main objective to propose the directions of the newly established Process Development Group within the AIChE National Programming Committee.
Dave Edward offered to take the meeting notes.
The Pilot Plant subcommittee, Area 12a, was formed in the early 70’s from mainly petrochemical/industrial origins. The primary focus in the 80’s was on getting sessions approved and on finding quality papers. Some food industry representation was noted at the beginning, with significant pharmaceutical activity recently. Attempts have been made to involve academics with limited success because of differing viewpoints on goals and direction. Joint sessions with ACS were also tried, again with limited success. Site tours have always been arranged similar to the present interactions.
A summary of Area 12a (Pilot Plants) AIChE Meetings Sessions going back to 1989 was handed out by G. Liebermann (attachment).
Joe Cramer, the AIChE Director of Programming, made several suggestions for the future: i) focusing on the Spring Meetings which are mainly industrial (90+%), as opposed to the Annual meeting (70+% academics), ii) organizing Topical Conferences, which involve corporate sponsorship, published proceedings, a formal dinner, and a keynote speaker. The participants share information at the pre-competitive level, and the participating companies are highly committed.
The need and idea for extending the Pilot Plants activities to encompass Process Development and Technology Transfer crystallized at the San Diego World Congress in 1996. The restructuring plan was presented/approved at the Committee Meeting at the 1996 Annual Meeting in Chicago and was endorsed shortly thereafter by the AIChE. The new structure behind the plan was developed at the Committee Meeting at the 1997 Spring National Meeting Houston. The aim is to expand the group to attract academics, researchers, industrial scientists and engineers, i.e. a wide range of chemical engineers from industry and academia. The present structure is :
Group 12 : Process Development
Area 12a : Process Research and Innovation
Area 12b : Pilot Plants
Future proposed areas include:
Area 12c : Technology Transfer
Area 12d : Manufacturing
Joe Cramer commented that only 10% of AIChE membership is academic, but that they are very active. Most members are industrial, and are not active.
Everyone agreed that we need to proceed with Areas 12c and 12d cautiously, and only after Areas 12a and 12b are well established. Project Management was raised as an area that is not covered under any group to date. Joe suggested that the Management group would probably welcome any help in getting something started if there was sufficient interest from the Process Development group. Rich Palluzi suggested that there is often more interest if we have 2 or 3 days of programming because participants need to justify the investment to their management. The possibility of holding a topical conference was again discussed.
Group 12: Process Development - Chair: George Liebermann
Vice-Chair: TBD
Area 12a : Process Research and Innovation - Chair: Prabir Basu
Vice-Chair: TBD
Area 12b : Pilot Plants - Chair: Mark Langer
Vice-Chair: TBD
George Liebermann presented the different responsibilities of the Group and Area Chairs/Vice-Chairs. The list of responsibilities was agreed upon after some comments and additions from the steering committee (attachment).
The Group Chair organizes and arranges the Group Committee Meeting at each AIChE National and Annual Meeting, attends the AIChE National Program Committee (NPC) meetings at each conference as well as the NPC retreat, and is responsible for all matters specifically affecting Group 12. The Group Chair/Vice-chair should be a passed or current Area Chair.
Area Chairs are primarily responsible for programming the sessions and for all matters specifically affecting their Area. Area Chairs should be experienced in programming, either from inside or outside the Process Development Group.
Joe Cramer clarified that all Chairs and Vice-Chairs are members of the NPC and are welcome to the NPC meetings.
The election of the three Vice Chairs for the existing structure was delayed last spring in Houston until candidates have had the opportunity to discuss the necessary commitment with their management.
Vice chairs for Group 12 and Areas 12a and 12b will be elected at the Annual Meeting in LA. P. Basu will explore the possibility to recruit a Vice-chair from a University for Area 12a. As before, the Vice-chairs will automatically take over as Chairs at the next change of leadership.
A proposal will be made to the Group Committee in LA to extend the current leadership mandate to the fall of 2000 in order to allow implementation and consolidation of the new structure.
Champions will be identified for future Areas 12c and 12d, who will then lay down the foundations for fully established Area status in the future.
It was decided to hold an annual Steering Committee Meeting in the summer to discuss matters relating to Group 12 and the Areas. The meeting would be open to interested members, and would be held at a different location each year. Joe Cramer offered to host the next meeting at AIChE headquarters in New York in 1998 (provisionally July 10th).
It was decided that all Area members would attend the Process Development (Group) Committee meeting for now, with separate area meetings being held only when each area is fully established. Each Committee meeting will be split into three sections: Group 12 matters, Area 12a matters and Area 12b matters.
The Process Development Committee meetings will continue to have as main focus programming, i.e. to appoint future session chairs and co-chairs. Potential candidates and session titles should be identified before the committee meeting by the Area Chairs/Vice-chairs to streamline the selection process. Committee meetings should be a summary to help the meetings go smoother and faster.
Benchmarking, where people talk about their organization, is well received. A suggestion to have a discussion topic was put forward, which would lead to a round table discussion. This would occur probably towards the end of the meeting to ensure all other business is addressed.
A suggestion to hold the dinner immediately after the Committee meeting was considered, and a proposal was made to advertise the dinner in the meeting program.
The question of whether we want to embrace all these areas was raised. Could industrial/academic liaison be handled in a forum like the pilot plant committee meeting ? The possibility of having a joint session with a principally academic group (e.g. Reaction Engineering) was suggested as a way of increasing our exposure to academics. Compiling a list of active Universities was also suggested.
G. Liebermann and P. Basu to consider how best to attract academics to Group 12, and, in particular, Area 12a activities.
It was agreed that Area 12b should retain an industrial focus. Also participation from the IChemE in the UK was suggested.
The possibility of a Topical Conference in the fall of 1999 in Dallas was discussed. 6 sessions were suggested, requiring 36 good papers.
G. Liebermann, P. Basu and M. Langer to come to LA with ideas and proposals for a Topical conference.
R. Palluzi offered to provide the list of participants in his Pilot Plant Course to find out if they would be interested in Group 12 activities. G. Liebermann will mail out a survey.
Mark Langer volunteered to write an article describing the recent Group 12 changes for inclusion in AIChE Extra (300 words). Joe Cramer will look after its publication.
The Steering Committee will address the appropriate model for company support for the Process Development Group.
Los Angeles (Nov 1997)
Elect Vice Chairs for Group 12 and Areas12a and 12b Full Committee
Present Mission Statement ML, RP
Issue Minutes of this meeting GL
Develop Plans for Topical Conference for 1999 JC, PB, ML, GL, DE
Champions for Areas 12c and 12d CC (12c), JH (12d) / GL
Conduct and review Surveys GL, BD
New Orleans (March 1998)
Agree on organizational model for corporate support. ML, RP, CC
New York (July 10, 1998)
2nd Annual Steering Committee Meeting JC, GL
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