2^nd Steering Committee Meeting - 24 July 1998

The 1998 meeting was held at the AIChE office building in 47th St, New York City.

This Steering Committee meeting followed the first such meeting held in the summer of 1997 in Chicago. These meetings are open to all group members with an interest in the development of the group activities.

The main objective of the Steering Committee meetings is to develop the scope and directions of the Process Development Group within the AIChE National Programming Committee.

Attendees: Prabir Basu (Monsanto, Group Vice-Chair), Kamlesh Bhatia (DuPont, Area Chair), Joe Cramer (AIChE, Director of Programming), Sandra Dudley (Eastman), Mark Langer (SC Johnson, Area Chair), Alan Leviton (Rohm & Haas), George Liebermann (Xerox, Group Chair), Ka Ng (U Mass, Area Vice-Chair), Geatesh Tampy (IFF)

Host: Joe Cramer

Geatesh Tampy recorded the meeting minutes.

To encompass the role of process development from initial research to manufacturing, and also to attract a range of chemical engineers from both industry and academia, the Process Development Group (Gr. 12) continues to function with the following structure:

Elections for the new leadership roles began at the Spring ’97 Meeting. As of now key roles are filled (Group, Area 12a, 12b Chairs and Vice-chairs, Area 12c, 12d champions). The following represents the current leadership status:

Group 12 Process Development Chair: George Liebermann (Xerox) Vice-chair: Prabir Basu (Monsanto)

Area 12a Process Research and Chair: Kamlesh Bhatia (DuPont)

Innovation Vice-chair: Ka Ng (U of Mass)

Area 12b Pilot Plants Chair: Mark Langer (SC Johnson) Vice-chair: John Corn (Ashland)

Area 12c* Technology Transfer Champions: Cawas Cooper (Air Prod) Geatesh Tampy (IFF)

Area 12d* Manufacturing Champions: Ron Mack (Monsanto)

Tom Kenat (Kenatech)

Juergen Holzhauer (Amoco)

*12c and 12d are proposed future areas

The roles and responsibilities of the Chairs/Vice-Chairs have also been defined (Steering Committee Meeting #1 Minutes).

The current leadership mandate was extend to the fall of year 2000 (at the 1997 Chicago and Los Angeles meetings). Vice-chairs will take over as chair at the next change of leadership. Champions will have the leading role in laying the foundations of the areas that are under development.

The need to increase the number of sessions allocated by AIChE to the Process Development Group was discussed.

The current base allocation is 2 session for the Fall National Meetings. Actual status is:

Recent Meetings (‘90s) 2 sessions

Nov ’97 (LA) 2 sessions, 1 poster session (no allocation)

March ’98 (New Orleans) 3 sessions (1 extra allocation)

Nov ’98 (Miami Beach) 3 sessions (1 extra allocation)

March ’99 (Houston) 3 sessions (1 extra allocation)

Nov ’99 (Dallas) 8 sessions (Topical Conference)

AIChE needs to be approached with a request for additional base session allocations Until this gets approved we will request AIChE to allocates supplementary sessions (for which the various groups compete).

Other programming suggestions were:

to hold TableTop Expos

to hold short courses (5-6 hr) at the Spring Meetings

to invite experts in certain fields

to interact with IChemE (UK). Dave Edwards (Zeton) is the contact.

The Process Development Group Mission Statement that was drafted by Mark Langer was approved at the Spring ’98 New Orleans Meeting.

Development of new areas (Technology Transfer and Manufacturing). A survey conducted by Cawas Cooper for Technology Transfer was presented in the Fall ‘97 Los Angeles meeting. The group survey identified a number of people with interest in these areas. The updated membership list now includes identifiers for member interest in each of the four areas. The champions for each of the two new areas have been identified who will assist in the development of these areas.

A review of the last two Group meetings (’97 Los Angeles and ’98 New Orleans) identified that they tend to be too complex and issues become difficult to resolve.

It was proposed that future committee meetings at the Fall and Spring AIChE Meetings to be held at Area level (Area 12a, 12b, future Areas) coupled with a short Group meeting. It was proposed that the meetings should be held at distinct times, so that interested members could attend more than one meeting. The area meetings will be held before the group meeting, which will be held just before the group dinner. A summary of the area meetings will be presented at the group meeting. This would facilitate a better selection of sessions and allow for better networking of interested members.

Other activities such as benchmarking and round table discussion on specific topics will continue.

With regards to Industry/Academia participation, Ka Ng and Mike Malone (U of Mass), and Yinlan Huang (Wayne State U) are currently active. Area chairs and co-chairs should explore joint sessions with principally academic groups. The 1999 Dallas topical conference would be an excellent venue to enhance this interaction. It was also suggested that a list of Universities involved in process research be compiled, and contacts established.

Kamlesh Bhatia proposed that the inclusion of scale-up education in the undergraduate curriculum should be actively followed up.

The issue of corporate sponsorship, and the possibility to form a Division were briefly discussed.

In the area of group marketing/quality enhancement, an article describing the recent Group 12 changes written by Mark Langer was published in the fall ’97 AIChE extra.

The idea to advertise the best presentations in the Group 12 Newsletter was followed through and done for the ’97 Los Angeles meeting.

Other ideas for promoting the group include:

Joint sessions with other groups (being done in the ’99 topical conference)

Run a "ask the expert" session, a panel discussion or tutorial

Publishing the best paper in the CEP

Forge partnerships with other individuals, agencies involved in process development

Process Development website

Alan Leviton brought forward the need for benchmarking Process Development. It would be beneficial to benchmark the work processes in development to establish criteria for a well-developed process.

The discussion led to three possible alternatives:

The Group facilitates interaction amongst companies that wish to benchmark key aspects of Process Development.

Hold a session on Benchmarking Process Development.

Support a survey by a 3^rd party.

The Miami Fall ’98 and Houston ’99 Spring meetings were discussed briefly.

User friendliness of the web submission on the AIChE site has to be improved. It was felt the new users, in particular, will have trouble navigating the site.

Several the spots for Session Chair/Vice-chair the 2000 meetings in Atlanta (spring) and Los Angeles (fall) are unfilled. Mark and Kamlesh should give this priority at the November Miami area meetings.

It was suggested that "Process Innovation" would be a very good theme for a topical, or mini-topical, perhaps in Spring 2000 in Atlanta. This idea will be further explored in forthcoming committee meetings.

Kamlesh Bhatia proposed a name change for a future session to "Chemist and Chemical Engineers – Partners in Process Innovation", which could also be a topical or mini-topical.

The title of the topical is " Process Development from Research to Manufacturing". Kamlesh Bhatia is the Topical Conference Chairman.. Mark Langer will assist, assuming also the role of proceedings coordinator. This topical conference will have eight sessions and will be co-sponsored with Group 5 (Management) and Group 6 (Mixing).

Kamlesh Bhatia reviewed the status of the topical conference, and proposed a timeline for finalizing the Chairs and the Call for Papers. Details were left for discussion in Area committee meetings in November ’98 in Miami Beach.

George Liebermann reported that a provider had been identified. A draft including a couple of sample pages was accessed on the web during the meeting and it was agreed to pursue with this option. The funding required to support the web site was estimated at $ 1000/year. It was suggested that affiliate companies split this cost (~$200 each) for the first year. P. Basu (Monsanto), G. Liebermann (Xerox) and A. Leviton (Rohm and Haas) agreed to donate ~$200 each towards the cost. Other members will consult with their management and seek sponsorship. An acknowledgement of the source of sponsorship will be included in the Web page.

Mark Langer volunteered to oversee the development of the site. The Web site will be linked to the AIChE site.

George Liebermann reported on the status of time-lined items. All items were completed, except the New Orleans ’98 item to agree on an organizational model for corporate support. This is still to be initiated.

Write a letter to AIChE to request additional base session allocations (to a total of four sessions).

Organize the area and group meetings for ’98 Miami Beach Meeting.

Draft a list of Universities involved in Process Research.

Seek support from AIChE’s Education Group, as well as from academia who provide consultancy services to industry.

Initiate proposal for corporate membership and funding support. Address funds handling options.

Group leadership and new area champions to develop plan.

Implement Web site.

Draft a summary proposal on benchmarking, with Batch Process Development and Toll Manufacturing as first areas of interest.

Pursue organization of topical conferences, especially at the Spring Meetings (Proposed titles: "Process Innovation", "Chemists and Chemical Engineers – Partners in Process Innovation", "Batch Process Development")