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Fall 2000 Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA

12 – 17 November 2000

Process Research and Innovation Area (12a) Sessions

274: Chemists and Chemical Engineers: An Integrated Team for Process Development

Chair: Prof. Ka Ng, Hong Kong Univ. of Science & Technology,
Co-chair: Aaron Sarafinas,

Review of the session

The Process Development Division of the AIChE sponsored a session on the collaboration between chemists and chemical engineers at the annual AIChE meeting in Los Angeles in November 2000. The session was attended by over 50 chemical engineers and a few chemists. In addition to the six (6) presentations from highly respected industrial practitioners, the audience was invited to share their thoughts on this subject. Following is a summary of their comments, which can be classified into four categories.
  1. Personal Experiences
    1. ChE: The chemists do not balance their reactions.
    2. ChE: The chemists do not tell me what the impurities are and their amounts.
    3. Chemist: The reaction works just fine in the laboratory. Certainly, it should work in the pilot plant.
    4. ChE: I wish the chemists took those data under a different set of conditions.
    5. ChE: There are no stability data over time.
    6. ChE: We have 16 hour holds.
    7. Chemist and ChE: You took my job away.
    8. Chemist: Engineers are above learning reactions.
    9. Chemist: Engineers won't learn chemistry.
    10. ChE: They look at scaleup as simply a bigger laboratory.
    11. ChE: Every reaction system is scaled by statistical design with no modeling.
    12. ChE: They often blame the use of different techniques for scaleup troubles, not heat or material balance.
    13. ChE: Chemists do not appreciate the importance of physical properties.
    14. Chemist and ChE: Each trying to become the other.
    15. ChE: Chemists focus only on yield.
  2. Barriers to a successful interdisciplinary team
    1. Lack of appreciation of the difference in objective of the other discipline.
    2. Lack of appreciation of the time and effort requirements of the other discipline.
    3. Geography: proximity vs. globalization in process development.
    4. Organization structure is not conducive to a team effort.
    5. Lack of shared vision - "pettiness prevails".
    6. Reward structure: patents are granted for chemistry but not for process.
  3. Benefits to a successful interdisciplinary team
    1. Reduced time-to-market.
    2. The best possible process the first time.
    3. Elimination of "handoffs".
  4. How do we move forward?
    1. Join Process Development Division!
    2. Devise workflow procedures for the chemist-chemical engineer team.
    3. Bring chemists and chemical engineers together in the same location.
    4. Seek support from senior management.
    5. Clearly define roles but without putting people into "boxes" and discouraging individual initiatives.
    6. Build rapport socially and informally.
    7. Management should appreciate different functions in process development and continue to facilitate collaborations.
    8. Encourage development of interpersonal skills.
    9. Work with the ACS group.

Presentations in this session

Pilot Plants Area (12b) Sessions

276: Lab and Pilot Plant Instrumentation

Chair: John Iverson, Parke-Davis Co.
Co-chair: Michael VonDeak, Pharmacia,

275: Modernizing Pilot Plant Facilities

Chair: Dave Edwards, Zeton Inc.,
Co-chair: Carol Calvano, Mobil Technology Co.,

Technology Transfer (12c) Sessions

277: Technology Transfer in Food, Pharmaceuticals, and Fine Chemicals

Co-Sponsored with Division 15 (Food, Pharmaceutical & Bioengineering Division)
Chair: Cawas Cooper, Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.,
Co-chair (Group 15): Clint Pepper, DepoTech, Inc.,