Process intensification and development of use properties
Chemical engineering, sustainability and innovation - Challenges and prospects

In fact, for commodity products and intermediate products with high tonnages in excess of 1,000 t/year (ammonia, sulfuric acid, calcium carbonate, ethylene, aldehydes, methanol, ethanol, benzene, butadiene, adipic acid, amines, etc.), which still represent a majority sector of the economy (40% of markets) and for which patents do not usually relate to products, processes can no longer be sustainably selected solely on the criteria of "accounting" economic exploitation. On the contrary, a trade-off must be established between increased selectivity and savings linked to the process itself. The challenge is to produce huge quantities at the lowest possible cost, and the problem becomes complex because factors such as safety, health, environmental aspects (including the...