International. The UK's Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) announced that, as part of a larger consortium, it has developed a new process for the manufacture of surfactants.
The new technique reduces infrastructure costs and improves efficiency, without affecting quality. The success of this novel method, developed in collaboration with specialty chemical manufacturer Croda International Plc, technology designers NiTech Solutions and the Cambridge University Manufacturing Institute, established the technical feasibility and potential for large-scale commercial adoption. The project was funded in part by Innovate UK.
Surfactants are compounds that are widely used in consumer and industrial products that make it possible for liquids, solids, and gases that do not dissolve easily to become soluble in water. Traditionally, industrial production of these materials often occurred in large batch reactors, which had low energy efficiency and a long reaction time. Recently, CPI researchers Croda and NiTech have addressed this problem by developing a new process for the manufacture of surfactants.
This new process uses NiTech's patented continuous oscillating baffle reactor (COBR) technology, a flow reactor that provides a high level of mixing with high precision. Following industrial-scale testing at one of Croda's UK manufacturing sites, the PROCESS based on COBR technology has been shown to be considerably more compact than established batch processes, without compromising product quality. Working alongside industrial-scale testing, researchers at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Manufacturing examined the changes that may be required in business models to ensure that radical changes in technology are successfully implemented within a business.
The flexibility of the unit means that it can be easily modified and complemented with other technologies, expanding its use to a range of other valuable chemicals, such as polymer intermediates, organic additives and nanoparticles. More efficient production of polymer intermediates, for example, could benefit the manufacture of shampoos for the personal care industry. This breadth of capacity will allow the use of the new technique in multiple chemical sectors.
Source: Center for Process Innovation.
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