(26d) An Integrated Approach for Chemical Technology Development

Chemical Technology Development (CTD) projects often span over a decade from initial conception of the idea to commissioning of the commercial plant. To mitigate the high risk involved in developing a new chemical technology from cradle to grave, leading companies have adopted Stage-Gate® System (SGS). However, current as well as future chemical technology development projects are expected to face greater challenges including market uncertainty, less-defined project, better process (product) performance amidst higher technical uncertainties and stricter environmental sustainability requirement. Traditional CTD project management techniques, which are mostly focused on well-defined and predictable projects would not be very efficient in this context. Thus, the need for developing project management techniques that can meet the requirement of next generation CTD projects.

SABIC Technology and Innovation (T&I) Center has recently developed a unique process mapping methodology based on Stage-Gate® System for its next generation CTD projects. The developed process mapping is not a fit-for-all  type of Stage-Gate® System used by many companies, but rather customizable to meet the requirement of different technology development projects within chemical and allied industry. The process mapping features innovative concepts, such as rigorous First-Principle Predictive Modeling (FPPM), Design of Experiments (DOE), Quality by Design (QbD), Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)  amongst others. The incorporation of these concepts within SABIC SGS is not the only unique aspect, but how these concepts are staged and coupled together to reduce risk in CTD projects while accelerating time-to-market. The newly developed process mapping is currently been used in-house for several of SABIC’s CTD projects, and results obtained so far has been astonishing. In this work, some examples of how SABIC’s new process mapping could be used to reduced CTD projects’ risks while accelerating time-to-market would be demonstrated.