Concept to Commercialization: Methodology to Sustainable Process Success

The commercialization of new technologies often faces tremendous hurdles; making commercialization of sustainable technology a rare feat that is the result of thorough planning and execution. This talk will highlight the methodology of sustainable process design through the experience of a recent successful implementation of new emission reduction/recovery technology. It will discuss the role of demonstrating the process at the pilot plant level to overcome the biggest hurdles, minimize risk and explore alternative designs to ensure the process is truly sustainable. Pilot plants allow closing of the recycle loops and heat interchangers, completion of the material balances and validation of unique energy minimization tactics. They can also allow extended runs to study by-product reactions and corrosion rates. Pilot plants have their own limits and process simulations are still utilized to predict unit operation performance. Economical alternatives should be explored and constantly validated against the current capital and operating costs throughout the project. This talk will highlight the experiences of taking a sustainable process from concept to lab to pilot plant to commercialization. This sustainable process reduces materials by incorporating recycle loops of a long life green sorbent, reduces consumables, reduces/eliminates emissions, reduces wastes, minimizes energy and further captures gas pollutants to be recycled which increases product yield of the main processing plant. The methodology discussed applies for all scale ups, but is especially needed for sustainable processes where robustness must be proven.