Green Chemistry

The manufacture of an established commercial specialty chemical involved the use of an organic process solvent. The resulting VOC emissions from the filtration and drying operations were a concern, both from the point of view of operator exposure and the manufacturing site's compliance with existing environmental air quality regulations. 

Both the existing process and potential alternatives were evaluated and a water based method was proposed and tested by company R&D staff.  Automation and control of reagent additions was implemented through the use of a pH feedback loop. 

Problems with the existing product assay were also discovered and resolved.  Equipment  purchase recommendations were made after consultation with well established OEM suppliers. Significant cost savings were realized through identification of alternative and cheaper suppliers of the key raw material.

The technology was successfully scaled up and transferred to an overseas manufacturing location based on an assessment of  the respective capabilities of all the company's manufacturing sites.