Rui Cruz is the Global R&D Director for Industrial Solutions at Dow. He will be delivering the keynote address at the 2019 Process Development Symposium titled "Trends, Challenges and Opportunities in Process Development and Scale-up." We recently caught up with Rui to find out what we can expect during the symposium.
In your opinion, what is the most important current trend in the development and scale-up of chemical and related processes?
Sustainability is by far the most important current trend impacting process development and scale-up in the chemical industry. The pursuit of processes with lower environmental footprints naturally encompasses other important trends, like process intensification, energy integration, and waste and by-product minimization. If optimized properly, sustainable practices will also benefit process economics.
What specifically will you be talking about at the conference?
I’ll cover the importance of process research for the chemical industry and some of the main challenges and opportunities in the field, such as delivering more sustainable operations. I’ll also include best practices and learnings from my personal experiences and our research at Dow.
What message would you like the audience to take away from this year’s Process Development Symposium?
Development and scale-up of more efficient processes are critical for the future of the chemical industry, as we’re faced with more stringent regulatory, economic, and natural resource expectations. We’ll need to work together, across industry and academia, to shorten the periods of development and scale-up and meet increasing market demands. I’m eager for the symposium to create an opportunity for us to exchange ideas and collaborate.
How do you envision the development and scale-up of chemical and related processes advancing some of the Grand Challenges in engineering and society?
I expect a natural direct impact, as process development addresses some of the Grand Challenges objectives, like carbon sequestration and access to clean water. The impact can also be indirect. Designing new processes can help make it economical to scale-up products linked to other challenges, like new medicines, photovoltaics, fertilizers, and innovation in infrastructure.
Click here to learn more about the 2019 Process Development Symposium.
Rui Cruz
Dr. Rui Cruz is currently the Global R&D Director for Industrial Solutions at Dow, responsible for the business innovation pipeline and a global organization dedicated to technical services, process, product and application development... Read more