(190d) Continuous Processing of Specialty Chemicals – Opportunities with MCPI

Specialty chemicals and small commodities market is challenged with relatively small throughputs and relatively high production cost. Dissemination of the costs is prerequisite for making business decision for capital investment in new capacity. The new plant must be near to the market and be able to adjust rapidly to market changes. It must also have possibility for flexible production e.g. change of the product must be relatively simple. Fulfillment of these demands is challenging for the process engineering. In order to mitigate these challenges, design of cheaper, intensified modules, are of most importance since the solution may lay in modular plant and/or in process intensified equipment such as flow reactors or dividing wall columns. In order to discover and utilize the opportunities a dissemination of capital expenditure is essential.