Research Subject Area: Chemical Engineering

REF impact found 52 Case Studies

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14. Advanced thermodynamic modelling for complex fluids

Summary of the impact

The SAFT-VR family of thermodynamic models has made it possible to predict reliably the behaviour of the many complex and challenging fluids that are found across a range of industrial sectors, including oil & gas, chemicals (refrigerants, surfactants, polymers), energy (carbon capture solvents, carbon dioxide-rich streams) and pharmaceuticals.

The SAFT-VR models have had a wide impact on industrial practice. At BP, they have been used to design novel surfactants that have increased the lifetime of oil fields up to five-fold, avoiding maintenance interventions costing millions of dollars and increasing productivity by 50% (worth $2-3 million per year per well). At Borealis, they have been used to understand how to increase the productivity of the reactor in the flagship Borstar process by 30%. At ICI and Ineos/Mexichem, they have been used to design efficient processes for producing replacement refrigerants with much reduced reliance on extreme and expensive experiments involving hydrogen fluoride, a highly corrosive substance. Industrial demand for access to the predictive capabilities of SAFT-VR has been such that Imperial College has licensed the software in 2013 to a UK SME in order to distribute it worldwide to users.

Submitting Institution

Imperial College London

Unit of Assessment

Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural), Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
Engineering: Chemical Engineering

7. Air Rate adjustment to peak air recovery (PAR) to increase mineral production by froth flotation

Summary of the impact

Mineral separation by froth flotation is the largest tonnage separation process in the world, and is used to recover the very small fraction (<0.5%) of valuable mineral from the mined ore. Typically, 5-15% of the valuable minerals are not recovered due to sub-optimal process settings, most important of which is the air rate. A methodology to determine the optimal air rate range to use, Peak Air Recovery (PAR), was developed by the Froth and Foam Research Group at Imperial College London.

Anglo American Platinum produces 40% of the world's platinum. They use the PAR methodology on all their flotation plants to establish to air rate control limits, tightening the operating range and improving the separation performance. Rio Tinto annually produce 300 000 tons of copper and 500 000 oz gold from their Kennecott Copper mine. They have implemented PAR as a control strategy, and statistical comparative tests have shown an increase in copper and gold recovery from this mine alone of the order of 1%, with a nominal value of approximately $30m per annum.

Submitting Institution

Imperial College London

Unit of Assessment

Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

08 - Assuring Hydrocarbon Flow with Improved Hydrate Management

Summary of the impact

ERPE research led to the following impacts in the REF2014 period:

  • Extending the life of the NUGGETS field (operated by Total) by three years with an increase in cumulative production of 2% (2.8 Million Barrels of Oil Equivalent, value $150M).
  • Saving $3-7M in costs associated with methanol removal from liquid hydrocarbon phase by demonstrating methanol could be removed from Natural Gas Liquids directly by molecular sieve, which played a major role in Total's decision in eliminating a de-propaniser from "methanol removal facilities", saving around £50M.
  • Hydrafact: a start-up company with a turnover of £1M in 2012 and employing 8 full-time and 15 part-time staff.

Submitting Institutions

Heriot-Watt University,University of Edinburgh

Unit of Assessment

General Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

Avoiding and Resolving Problems with Handling of Powders and Other Particulate Materials in Industry: ‘QPM’ and related projects including ‘Powder Flowability Tester’

Summary of the impact

Powder handling research at the Centre for Numerical Modelling and Process Analysis (CNMPA) enables industries to reduce the risk in new powder processes and to troubleshoot existing ones. The study focuses on two closely-related projects that have resulted in a series of instruments, analysis techniques, training and spin-out research that has found application in a large number of companies all over the world, in a wide range of industries. The case is typical of the influence that the CNMPA has had on industry awareness and practice in the UK and globally.

Submitting Institution

University of Greenwich

Unit of Assessment

General Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy, Interdisciplinary Engineering

The Economic Impact of High Gravity Brewing Studies on the Brewing and Distilling Industries

Summary of the impact

In High Gravity (HG) brewing the substrate (the wort§) fermented by the yeast is concentrated from a traditional value of about 12% solids to concentrations of upwards of 20%. Research (1993-2008) by Graham's Stewart's team at Heriot-Watt, into the process of brewing beer and distilling spirits in a more cost effective and quality enhanced manner led to substantial improvements in the HG brewing process, now used worldwide. This allows up to 50% more beer to be made at the same plant and reduces distillation costs. In both industries HG-wort production has allowed very substantial savings (>£555 million) in capital expansion costs.

§The substrate produced by the mashing of malt and grains — primarily consisting of fermentable sugars.

Submitting Institution

Heriot-Watt University

Unit of Assessment

Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Biological Sciences: Genetics, Microbiology
Engineering: Chemical Engineering

Biopharmaceutical characterisation, production and development

Summary of the impact

Research by Smales has led to IP that protects novel technologies for mammalian recombinant cell line development. Based upon mass spectrometry and in silico modelling approaches, the technology has permitted the development of highly efficient cell lines for monoclonal antibody production in the commercial environment at Lonza Biologics. This IP has three important benefits to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries:

(a) It allows key biopharmaceuticals to be made using substantially less resource and with an overall higher efficiency.

(b) It reduces the time from transfection to production of cell banks.

(c) It accelerates bioreactor evaluation and the ability to predict cell line performance at the bioreactor scale early in cell line construction.

Submitting Institution

University of Kent

Unit of Assessment

Biological Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Engineering: Chemical Engineering
Medical and Health Sciences: Neurosciences

Improving co-firing efficiency for sustainable biomass energy

Summary of the impact

Over the past 10 years there has been a massive expansion in biomass use for power generation, particularly in the UK and Europe. Research at the University of Leeds has been crucial in addressing many of the challenges inherent in moving from coal to biomass including milling, combustion characteristics, deposition and corrosion enabling adoption of biomass for power generation. The research has impacted: (1) company strategy and industry practice for the use of biomass and key technology choices; (2) society, health and environment via CO2 reduction and emission reduction; (3) national energy security through an increased fuel inventory; (4) UK Government and EU policy as expert members of advisory groups.

Submitting Institution

University of Leeds

Unit of Assessment

General Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Interdisciplinary Engineering

Particle shape measurement: commercialisation and applications

Summary of the impact

Research into on-line control of crystallisation at the University of Leeds started in 2002 which led to a collaboration being formed with Malvern Instruments Ltd (MIL) in 2006 and subsequently to the development of a new type of instrument capable of measuring particle shape and shape- distribution. The instrument range, Morphologi, launched in 2007 has since generated sales for MIL of approximately £11 million since January 2008. The instrument is now operational within many industrial sectors and used e.g. to optimise process efficiency and enhance product quality. The success of this instrument has contributed to providing secure employment at MIL and to obtaining the "Queen's Awards for Enterprise: International Trade" in 2011.

Submitting Institution

University of Leeds

Unit of Assessment

General Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Interdisciplinary Engineering

Chemtrix - Scalable Flow Chemistry

Summary of the impact

Chemtrix Ltd. was established in February 2006 as a 50-50 joint venture between the University of Hull and Lionix Ltd. In 2008 the company attracted investment from Limburg Ventures BV, Panthera, Technostartersfund, Microfix BV and Hugo Delissen (€2 million) that led to the creation of Chemtrix BV. In 2009 the Company launched Chemtrix USA and a second investment round followed with investors Particon BV. In 2012 ESK Ceramics GmbH & Co. KG, acquired a minority interest (30%) in Chemtrix BV based on a valuation of €5.3 million.

The three products developed and marketed by Chemtix, Labtrix®, KiloFlow® and Plantrix®, are differentiated from competitor products as they offer `scalable flow chemistry', such that optimised reaction conditions can be easily scaled from R&D to production. In addition to the employees and investors in Chemtrix the main non-academic beneficiaries of the research have been industrial customers such as Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Edward Air Force Base, Iolitec GmbH and DSM.

Submitting Institution

University of Hull

Unit of Assessment

Chemistry

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Inorganic Chemistry
Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Interdisciplinary Engineering

CPI – Centre for Process Integration

Summary of the impact

The field of conceptual chemical process design as practiced industrially has been influenced significantly by the outputs from the Centre for Process Integration (CPI) at Manchester. Process Integration Ltd (PIL) was spun-out from Manchester and currently employs over 50 staff globally, who have conducted projects that have resulted in annual cost savings of hundreds of millions of US dollars. The application of CPI technology has led to significant reductions in both energy costs and emissions of greenhouse gases. Since 2008 ca. US$350m of savings have been realized through the exploitation of CPI technology with US$1.4m generated from software sales.

Submitting Institution

University of Manchester

Unit of Assessment

Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Interdisciplinary Engineering

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