Models and Modelling Tools for Chemical Product and Process Design

The design, development and reliability of a chemical product and the process to manufacture it, need to be consistent with the end-use characteristics of the desired product. One of the common ways to match the desired product-process characteristics is through trial and error based experiments, which can be expensive and time consuming. An alternative approach is the use of a systematic model-based framework according to an established work-flow in product-process design, replacing some of the time consuming and/or repetitive experimental steps. The advantages of the use of a model-based framework is that in the design, development and/or manufacturing of a chemical product-process, the knowledge of the applied phenomena together with the product-process design details can be provided with diverse degrees of abstractions and details. This would allow the experimental resources to be employed for validation and fine-tuning of the solutions from the model-based framework, thereby, removing the need for trial and error experimental steps. Also, questions related to economic feasibility, operability and sustainability, among others, can be considered in the early stages of design. However, are the needed models for such a framework available? Or, are modelling tools that can help to develop the needed models available? Can such a model-based framework provide the needed model-based work-flows matching the requirements of the specific chemical product-process design problems? What types of models are needed for innovative and more sustainable design? The presentation will review the current state of the art in models and modelling tools suitable for chemical product-process design and point out the gaps that need to be filled out with respect to model-based frameworks for chemical product-process design. Illustrative examples highlighting the need for efficient model-based systems will be presented, where the need for predictive models for innovative chemical product-process design will be highlighted. The examples will cover aspects of chemical product-process design where the idea of the grand chemical product design model, that also incorporates the process design issues together with sustainability issues will be presented.