AIChE -- CCR Joint Symposium

"Chemical Science Innovation:  Future of the US Chemical Enterprise"

AIChE/Council for Chemical Research Symposium
Monday, October 17, 2011

AIChE Fall Meeting -- Minneapolis MN.

Symposium Organizers Stuart L. Cooper and Jennifer S. Curtis

Session 1  Co-Chairs:  Stuart Cooper and Monty Alger

Larry Wendling—VP Corporate Research, 3M
"The Future for 3M in Nanoscience and Engineering"

3M's fundamental business model can be described as technology-driven innovation.  Having 45 technology platforms, 3M ranks among industry's R&D leaders in terms of its breadth of technical capabilities.  The ability to access novel size dependent properties via nanoscale materials science and process engineering potentially impacts the majority of all our technology platforms and provides significant opportunities for differentiated product performance across many of 3M's businesses.  Recent advances in nanomaterials science and engineering at 3M providing novel optical, mechanical, electrical, and catalytic properties will be described.

Robert Brown—President, Boston University
"Educating Global Chemical Engineers in the 21st Century"

Chemical engineering thrived in the United States during the 20th century because of the confluence of discoveries in chemistry, innovations in process technology, the abundance of raw materials, and markets fueled by economic growth.  What will chemical engineering in the United States look like in 2050?  Will we experience the same level of innovation and prosperity in an economy that is driven by substantial growth off our shores? This presentation will discuss the impact on the chemical engineering discipline of the emergence of China, India and other countries as economic equals.  Some potential strategies will be offered for professional and institutional leadership in the globalized economy that lies ahead.    


Joe Miller—CTO, Corning   
"Innovation Principles for the Chemical Engineering and Process Industry"
      
A set of innovation principles, developed while at DuPont and at Corning, were applied to new product and process innovation at Corning that enabled theenterprise to navigate and grow through two economic disruptions over the past decade. These principles will be shared and exemplified with Corning’s recent materials science and related productand process innovations.

Sangtae Kim—Director, Morgridge Institute.
"Novel Structures for Public-Private Partnerships: Case Studies with Medical Devices and Biopharmaceuticals."

At a time when the growth rate in research opportunities towers over the funding capacity of traditional sources of sponsorship, universities are turning to translational research and the associated licensing revenue streams as the untapped resource to close the gap.  This hope is challenged by the historical track record which shows that most universities do not have a successful track record in technology transfer. In this context, this presentation examines the current landscape for technology transfer via spin-off companies generated from university research. The classical view of a “basic research phase” and a “VC-supported development & commercialization phase” separated by the so called “valley of death” albeit simplistic, offers some insights into the high failure rates. The presentation proposes a new model for a public-private partnership with the goal of higher success rates for translational research and development. The model will be illustrated with recent case studies involving medical devices and biopharmaceuticals.
   


Session 2  Co-Chairs:  Jennifer Curtis and Larry Wendling

Bill Banholzer –CTO, Dow              
"The Future of Fuels and Alternative Feedstocks--Recognizing Hype vs
Practical Limitations"

The world now agrees that the ideal future requires 100% sustainable sources of energy and product feedstocks in adequate amounts to support a high standard of living for all.  Which new pathways and technologies will emerge to transform our situation?  This question is addressed from the perspective of the chemical industry, which was built on oil, natural gas, and coal.  These have served as the major raw material feedstocks and energy sources for driving reactions and separations.  The industry is now shaping its transformation to sustainable energy and is developing new materials and solutions for energy supply and conversion.  Here we consider the mass and energy balances, capital investment and resource requirements of several key alternative energy and feedstock technologies.  These considerations determine where we can expect realistic progress toward sustainable chemistry in both the short and long term, and where we should place our investments. 

John Anderson—President, Illinois Institute of Technology           
"Importance of Human Capital: Why Major in Chemical Engineering?"

Innovation is driven by people who are smart, creative and assertive.  One strategy for innovation in the chemical enterprise is to attract people like this to chemical engineering and chemical sciences.  Opportunities for careers in technical fields are much different for today’s students than five decades ago when I chose a major.  Compounding the challenge is that engineering in general has lost market share of students at universities.  This presentation attempts to stimulate thinking about steps that higher education and industry can take to attract future innovators to the chemical enterprise and meet their educational objectives.


Anthony Cugini—Director, U.S.—National Energy Technology Laboratory    
"The Future for Emerging Energy Technologies"

The Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, through the National Energy Technology Laboratory, supports a variety of R&D initiatives to develop alternative clean fuels and chemicals from fossil sources, including coal, natural gas and biomass.  A key R&D element of the current Fuels Program is the development and demonstration of advanced separation membranes for the production of hydrogen in advanced IGCC power systems for subsequent use as a turbine fuel or conversion to environmentally benign fuels and chemicals.  Other research areas focus on the development of modifications necessary for combined coal/biomass conversion which include co-feeding to the gasifier, evaluation of the differences in reaction kinetics and reaction products of the gasification process and the effects of additional biomass contaminants on downstream water gas shift (WGS) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) conversion catalysts.  This presentation will provide an overview of DOE’s ongoing R&D initiatives for the co-production of power and fuels/chemicals from coal and coal/biomass mixtures in advanced IGCC systems.

Monty Alger—CTO, Air Products     
"Chemical Product Life Cycle Management and Enterprise Environmental
Stewardship"

This presentation will analyze how sustainability affects the chemical industry.  The industry has moved from compliance with safety, environmental, and quality requirements to proactive stewardship of products throughout their life cycles.  Sustainability -- the integration of environmental, social, and economic considerations -- has become an important element of business management and product development strategy.