Abstract:

Since Dow first formed a global reaction engineering discipline over twenty years ago, we have accumulated much experience leading and supporting a diversity of reaction engineering projects for our corporation. This presentation will provide specific examples of real-world reaction engineering problems at Dow in the past 27 years and summarize our perspective regarding the key tools and methods of the well-equipped industrial reaction engineering laboratory. Several brief anecdotal descriptions of past process development and reactor scale-up projects will highlight important lessons learned on this journey. In addition, this talk will demonstrate the role of reaction engineering fundamentals and methodologies in shaping projects, enabling decisions, and empowering teams to succeed. Over the years, we have used a wide array of laboratory hardware and computer software tools. In some cases, we have developed our own tools; in other cases, we have chosen to use commercially available offerings to meet our experimental and computational needs. This presentation will highlight the reaction engineering tools and best practices that have stood the test of time and close with a brief list of some of the capability gaps that remain.