Informex Adds Process Engineering Component to Educational Program

Tag : Organic Chemicals


According to Jennifer Jessup, Event Director, the NetworkingRoundtables at InformexUSA offer chemists in the pharmaceutical,agrochemical and fine chemical industries an unprecedentedopportunity to learn about some of the innovative techniques thatlead to more profitable manufacturing operations. "If you'reinvolved in transferring organic chemical processes from thelaboratory to the plant, or between plants, then you will find theNetworking Roundtables as a breath of fresh air," she said. "Ifyou're trying to decide if it makes sense to invest in new routeprocess research, then the Networking Roundtable is a perfectsetting to test your thinking with peers. If you want to improve anestablished chemical process for maximum return-on-investment, thenyou will want to hear some of the case studies that look at leadingprocess chemistry strategies," she said.

Best Manufacturing Strategies

Three brief presentations center on the need for technicalprofessionals to continually raise the bar in scale-up, processresearch and return-on-investment. The first session, calledScale-up: What Goes Wrong will show some of the typical failings inorganic chemical processes as they are scaled up and includeexamples of outstanding processes that come about with the rightchoice of solvents, and work-up processes. The second session,Increasing Efficiency in Chemical Process R&D offers R&Dprofessionals a range of perspectives on how to best approachresearch and development projects, given the new technologies andautomation that have become available in the past ten years. Thethird session, Maximizing Profits through Process Improvement,looks at efforts within the pharmaceutical industry to improveorganic chemical processes after commercial start-up. Manycompanies take the opportunity to enhance processes approved byregulatory agencies, which are undoubtedly commercially viable, butwhich are not yet optimized for maximum commercial return.

According to John Knight, Scientific Director at Scientific Update,LLP, the need for best practices within the chemistry processdepartments of major manufacturers has never been greater becauseof the ever-diminishing time-line on new projects, and risingprices on starter chemicals. "A number of market forces within themanufacturing arena are adding to the already full workloads ofprocess chemistry professionals and R&D chemists everywhere,"he said. "The Networking Roundtables at InformexUSA offer chemistswith similar challenges an opportunity to learn about what othersare doing, and at the same time, participate in discussions thatlead to insights not readily available in technical journals," hesaid.