Pharma’s Conundrum: Designing Beyond Concept. Part 1 - Productive iteration

We worked together to create a responsible development that minimised impact on the neighbours who had enjoyed open land behind their properties for many years.

There are benefits to both systems, but CCU has less potential for wasted carbon dioxide.Both methods have been used at commercial scale with ‘undisputable technical and operational success for decades’ in the North Sea, North America, Australia and elsewhere.

Naturally, this isn’t a closed loop; feedstock will always need to be provided.But given that, as of 2019, carbon feedstock equated to 58% of the usage of carbon-based materials like crude oil and other fossil fuels in the industry, it would be a positive step to use carbon capture to reduce the amount required, and therefore begin to lower the carbon footprint of the industrial plastic produced using these methods..Chemicals such as formaldehyde and potassium carbonate that are used in the production of plastics such as PEEK, POM, PTFE, and PVDF can be produced with captured carbon dioxide instead of fresh carbon feedstock.

By reducing the need for carbon feedstock by reusing captured CO. 2. , we will make progress toward a carbon neutral synthesis of industrial plastics..In line with this, other chemicals, such as methanol and methane, can be replaced by bio-methanol and bio-methane, which are synthesised from biomass and wastewater sources.

Using sustainable methods to produce bio-methane and bio-methanol in place of fossil fuel derived versions, helps reduce the total amount of fossil fuels circulating in the industrial plastics industry and, therefore, the extent to which emissions are generated.. A study by Gabrielli et al, investigating the benefits of carbon capture, used the visual below to show how each system works and how the captured carbon is being reused (Figure 1)..

Figure 1: via Gabrielli et al: illustrating a comparison of ‘business as usual’ chemical production against CCS and CCU via direct air capture with carbon storage (DACCS) techniques.And conversely, we can trace inefficiencies and anomalies back to their source.

By modelling the effect of several variables simultaneously we can build in flexibility where it’s needed to ensure future viability when circumstances change, which, as current events should teach us, they will.. From the earliest stages, we work with 3D visualisations of processes and physical assets.This allows users to take a virtual reality walk through the process, to test the physical environment and anticipate any issues.

It’s proven to be very helpful for people to be able to interact with a potential solution in this immersive way, making it much easier to articulate requirements and assess solutions.. Standardisation and automation in construction.There are elements of some processes that are unique and so will require a bespoke built solution.