Koinè Global Consulting Pte. Ltd. Singapore

CASE 4 - European Fine Chemical MNC: Feasibility Study and Conceptual Process Design Study for a brand new manufacturing line of additives and specialty chemicals. Preparation of laboratories procedures and supporting trials to prepare the final Process Design Package; support to the design phases and industrialization.

Features and constraints: the chemistry was defined although several possible paths were identified to produce the same components at different quality and yield level. The client was able to provide a key raw material as by-product resulting from other manufacturing lines, hence with not optimal quality and composition features. The project was to find the best manufacturing technology via suggesting few alternative processes to be tested and eventually developed by the client R&D team.

Development plan: At the initial stage, Koinè was engaged to provide expertise in defining few possible alternative ways to manufacture the required products given the final quality to be reached as well as the initial key raw materials quality profile, via preparing the documents required to describe possible production processes and allowing the client to approach the different stages of the project, from the Process Design to the Detailed Design. Koinè was to deliver a Conceptual Process Design Study allowing the client to identify the project economics for the selected alternatives and allowing high level strategical and management decisions. At this stage the client was be able to identify, and systematically narrow down, the possible technical options for the given process goal. Once the viable technical options were identified, an economic evaluation was done to calculate the project economics such as investment cost and total product cost. Based on technical merits, system reliability, economics (capital and operating), and other strategic factors, the client, at this stage, was eventually able to identify the opportunity to proceed with a future investment.

At a second stage Koinè was to identify the specific, desired process concept for progression to the Detailed Process Design phase of the project. To achieve this target, Koinè was to prepare and deliver complete laboratory procedures to verify the quality profile of the final products. In addition, Koinè was to prepare a set of deliverables able to support the client to narrow down the final process concept that would be eventually implemented with a specific investment.

The client was then able to carry tests in its laboratories in order to verify the repeatability and within-laboratory reproducibility of the proposed lab procedure as well as the impact in term of final product quality and product cost. Once the process quality profiles were confirmed and the process configuration has been clearly defined, the client was in the position to decide to further develop the project addressing the next phases until Detailed Process Designs package completion.

Client: a primary Multinational Corporation active on chemicals and specialty chemicals business.

Project: Support the development of a brand new specialty chemicals line in one of the client plant via providing a Feasibility Study and a Conceptual Process Design Study; the target was to define suitable lab procedures to be tested and developed in the client labs and developed into a proper Design Process Package for the final engineering phase and the plant introduction.