Technology and Economics (1991) / Chapter Skim
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Innovation in Chemical Processing Industries
Innovation in Chemical Processing Industries
Pages 107-120
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From page 107... ...
Clearly, chemicals and allied products have been heavily dependent upon the performance of scientific research. Having said that, it must be emphasized that such research is only the very beginning of the innovation process, and not the end of it.
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From page 108... ...
Of course the role of laboratory research becomes relatively less important at later stages of the development process when chemical engineering becomes the fundamental discipline for transforming the bench-scale reactions to production on a full industrial manufacturing scale. Yet the particular nature of the products and the production processes in chemicals accounts for the significance of scientific research at the early stages of the innovation development cycle, which sets closer ties between science and production than is the case in other industrial realms.
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From page 109... ...
If research intensity is measured by the employment of scientific personnel (scientists and engineers) expressed as a percentage of total employment, occasional surveys conducted by the National Research Council indicate that the chemical sector's research intensity was more than twice as great as any other sector between 1921 and 1946.i An understanding of the present state of this industry, in terms of how individual countries rank with respect to performance and com
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From page 110... ...
Because the United States around the turn of the century already had an important domestic petroleum industry, and Great Britain, Germany, and France had essentially no petroleum supplies of their own, the United States readily, and at an early date, switched to a petrochemical base. The switch in resources was full of consequences, because experience with petroleum and petroleum refining led to the acquisition of many skills and capabilities that were, later, readily transferable to other chemical processing activities.
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From page 112... ...
. These have the effect of offering superior technologies to firms that are prepared to make the necessary investment in equipment embodying the latest designs and modifications of earlier major innovations that have experienced this subsequent improvement process.
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From page 116... ...
Both as a conceptual matter and as a practical matter, it is not easy to disentangle the benefits of larger scale production from those achieved through introduction of improved equipment, improved design, or better "know-how," that is, better understanding of the technological relationships that are eventually embodied in the larger plant. Such later plants typically incorporate a large number of cumulative improvements and conceptual insights.
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From page 117... ...
After the war, the chemical firms increasingly relied upon SEFs to design, engineer, and develop their manufacturing installations. In the 1960s, nearly three-quarters of the major new plants were engineered, procured, and constructed by specialist plant contractors."6 There were various specific advantages accruing to SEFs in designing and developing chemical production processes.
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From page 118... ...
As a result, they served as major carriers of technological capabilities, including highly elusive but significant "know-how," that is, essential knowledge of a noncodified sort that was, nevertheless, vital to successful plant operation and performance. The vital role played by SEFs in designing and diffusing new technologies in the chemicals sector underlines a point that it is useful to make in closing.
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From page 120... ...
Landau in 1946 cofounded Halcon International, a chemical engineering firm that he headed for 36 years; 20 years later he cofounded the Oxirane Group with ARCO. He is a past vice president of the National Academy of Engineering, and in 1985 was among the first recipients of the National Medal of Technology.
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