Process Industries 2

Jean-Pierre Dal Pont is the president of the Société des Experts Chimistes de France (SECF). Specializing in process industries, he has been an industrial director in the United States and Asia-Pacific for many years. Marie Debacq is responsible for the AgroParisTech technology platform in France. She was a research lecturer at Cnam (Paris), where her work involved experimental study and modeling of polyphasic reactors.

Foreword 1 xi
Laurent BASEILHAC

Foreword 2 xiii
Vincent LAFLÈCHE

Foreword 3 xvii
June C. WISPELWEY

Introduction xix
Jean-Pierre DAL PONT and Marie DEBACQ

Chapter 1. Bio-industry in the Age of the Transition to Digital Technology: Significance and Recent Advances 1
Philippe JACQUES

1.1. Introduction 1

1.2. Diversity of products and applications 4

1.2.1. Fermentations in agri-food 5

1.2.2. Biomass-based products 7

1.2.3. Metabolite-based products 7

1.3. Traditional process for developing a product of industrial microbiology 8

1.4. Strain selection and optimization 10

1.4.1. Evolution of strain screening techniques 10

1.4.2. Evolution of genetic modification technologies, from random mutagenesis to CRISPR-Cas9 technology 13

1.5. Production and purification processes 14

1.5.1. Needs of microorganisms 14

1.5.2. Production processes 15

1.5.3. Downstream fermentation processes (downstream processing, DSP) 18

1.5.4. Coupled procedures 19

1.5.5. Microfluidic intake (scale-up/scale-down) 20

1.5.6. Process intensification 20

1.6. Innovative concepts 21

1.6.1. Biofilm reactors 21

1.6.2. Mixed cultures and cascades of microorganisms 21

1.7. Towards a digital bio-industry 21

1.8. Acknowledgements 22

1.9. Glossary 23

1.10. References 29

Chapter 2. Hydrogen Production by Steam Reforming 31
Marie BASIN, Diana TUDORACHE, Matthieu FLIN, Raphaël FAURE and Philippe ARPENTINIER

2.1. The industrial production of hydrogen 31

2.1.1. The processes of hydrogen production 31

2.1.2. Natural gas steam reforming 33

2.2. Problems and operational constraints in steam reforming units 58

2.2.1. Tube temperature and lifetime 58

2.2.2. Catalyst deactivation 60

2.2.3. Corrosion by metal dusting 64

2.2.4. Flexibility in raw materials of steam reforming units 64

2.3. Recent industrial developments responding to global warming 65

2.3.1. The role of hydrogen in energy transition (Hydrogen Council 2017) 65

2.3.2. CO2 capture in hydrogen production units 66

2.3.3. The exchanger reactor (“zero steam”) 68

2.3.4. Current research interests 70

2.3.5. Other means to provide reaction heat (currently in development) 76

2.4. References 76

Chapter 3. Industrialization: From Research to Final Product 79
Jean-Pierre DAL PONT

3.1. Anatomy of a process 80

3.2. Process evaluation 81

3.3. Industrialization process 82

3.3.1. The foundations of industrialization 82

3.3.2. Realization (project) engineering 83

3.4. The concept of the industrial project 84

3.5. Typical organization of an industrial project 85

3.6. The stages of an industrial project from the engineering perspective – validations 87

3.7. The tools of engineering project management – related activities 90

3.7.1. Process conceptualization: making it visible 90

3.7.2. Project management 91

3.7.3. Reporting – executive summary 91

3.7.4. Other concepts 91

3.8. Process intensification (PI) – miniaturization 92

3.9. Investment/sales coupling – modular construction 93

3.10. Circular industrial economy – platforms – centralization – decentralization 94

3.11. Overseas operations – technology transfer 94

3.12. Conclusion 95

3.13. Boxes 96

3.14. References 107

Chapter 4. Operations 109
Jean-Pierre DAL PONT

4.1. The industrial tool seen by flows and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 110

4.2. The supply chain 111

4.3. The typology of the means of production: VAT analysis 112

4.4. The anatomy of a plant 113

4.5. Operations management systems, the push for excellence 114

4.5.1. A brief history of industrial operations management 114

4.5.2. Toyotism 116

4.6. Costing-based profitability analysis (CO-PA): measure of performance and steering tool 117

4.6.1. Product cost 118

4.6.2. Margins 119

4.6.3. The breakeven point: the absorption of fixed costs 120

4.6.4. The infernal spiral of fixed costs 120

4.6.5. Observations on margins 121

4.7. The plant: performance measurement and score cards 122

4.8. Change management 123

4.8.1. Processes: system integrity and robustness 124

4.8.2. Human aspects and climate of trust 124

4.8.3. Knowledge management and core competencies 125

4.8.4. Continuous improvement and the search for innovation 125

4.8.5. The search for technological breakthrough and innovation 126

4.8.6. Operations abroad 127

4.8.7. What about tomorrow? 127

4.9. References 127

Chapter 5. The Enterprise and the Plant of the Future at the Age of the Transition to Digital Technology 129
Jean-Pierre DAL PONT

5.1. From one Industrial Revolution to the next Industrial Revolution 129

5.1.1. The First Industrial Revolution (1712–1860): steam, a source of energy 130

5.1.2. The Second Industrial Revolution (1860–1960): from crafts to industrial enterprise 131

5.1.3. The Third Industrial Revolution (1960–1990): the rise of industrial computing 135

5.1.4. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (1990–present) 136

5.2. Artificial intelligence (AI): deep learning and machine learning 137

5.3. Big Data 139

5.3.1. Characterization 140

5.4. Digital tools and technologies for industrial enterprise 142

5.4.1. Products, innovation, management 142

5.4.2. New tools 143

5.4.3. Digital twins 145

5.4.4. Engineering revisited 145

5.4.5. 3D (three-dimensional) printer or additive manufacturing 147

5.4.6. Robots, robotics, exoskeletons 148

5.4.7. Drones 149

5.4.8. Operations management 150

5.5. Boxes 151

5.6. References 204

Chapter 6. And Tomorrow 207
Jean-Pierre DAL PONT

6.1. The beginning of an epic: business, science, technology, the leap forward 208

6.2. Artificial intelligence (AI) and economic channels 209

6.2.1. Medicine and health 209

6.2.2. The water-energy-food-climate nexus 210

6.2.3. Intelligent electrical network (Smart Grid) 210

6.2.4. Artificial Intelligence and Smart City 210

6.3. Artificial intelligence and the consumer 211

6.4. Artificial intelligence, environment and human factor 211

6.5. The human at the heart of the device, at the heart of the system 212

6.5.1. Humans and robots 212

6.6. System robustness, resilience and fragility 213

6.7. GAFA: concerns, fears, myths and phantasms 214

6.8. Industrial companies in the face of digital technology 215

6.8.1. Cybercrime and uberization 216

6.8.2. Software hybridization 217

6.8.3. After Fordism and Toyotism, Teslism? 217

6.8.4. Business and governance: products 218

6.8.5. The chemical engineer, the project management 219

6.9. Towards a Black Box Society? 220

6.10. Conclusion 221

6.11. Box 223

6.12. References 232

List of Authors 233

Index 235

Summary of Volume 1 241