CRYSTAL: Green Technology for the Chemical and Allied Industries

A partnership of the Institution of Chemical Engineers(IChemE), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and theChemical Industries Association (CIA) has been awardedfunding under DTI’s Faraday Partnership Programme. Fara-day Partnerships are business-friendly, academic=industrygroupings designed to encourage closer contact andexchange between the knowledge base and business. TheIChemE leads the partnership.

The UK chemical and allied industries have an annualturnover in excess of £63 billion and directly employ480,000. To sustain this signi®cant wealth-creating perfor-mance and competitive advantage, the industry will need toaccelerate the introduction of green chemical technology(GCT). This means adapting to a faster, lower-cost,product=process development and manufacturing culture,which embraces improved use of resources and a signi®cantreduction in waste. Several Foresight Panels raised theseissues. Success will require innovative solutions based onnew and emerging science.

Because of the national importance of achieving this stepchange, the UK’s three major chemical industry-orientatedorganizationsÐIChemE, RSC and CIAÐhave joined forcesto form the hub of a new CRYSTAL Faraday Partnership inGreen Technology for the Chemical and Allied Industries.Importantly, twelve existing `green’ Consortia and NetworkTechnology Organizations (CANTO), which already involveindustrial companies of all sizes working with academicpartners, have agreed to work with the hub Partners and withCRYSTAL Industrial and Academic Participants to create amajor national partnership to add value to the delivery ofGCT in the short, medium and long term.

CRYSTAL’s mission is to become the lead UK body, forthe research, development, implementation and promotionof GCT and practices, by leveraging and synergising theresources of all the partners for the bene®t of the UKchemical industry. It provides the potential to become amuch-needed virtual Research and Training Organization(RTO) for the UK chemical industry.

The Partnership’s major objectives will centre on techno-logy transfer (using experienced Technology Translators),

strategic research, training, raising awareness and spreadingbest practice. A key role for CRYSTAL will be to targetcrucial areas which are not covered by existing CANTOand to focus the academic and industrial expertise of thePartnership in addressing those questions which areimpeding the implementation of GCT in the chemicalssector. The research challenges encompass the developmentof new catalyst systems to minimize waste, eco-ef®cientsolvents, alternative feedstocks and new enabling processengineering.

Activities will be established, prioritized and controlledby an industry-led Board of ManagementÐchaired by DrRobin Paul, CBE, former Chairman of Albright & Wilsonand past-President of both IChemE and the CIAÐsupportedby two Steering GroupsÐResearch, Development and Tech-nology Transfer (RDTT) and Training, Education andNetworking (TEN). The members of these managementbodies have been chosen to ensure strong industrial leader-ship (market pull) with the best multi-disciplinary academicinput (technology-push). The main facilitators of the Part-nership’s activities will be the Programme Manager who isMalcolm Wilkinson, currently Engineering Director ofIChemE, assisted by a Technology Support Of®cer and sixpart-time Technology Translators with administrativesupport from the IChemE. A management team will be setup to manage the day-to-day business.

The Partnership has been awarded a total of £1.2 millionover three years from the DTI and £1 million over four yearsfrom the EPSRC. The DTI funding will be used to establishthe Partnership’s management, technology transfer, trainingand knowledge dissemination infrastructure including staff.The EPSRC funding will be used to support twelve (three-year) postgraduate and nine (two-year) postdoctoral researchassistants as part of a carefully prioritized researchprogramme.

Malcolm WilkinsonEngineering Director, IChemE, UK

196 Trans IChemE, Vol 79, Part B, July 2001