13 Trends and megatrends in process engineering

Stricter occupational health and safety regulations, stringent hygiene standards and the use of sensitive electronics are making dust-, gas- and vapor-free process control a must-have.

Processes which previously had to be carried out at high temperatures, can now be implemented by means of dispersing under high shearing and optimised pressure conditions with significantly lower process temperatures.

Manufacturers want to reduce biocides in their products or completely avoid them – for many different reasons, i.e., because the handling of biocides is critical or because they create undesirable effects in the end product.

Vessels are often been cleaned with cleaning agents at the end of a process. This is not just time-consuming – discharge and disposal of the cleaning waste generated is also complex.

In process technology, due to constantly changing requirements and more frequent product updates, a flexible machine and system design is becoming increasingly important.

Process intensification accelerates processes, reduces energy requirements and improves the quality of the end product. This is achieved, for example, by locally intensifying the mixing effect or by increasing the enthalpy of dissolution and reaction.

Process steps for which separate machines were often used, can now be combined in a single machine, enabling various process steps to be realised in parallel with a single system.

Many processes still take place inside a vessel – in the case of dispersing, this renders production processes inefficient, energy-intensive, slow, and it is difficult to ensure a consistent product quality.

Today, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, the trend is towards a decrease in batch sizes as small batches mean more flexibility, less space requirements, easier cleaning and significantly accelerated processes.

When a inline disperser is operated on two process vessels instead of one, the downtimes of the disperser can be minimised, significantly boosting the system efficiency.

An increasing number of manufacturers are switching from batch production in a process vessel to continuous production without vessels, for large output quantities.

When powders are introduced individually into slurries, the raw material can be dispersed optimally. Compared to powders, slurries can be more precisely dosed, and can be more easily pumped over long distances.

New sensor technology and Predictive Maintenance enables the anticipatory monitoring of machines and can help predict how long critical machine components will continue to operate optimally.