Facing the challenge of needing to know whether to commit further to the commercialisation of an innovative process in the early stages when data is limited, the partners in the LevWave collaboration were able to benefit from Britest successfully piloting an understanding-based methodology for setting commercialisation objectives allowing key risks and knowledge gaps to be identified and addressed.
Right across the process industries manufacturers use similar unit operations and face similar challenges as they strive to optimise their performance. At the same time, collaborative research projects often struggle to disseminate fresh insights about process technologies widely and in ways that endure. Britest Knowledge and Understanding Domains (KUDOS) collate process understanding, generated through projects, in a form that allows process sector companies to learn about different process operations and challenges.
A large company in the pharmaceuticals sector has been able to transform the availability and hence use of existing information and existing work on the commonly used isolation technique of pressure filtration. Britest Rich Pictures and Cartoons provided an elegant format to portray and summarise current information and understanding, and by digitising these into a dedicated internal site, AstraZeneca were able to produce an easy to use guide to pressure filtration development.
A Britest methodology to support the optimisation of changeover/cleaning processes was used to help FUJIFILM Imaging Colorants address capacity constraints. Improvements to significantly time-consuming steps, and opportunities for improvements to existing CIP equipment were identified, along with a more ambitious opportunity to reduce the cleaning cycle time from 2-3 days to 12 hours through targeted use of a key cleaning solvent.
Britest facilitation of a process for open dialogue between manufacturers, equipment providers and key stakeholders provided the framework for dialogue needed for Johnson Matthey to engage in a collaborative research and development programme to develop an improvement approach to recycling Platinum Group Metals. Beneficial outcomes were minimisation of research risk, identification of uncertainty, and stakeholder buy-in.
Participation in strategic initiatives such as the EU H2020:SPIRE Public-Private-Partnership opens up powerful influencing routes and further opportunities, but it takes excellent project management skills to pull the complex elements of a collaborative project together into a coherent whole. This case study describes how Britest brought together a consortium of ten partners to successfully bid for and deliver a two-year project collating views from EU process industry sectors, public sector, academics and sustainability experts to positively influence future approaches to sustainability evaluation across the EU.
Read how the use of the Britest tools and approach encouraged chemists and engineers in a large manufacturing organisation to address a problem in pressure filtration which had been dragging on for three years - saving the business £500K a year.
Johnson Matthey Emission Control Technologies develops and manufactures coated catalyst systems for automotive applications. This case study exemplifies a typical study where Britest tools act as a focus to bring together different disciplines and business locations in collaborative programmes allowing JM to deliver its core values.
An illustration of how two Britest members in a supplier/customer relationship were able to use Britest as a framework for working together to solve a problem with a chemical intermediate product.