There’s an ever-increasing need in many industries (chemical, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, food, agro, etc.) to improve the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of manufacturing processes. A key enabler to achieve this is Process Analytical Technology (PAT), a multi-disciplinary field in which analytical methods and sensors are developed and deployed in the factory to monitor critical process parameters.
This presentation will introduce the field of PAT, discuss key PAT topics (method selection, representative sampling, engineering, data analysis), and provide industrial cases from Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals). The focus will be on the combined use of spectroscopy (e.g, NIR and Raman) and chemometrics to measure chemical concentrations directly in the process line. The last part of the presentation will provide an outlook on the role that PAT will play in the fourth industrial revolution called Industry 4.0, specifically with respect to autonomous process control.
The take-home message from this presentation will be that taking analytical chemistry from the lab to the sample (e.g., the process line) requires dedicated effort and will bring challenges that are worth tackling in view of the beneficial impact to industry and society.
Henk-Jan van Manen, Nouryon