Calibration-Free Chemical Process and Quality Control Units as Enablers for Modular Production

Abstract

Modular chemical production is a tangible translation of the digital transformation of the process industry for specialty chemicals. In particular, it enables the speeding-up of process development and, thus, a quicker time to market by flexibly connecting and orchestrating standardized physical modules and bringing them to life (i.e., parameterizing them) with digitally accumulated process knowledge. We focus on the specific challenges of chemical process and quality control, which in its current form is not well suited for modular production and provide possible approaches and examples of the change towards direct analytical methods, analytical model transfer or machine-supported processes.