Modular Manufacturing Workshop; Arlington, VA; January 17-18, 2017

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The project will support a workshop on Modular Manufacturing of Chemicals that will be held near the National Science Foundation on January 17 and 18, 2017. The workshop will bring together technology leaders to develop a roadmap for basic research supporting development of small-scale, modular, chemical manufacturing facilities as an alternative to conventional huge-scale chemical plants. The modular alternative offers potential advantages for the utilization of chemical feedstocks that are remotely located and cannot be economically transported to centralized processing facilities. Successful development and implementation of modular manufacturing facilities will ensure sustained competitiveness of the U.S. chemical industry while also addressing environmental challenges and promoting clean energy technology.The rapid emergence of large reserves of natural gas derived from shale oil fracturing operations has created a challenge in utilizing the gas. Much of the so-called stranded gas produced in remote locations is burned because of poor economics for transporting it to power-plants or chemical plants. Modular, scalable, processing units that can be installed at the well-head, offer a means of converting these hydrocarbon gases to transportable liquid fuels and chemicals. The modular units can only be successfully deployed if heretofore unrealized levels of process intensification and integration can be achieved. This, in turn, will require unprecedented collaboration among engineers and scientists across disciplines involving catalysis, reactor engineering, separations, energy utilization, and systems engineering. The workshop will explore the most efficient mechanisms for achieving such collaboration. Benefits of the technology will include improved process technologies for implementation across all manufacturing scales, and societal benefits including reduced carbon dioxide emissions, safer chemical processing, workforce training, and continued world-wide competitiveness of the U.S. chemical industry.