Process miniaturization

Chemical process miniaturization refers to a philosophical concept within the discipline of process design that challenges the notion of 'economy of scale' or 'bigger is better'. In this context, process design refers to the discipline taught primarily to chemical engineers. However, the emerging discipline of process miniaturization will involve integrated knowledge from many areas; as examples, systems engineering and design, remote measurement and control using intelligent sensors, biological process systems engineering, and advanced manufacturing robotics, etc. Chemical process miniaturization refers to a philosophical concept within the discipline of process design that challenges the notion of 'economy of scale' or 'bigger is better'. In this context, process design refers to the discipline taught primarily to chemical engineers. However, the emerging discipline of process miniaturization will involve integrated knowledge from many areas; as examples, systems engineering and design, remote measurement and control using intelligent sensors, biological process systems engineering, and advanced manufacturing robotics, etc. One of the challenges of chemical engineering has been to design processes based on chemical laboratory-scale methods, and to scale-up processes so that products can be manufactured that are economically affordable.