Industry
Manufacturing
Future-Ready Manufacturing: Partnering in your journey to a sustainable manufacturing enterprise
Highlights
- Breakthrough digital innovations in analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and generative chemistry are redefining research and development (R&D) in the materials and chemical industry.
- The R&D function is being reimagined to address shorter product lifecycles, the need for sustainable products, emerging regulations, and changing customer preferences.
- By improving the speed to market with the help of digital technologies and ensuring better usage of researchers' talent and productivity, chemical and process manufacturers can drive innovation faster.
Digital breakthroughs redefining the chemical industry
Downstream industries such as electronics, automotive, space, healthcare, and energy are dependent on the chemical industry for materials.
The world is on the cusp of the next industrial revolution marked by breakthroughs in analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and generative chemistry. Such breakthrough digital innovations are redefining the materials and chemical industry.
Research and development (R&D) is a differentiating factor in every company’s ability to compete. And with the availability of digital tools, the R&D function in the material and chemical industry is being reimagined to address shorter product lifecycles, the need for sustainable products, emerging regulations, and changing customer preferences. New formulations and compounding are needed every two to three years.
In the chemical industry, most R&D leaders we interacted with mentioned that less than half of the R&D projects were successfully commercialized. However, in recent years, there has been a rise in the use of computational methods and AI enablement opportunities due to cheap and readily available compute infrastructure. This is helping scientists and engineers digitally transform chemical R&D.
The US National Science Board’s (NSB) Vision 2030 report advocates for increased R&D budgets, greater collaboration between academia and industry, and an accelerated pace of innovation.
Noteworthy examples from the industry
Today, chemical R&D labs have digital workflows and are armed with hardware chips, computational software, and smart instruments.
These facilitate faster outcomes from experiments and the development of advanced materials. During the Artemis lunar mission and the Red Planet mission, several advanced materials were used to develop space suits, which are essentially the only thing that protect the explorers from the harsh, unforgiving environment. These suits were made of flame resistant, waterproof, and bulletproof material. Additionally, carbon nanotubes are being explored as strong and lightweight substitutes in spacecraft for missions to the moon and Mars.
Ending hunger and promoting good health rank high among the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but they also present several challenges. Pioneering companies in the health space are working to reduce these micronutrient gaps through innovation in nutrition and their delivery technologies.
Half a century ago, the chemical structures of proteins were still a mystery. In 2024, the Nobel prize in Chemistry was awarded to research in computational protein design and protein structure prediction. This has furthered the cause of bio-chemical research for disease prevention.
Traditional thermal paper used for your boarding passes and receipts uses colorless dye bisphenol A (BPA). This chemical can potentially pose health risks to retail workers and consumers as it contains estrogen-mimicking molecules.
The Dow Chemical Company and Koehler jointly developed a patented thermal paper technology that eliminates the use of chemical developers (BPA or BPS) and other reactive chemistries. It uses a physical process of collapsing air voids to reveal the colored layer and forming the image.
Key innovation drivers
Several key drivers are boosting innovation in the R&D function of the process and chemical industry
Business drivers
Consumers are demanding hyper-customization of products through their choice of colors, flavors, or specific healthcare needs. Product lifecycles are shrinking very fast – a typical product development cycle from let’s say a decade back is now considered extremely long. Thus, there is significant focus on increasing the speed to market.
For example, companies are adopting extensive food safety practices even as consumers demand highly specialized foods. They have to address the need for special diets free from allergens and gluten and low in sodium, all while ensuring compliance with food safety standards.
We are working with several industry players to solve the problem of searching of research documents and patents, screening of molecules, for example identifying candidate for photovoltaic conjugate polymers or refrigerant with low GWP, and predicting the properties of molecules, compounds, and formulations.
Regulatory drivers
The United States and the European Union have set a goal to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The chemical industry is at the core of decarbonization of all adjacent industries and is responsible for enabling their growth. Many leading companies in the chemical industry have outlined a clear path to decarbonizing their hydrocarbon manufacturing.
Additionally, researchers have redesigned the pathways of olefin production. Using clean hydrogen and other new processes, researchers are trying to eliminate carbon dioxide (for example, Dow’s Fort Saskatchewan Path2Zero).
A proposed EU rule mandates that at least 25% of vehicles be built from recycled plastic. Recently, we built a pilot for a European chemical company involving end-of-life recycled plastic. This involved sorting polymers using optical methods, tracking custody with blockchain, and mass balance.
Technology drivers
Advancements in computing power are reshaping the very fabric of research. The availability of high computing power through hyperscalers is changing the speed of computational chemistry, powering AI and other models for faster simulation. Knowledge engineering solutions are being used to solve problems ranging from initial screening to novel molecule design. Then there is quantum chemistry working in tandem with generative chemistry to accelerate discovery of molecules.
An example from another industry, pharma, is Lonza's AI-enabled route scouting service which brings together real-world chemical information from many disparate locations and forms. This enables economically efficient pathways to active pharmaceutical ingredients.
We are working on projects to tackle the landfill issue using digital bioprospecting. Plastic landfills take many centuries to decompose. During the decomposition process, they continue to release harmful pollutants such as benzene, toluene, and hydrogen sulfide. Our researchers have been able to digitally screen through some 20,000 bacterial genomes to identify the right combinations that can completely degrade plastic without leaving harmful residues.
Talent
The median age of the workforce in the chemical industry is increasing. The void left between an ageing workforce and new talent can be bridged by generative AI (GenAI) and extended reality (XR). These technologies can help capture the tacit knowledge of experienced workers and make it available in an interactive manner to the next generation. Cobots, or collaborative robots, are also being used to improve productivity, safety, and efficiency.
It is interesting to see how Evonik, a German specialty chemicals company, has adopted robot-human collaboration to create an automated paint formulation testing system. They have managed to reduce the time it takes to find the optimum formulation by testing over 100 samples within 24 hours.
Preparing for the future
At this pivotal moment, as they look to the future, chemical companies must embrace the digital transformation with a clear vision and firm resolve.
By focusing on improving the speed to market using digital technologies and ensuring better usage of researchers' talent and productivity, we can drive innovation faster and more efficiently than ever before. While maintaining harmony with a changing regulatory and business environment, chemical and process manufacturers can move toward a more sustainable, efficient, and innovative future.
