Asia–Pacific Society for Process Intensification & Sustainability

The overarching objective of the Asia-Pacific Society for Process Intensification & Sustainability is to provide a focus group for like-minded professionals with the desire to promote awareness of PI & S, and to espouse the potential benefits that can be derived by developing and utilising innovative PI & S technology platforms.

The establishment of such a focus group will also facilitate exchanges of information, promote the initiation of collaborative research and development programmes and, hopefully, provide a vehicle for the creation of a collegiate environment for the exchange of ideas, educational materials and personnel throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

In April 2014, the Convenor of the Asia-Pacific Society for Process Intensification & Sustainability, UNSW Scientia Professor Neil R. Foster, announced that Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has accepted an invitation to be the Inaugural Patron of the Society.

Professor Langer is an inductee of 7 Learned Academies. He is also the recipient of numerous awards including the Millenium Technology Prize (2008), the Max Planck Research Award (2008), the United States National Medal of Science (for 2006), the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (for 2011), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2013) and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.  Professor Langer is generally regarded as the most influential chemical / biochemical engineer of our time.  In 2008, he was named by the AIChE as one of the 100 Top Chemical Engineers of the 20th Century.

By accepting this invitation, Professor Langer's commitment to Process Intensification & Sustainability will provide enormous impetus to the development, acceptance and commercialisation of this aspect of Green Chemistry, Engineering & Applied Science.

CHINA

China specifically, and Asia more generally, will continue to shape the world economic landscape as a leading source of goods and services.  For this reason it is essential that manufacturers strengthen their footprint in this region to maintain their competitive position on the global stage.  They must foster collaborations in relevant areas as well as enhance their productivity and focus on operational excellence by embracing such concepts as Process Intensification and Sustainability (Green Chemistry & Technology).  For example, BASF is a major player in the Asian region and values sustainability and innovation as important drivers for profitable growth and has adopted the mantra of "creating chemistry for a sustainable future" – this mantra could be modified to "creating chemistry & technology for a sustainable future.  Towards this end BASF recently inaugurated its new Innovation Campus Asia Pacific in Pudong, Shanghai.

In November 2010 it was reported that China's State Council had recently adopted Decisions to Accelerate the Development of Strategic Emerging Industries (Prof. Jin Bei, in China Economist, No. 29, November – December, 2010).  From these decisions it was acknowledged that, currently, "China's most urgent problem is that it must transform its competitiveness of cheap resources, low environmental standards and low wages into one that relies on technological innovations and institutional strength.  It is a strategic direction for China's industries to explore these new sources of international competitiveness." 

It has been stated in KPMG's report on"China's Chemical Industry: The new forces driving change" that for Alzo Nobel, innovation and sustainability will be the key strategies for the China market, along with achieving economies of scale.  It is further stated that "it will be sustainable processes – those manufacturers who can meet the requirements in terms of diminished pollution or energy efficiency, and those whose products support others in achieving this aim – that will make the difference."

In the 2010 Deloitte report on Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index, reference is made to Talent Driven Innovation as being identified by a survey of senior manufacturing executives as being the most important competitive driver in their businesses.

The Society Newsletter

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Find out more details about the Asia-Pacific Society for Process Intensification and Sustainability at www.apsocpis.com