Reflection – Learning Launch

Edjanio Sousa

Challenge

I work in a company that manufactures catalysts for the oil refining industry. A catalyst is a component that  increases the rate of reaction but does not take part in it. In the refining process, reactor is fed with heavy  hydrocarbons and, in the presence of the catalyst, valuable light products are obtained.

It is a very competitive market with few but very strong competitors. The market we serve has many state- owned refineries that buy the product by public procurement which includes catalytic test. Catalyst must  win the test to be selected.

My challenge was to develop a new product that could win the test and recover one of these customers in  particular, which we have not supplied for years.

Selection

We set out a series of experiments in the laboratory designed to impart the desired characteristics to the  product: activity (the ability to convert the heavy hydrocarbons into light ones) and selectivity (increase the  yield of one product relative to others).

Results were scaled to pilot plant and the product tested well in the lab and in a pilot reactor.

Some improvements were due, but we were running out of time to bid. So we decided to try the learning  launch tool.

After several sessions of ideation, brainstorming and visualization, we came up to a safe and effective  arrangement to perform a plant trial. Scale-up process raises several issues, such as different behavior of  fluid mixing, large amounts to be transferred and the need to install piping and instrumentation to run the  operation.

We modified our hardware and ran the production to get the minimum amount of product (a few tons) to  run a commercial trial in a small refinery with which we have an agreement.

Application

During scale-up, the usual protocol is to explore the operating window of process conditions, try different  formulations, and stress the boundaries of product physicals. But we decided not to go so deep in analysis  and testing, but go for the proof of concept: research basis was solid, product characterization and  performance test results were encouraging.

The product we obtained had no further improvements in formulation or cost saving activities in the plant,  but it carried the fundamentals of our research.

Catalyst was used in the small refinery and data were collected and analyzed, thus confirming our  expectations of higher activity and selectivity.

Insight

Using the learning launch tool has been a breakthrough in our organization. Mostly composed of chemical  engineers (as me), the approach to product development and launch has always had a conservative and  cautious bias. All causes of potential failure should be anticipated, massive and extensive product

characterization and performance were supposed to be run in each scale of  development before product  came into production. This protocol lengthens the time to market a great deal and hinders innovation.

The great insight was to show that we can have a consistent product and technology ready for market  launch even though we do not know all the answers and failure modes but based on solid fundamentals  and experimental work.

I believe we can use this tool more often to speed up our time to market and keep the innovation process  running smothly, but what I might do differently next time is to bring customer experience to the  development plan. Carry interviews and propose cooperation plans to test product at the customer’s lab in  between the tenders to have a deeper understanding of his protocols and decision making.

