it build and manage its plants and factories to manufacture and distribute its products, after having assessed their impact on the environment through an eco-design analysis based on LCA (Life cycle Assessment)?7 – What are the scientific bases and the “technological elements” that the chemical engineer, at the heart of the process, will use to design and operate the manufacturing facility?
To ensure their sustainability, process companies must adapt to their socioeconomic environment, and, more particularly, to the society they shape through their innovations and products. In particular, they can help respond to the major challenges of today’s world, such as that of population growth: if we believe the forecasts, there will be two billion more people to feed by 2050. Growing urbanization will also create quickly insurmountable problems if they are not managed now: a city like Chongqing, on the banks of the Yangtze, has a population that represents half of the population of France. The concepts of Smart Cities and Smart Buildings are therefore essential. As for climate change, this is perhaps the biggest challenge on the planet: the water stress associated with it will affect at least 17 countries, including India. Water is life!
Added to this is the fact that the increasingly enlightened consumer wants to know what they have on their plate, to be informed about the origin of the products they use. Traceability, authentication, naturalness, fair trade, etc. are concepts that manufacturers can no longer ignore. For example, the world is worried about the future of plastics: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the North Atlantic Garbage Patch1, which are several times the size of France, are dumbfounding.
1 Continents of plastic floating on the oceans, sheltering an aquatic fauna that feeds on it and enters the food chain.
This book is particularly interested in the industrial facility at the center of the company. The future of it will depend heavily on its design and its technical and human implementation. Manufacturing operations are no longer considered dirty jobs; it is a given that wealth is built in the workshop (or on the shop floor). Thus, Toyotism, also called “lean manufacturing”, is there to prove it: this production system has enabled Toyota to create an empire in the automotive industry and surpass the Americans in their own country.
In recent years, the digital revolution has brought about a radical change (disruption) at the societal level and at the level of companies, both at the managerial and productive levels. It was made possible by the increased power of computers (Moore’s law), by the multiplication of sensors, their miniaturization, their low cost, and the development of algorithms. The notion of artificial intelligence (AI), which brings together a set of computer applications and algorithms based on the processing and exploitation of Big Data, testifies to this industrial revolution in progress. AI modifies our lives, our professions, our way of moving, very often, of taking care of ourselves, without our being aware of it. This term pervades books, articles, speeches and private and government research programs. Smartphones and tablets, which are only about 10 years old, are one of the essential pieces of media of this revolution. Who could do without it today?
In addition to AI, the digital revolution has brought with it a number of digital tools that underpin the concept of the factory of the future, born in Germany under the name “factory 4.0”. The factory of the future combines the virtual world with the real world. These tools include the IoT (Internet of Things) - everything is connected and everything is connectable - virtual reality, augmented reality, digital twins, additive manufacturing (3D printers), etc. The world of work is deeply affected by robotics and cobotics. We must expect an industry to emerge where repetitive, tiring, messy and even dangerous tasks will be eliminated. The operator will be more of a supervisor than a performer.
Added to this is the fact that the concept of sustainable development, the basis of CSR, is now mature, including the need for metrics. Industry is moving towards a circular, low-carbon and, no doubt, decentralized economy. Bio-industries are not immune to this development with the development of synthetic biology, a remarkable future technological tool, but subject to controversy from the ethical standpoint.
In this shifting context, it is therefore difficult to grasp what the evolution of employment will be; dignified roles are created (Data Officer), while subordinate tasks are on the way out.
Are we moving towards a civilization of algorithms? Their opacity raises fears of the advent of a “Black Box Society” where individual freedom is in danger. Everything is known, everything can be known! Our societies - already based on science, technology and knowledge - will become increasingly connected and undoubtedly more complex and more vulnerable.
GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon), the most powerful digital Internet companies in the world, are already frightening with their capital power, supranationality, and speed of deployment. In this global technological race where everything is accelerating, China has now entered the fray and faces the United States.
These are the reflections that this work invites us to. This book hopes to be interactive and accessible for everyone; it refers to illustrative videos and presents concrete examples, offered by leading figures in the form of boxes. These are listed at the end of each volume.
The following link to a website makes it easy to access the resources that illustrate this work, in particular, the videos:
https://frama.link/livreIndustriesProcedes
The links and videos are classified by volume and by chapter (via the menu on the left) in the order of appearance in the book.
Volume 1: Sustainability, Managerial and Scientific Fundamentals
Chapter 1: Industries, Businesses and People (Jean-Pierre Dal Pont): this first chapter is devoted to the industry and the businesses that depend on it. It focuses on process industries, while highlighting what differentiates them from the manufacturing and service industries. The themes concerning their constitution, strategy, functioning and governance are discussed.
Chapter 2: Earth, Our Habitat: Products by the Millions, the Need for Awareness (Jean-Pierre Dal Pont and Michel Royer): dedicated to the relationship between products and the environment, this chapter initiates a reflection on our way of life. Earth, our habitat, is a finite space whose complex cycles depend on anthropic activities: we can cite, for example, atmospheric chemistry and the problem of ozone. The vital systems of water, food, energy and climate are referred to as a “nexus”, because they are interdependent. Products, whose quantity is increasing with the population explosion, must be ecodesigned using LCA (Lifecycle Assessment), toxicology, ecotoxicology and traceability studies, and turn to biobased raw materials. The circular economy must prevail over a linear economy, which consists of extracting, producing, consuming and throwing away.
Chapter 3: Designing Chemical Products (Willi Meier): Chapter 3 is dedicated to product design and formulation. A product must be designed to meet the needs of customers. In now saturated markets, companies are turning to often complex functionalized products. Post-its are a vivid example: at first, it was just a glue that stuck badly! Who could do without them today? Increasingly based on bio-sourced raw materials and biotechnologies, products
