The Chemical Industry Association (CIA) gave its Innovation Award to the project and the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) also declared Croda the winner of its 2023 Process Intensification Award for Industrial Innovation.
The awards recognise the collaborative efforts of Croda Europe and NiTech Solutions to design and build a continuous reactor system utilising novel technology, while also highlighting the sustainability benefits, including the reduction of CO2 emissions and water usage by improving operating efficiency.
Croda has effectively implemented this technology on a commercial scale, resulting in a doubling of capacity without the need for additional building space. Additionally, cycle times have been significantly reduced from 10 hours in a batch reactor to just two minutes.
This process yields substantial annual savings, including 360 tons of water and 580 tons of steam. It also leads to an 86-ton reduction in CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions per year and significant energy savings equivalent to the power required for 9,000 electric car charges.
“The success of this project, both technically and economically, is an important milestone in the journey of industrial-scale adoption of NiTech’s continuous processing technology,” said Will Davies, CEO of NiTech Solutions. “It demonstrates the power of collaboration between technology provider and end-user, and we are delighted the joint success of our work with Croda has received this recognition.”
The project's success has encouraged Croda to further enhance batch manufacturing processes and explore new chemistry applications.
