Cheng YS[1], Lam KW[1], Ng KM[1], Ko KM[2], Wibowo C[3]
[1]Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
[2] Department of Biochemistry, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
[3] ClearWaterBay Technology, Inc., 4000 W. Valley Blvd., Suite 100, Pomona, CA 91789, United States.
An integrative approach, involving marketing and management issues on the business side, and product design and prototyping on the technical side, is proposed for the development of chemical-based products. For the former, objective-time chart, RAT2IO modules and workflow diagrams are used for project management. For the latter, the integration of experiments, modeling and synthesis expedites product conceptualization and prototyping. Tasks for which chemical engineers are expected to play a key or a supporting role are discussed. An industrial application - the development of a skin-care cream is described alongside the procedure in order to illustrate the myriad issues in product development. In addition to the traditional engineering problems such as process and equipment design, product characterization, performance evaluation, and stability tests are also included as an integral part of this approach.