When Chemistry Meets
Operating Reality
Diligence, scale-up, and operations—kept to first principles so models survive audits and plants hit spec.
We work where chemistry must perform. The mandate is simple: convert yields, energy, uptime, hazards, and control into decisions that hold—at IC, in the data room, and on the plant floor.
Scale-up gates. What to prove, how to prove it, and when to stop; pilot and demo plans tied to commercial KPIs.
Scale-Up Gates
A chemical engineering consulting firm creates value when route competitiveness, economics, hazards, and scale-up gates are decided from first principles—not opinion. We derive the design basis from kinetics, quantify the unit-operations economics, and set the evidence thresholds that keep hardware honest.
Kinetics. Rates, regime, and ΔH nailed—then duty and margins write themselves.
Pilot. What to prove, sampling & analytics, stop/go criteria.
Demo. Control philosophy decided; hazards closed; vendor alignment.
Start-up ready. Procedures, interlocks, training, spares, and first-cycle reliability.
Plant. Commissioning logic; rate to spec; stability window defined.
Evidence thresholds, not optimism—gates drive decisions and schedule.
Mandates & Scope
Technical & Commercial Diligence
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Route competitiveness with credible alternatives; feedstock variability, energy intensity, and spec windows.
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Unit-operations economics tied to real levers (yield, energy, uptime, consumables, utilities, labor) with sensitivity to power/feedstock curves.
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Scale-up risk from TRL to pilot/demo; design-basis integrity and evidence thresholds.
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Process safety posture (HAZOP status, relief, SIS, human-factors) before purchase orders.
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Regulatory exposure (REACH/TSCA; where LCFS/RIN/45Z touch chemicals value chains).
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Output: a risk-ranked decision memo and an auditable model engineers can run—what chemical due diligence consultants should deliver but often don’t.
Technology Transfer & Scale-Up (TRL→ Demo→ FOAK)
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Design basis from kinetics: material/energy balances, duty, margins, metallurgy, control philosophy.
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Pilot & demo test plans: what to prove, sampling & analytics, acceptance criteria mapped to commercial KPIs.
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Vendor down-selection: lifecycle cost, reliability, and controls—not brochure gloss; witnessed FAT/SAT and punch-list closure.
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Start-up readiness: procedures, permissives/interlocks, training, spares; reliability and control strategy set for first-cycle stability.
Operations & Performance
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Process debottlenecking grounded in data; heat-integration/pinch; energy and OEE baselines; DCS/APC tuning.
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Reliability discipline: failure modes, maintenance strategy, turnarounds that shorten time to spec.
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Change control: owner’s-rep rigor so scope stays aligned with design basis.
Regulatory & Market Interfaces
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Compliance in the model, not the footnotes: REACH/TSCA realities, emissions/wastewater, and chemicals–fuels boundaries where LCFS/RIN/45Z move the economics.
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Permitting path and schedule risk brought forward into decisions.
Intellectual Property & Freedom-to-Operate (IP/FTO)
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IP validation: does the claimed mechanism match the kinetics and mass/energy balance evidence?
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FTO scans focused on blocking claims and practical design-around options; licensing pathways surfaced early.
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Portfolio value framing for investors and corporate strategy: strength of claims, enforceability, and how IP meaningfully lowers unit cost, improves reliability, or de-risks chemical M&A technical diligence.
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Data-room integration: we align claims with plant data and vendor packages to avoid surprises after close.
Principles you can audit
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Hold the design basis. Specs are derived from kinetics and made explicit; optimism isn’t allowed to hide in margins.
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Gate the proof. Stage TRL→pilot→demo with evidence thresholds; freeze hardware late, with hazards closed.
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Operate first. Start-up plans, interlocks, and training are real deliverables; control philosophy is decided, not implied.
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Owner’s-rep discipline. We protect spec, safety, and schedule across EPC/OEM interfaces; change control is enforced.
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Models that survive audit. Numbers tie back to material/energy balances and test plans, not wishful thinking.
Sectors & Routes
Energy Storage
Sodium Ion | Lithium Ion | Solid State | Flow Batteries | Fuel Cells | Battery Management Systems
Platform Chemicals
Levulinic Acid | Succinic Acid | Bio-propylene | Bioethylene | Green Ammonia | Green Methanol
Renewable Energy
Green Hydrogen | E-Fuels | SAF | Renewable Diesel | Cellulosic Biofuels
Climate Tech
Carbon Capture | Direct Air Capture | Direct Ocean Capture | Agri Tech | Water Tech
Advanced Chemistries
Nanotech | Supercritical | HTL | PtL | AtJ | FT | Gasification | Synthetic Biology | Electrochemistry
Circular Economy
Sustainable Materials | Waste to Value | Plastic Recycling | Pyrolysis Oils | Biochar
Mandate Owners
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Investment teams needing technology due diligence (TDD) that converts uncertainty into decisions they can defend.
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Corporates/engineering firms who want reliability, rate, and spec without oversizing or scope creep.
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Research labs & startups ready to translate kinetics into a credible path to pilot, demo, and FOAK.
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Government institutes seeking industrial realism in funded programs and tech transfer.