Chemical Engineering in der photochemischen Industrie

Abstract

Chemical Engineering may be considered as a new concept for the development procedure of industrial chemical processes. Its main idea can best be characterized by the notion of system analysis. This means that for a given industrial process it is tried to establish an analytical model in the form of a set of mathematical equations. By using computer techniques, any given target such as higher yield, better purity or minimum production costs can be achieved.
Born essentially in the United States after world war II this idea has won much ground in England but not yet so much in continental Europe. In Photographic industry, which is one of the youngest branches of the Swiss chemical industry, there exists a strong need for modernizing the existing production methods. The ones used today are merely simulations of laboratory methods in a larger scale.
The author tries to show, for two examples, i.e. production of the photograpliic emulsion and processing of exposed color material, what can be expected by application of the principles of process analysis.