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Identification of Secondary Problems of New Technologies in Process Engineering by Patent Analysis
(2018)
The implementation of new technologies in production plants often causes negative side effects and drawbacks. In this context, the prediction of the secondary problems and risks can be used advantageously for selecting best solutions for intensification of the processes. The proposed method puts primary emphasis on systematic and fast anticipation of secondary problems using patent documents, and on extraction and prediction of possible engineering contradictions within novel technical systems. The approach comprises three ways to find secondary problems: (a) direct knowledge-based identification of secondary problems in new technologies or equipment; (b) identification of secondary problems of prototypes mentioned in patent citation trees; and (c) prediction of negative side effects using the correlation matrix for invention goals and secondary problems in a specific engineering domain.
In recent years, the application of TRIZ methodology in the process engineering has been found promising to develop comprehensive inventive solution concepts for process intensification (PI). However, the effectiveness of TRIZ for PI is not measured or estimated. The paper describes an approach to evaluate the efficiency of TRIZ application in process intensification by comparing six case studies in the field of chemical, pharmaceutical, ceramic, and mineral industries. In each case study, TRIZ workshops with the teams of researchers and engineers has been performed to analyze initial complex problem situation, to identify problems, to generate new ideas, and to create solution concepts. The analysis of the workshop outcomes estimates fulfilment of the PI-goals, impact of secondary problems, variety and efficiency of ideas and solution concepts. In addition to the observed positive effect of TRIZ application, the most effective inventive principles for process engineering have been identified.
The research work analyses the relationship of 155 Process Intensification (PI) technologies to the components of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). It outlines TRIZ inventive principles frequently used in PI, and identifies opportunities for enhancing systematic innovation in process engineering by applying complementary TRIZ and PI. The study also proposes 70 additional inventive TRIZ sub-principles for the problems frequently encountered in process engineering, resulting in the advanced set of 160 inventive operators, assigned to the 40 TRIZ inventive principles. Finally, we analyse and discuss inventive principles used in 150 patent documents published in the last decade in the field of solid handling in the ceramic and pharmaceutical industries.