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KIRKPATRICK CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Nominations for the 2013 round are now open
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any of you know of a company — perhaps your own employer — that has recently commercialized an innovative process, product, or other chemical-engineering development. If so, we would like to hear from you. Nominations are open for this magazine’s 2013 Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award. We aim to honor the most-noteworthy chemical engineering technology commercialized anywhere in the world during 2011 or 2012. Chemical Engineering has awarded this biennial prize continuously since 1933. The 2013 winner will join a long and distinguished roster, studded with such milestones as Lucite International for its Alpha process for making methyl methacrylate (2009); Cargill Dow LLC: For its production of thermoplastic resin from corn (2003); Union Carbide low-pressure low-density polyethylene (1979); M.W. Kellogg single-train ammonia plants (1967); the U.S. synthetic rubber industry (1943) and Carbide & Carbon Chemical’s petrochemical syntheses (1933). The most-recent achievements appear in the table.
How to nominate Nominations may be submitted by any person or company, worldwide. The procedure consists simply of sending, by March 15, an unillustrated nominating brief of up to 500 words to: Gerald Ondrey, Secretary Kirkpatrick Award Committee c/o Chemical Engineering 11000 Richmond Ave, Suite 500 Houston, TX 77042 Email: awards@che.com The nomination should summarize the achievement and point out its
THE MOST-RECENT WINNERS 2011 — Veolcys Inc. and Oxford Catalyst Group. For their small scale, modular synthetic fuel technology 2009 — Lucite International UK Ltd. For its Alpha process for making methyl methacrylate (MMA) 2007 — Axens. For its Esterfip-H process for making biodiesel fuel 2005 — Chevron Phillips Chemical. For advances in alpha-olefins technology 2003— Cargill Dow LLC. For producing a thermoplastic resin based on corn as the starting material 2001— BOC Group, Inc. For low-temperature NOx absorption out of fluegases 1999 — CK Witco Inc. For a streamlined organofunctional alkoxysilanes process 1997— Membrane Technology & Research, Inc. For a system to recover monomer from polyolefin purge streams For a full list of winners, see www.che.com/kirkpatrick.
novelty, as well as the difficulty of the chemical-engineering problems solved. It must specify how, where and when the development first became commercial in 2011 or 2012. If you know of an achievement but do not have information to write a brief, contact the firm involved, either to get the information or to propose that the company itself submit a nomination. Firms are also welcome to nominate achievements of their own.
The path to the winner After March 15, the Secretary will review the nominations to make sure they are valid — for instance, that the first commercialization did in fact take place during 2011–2012. Then he will submit copies to more than 100 senior professors who head accredited university chemical engineering departments and, accordingly, constitute the Committee of Award. Working independently of each other, each professor will vote for what he or she considers to be the five best achievements, without trying to rank them. The five entries that collectively re-
ceive the most votes become the finalists in the competition. Each finalist company will then be asked to submit moredetailed information — for instance, a fuller description of the technology, performance data, exhibits of press coverage, and/or a description of the teamwork that generated the achievement. The Secretary will send copies of these more-detailed packages to a Board of Judges, which, meanwhile, will have been chosen from within, and by, the Committee of Award. In late summer, the Board will inform the Secretary as to which one of the five finalist achievements it has judged the most noteworthy. The company that developed that achievement will be named the winner of the 2013 Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award. The four other finalist companies will be designated to receive Honor Awards. Sculptures saluting the five achievements will be bestowed with appropriate ceremony at ChemInnovations, which takes place in Galveston, Tex. this September (www.cpievent.com). ■ Rebekkah Marshall
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JANUARY 2013
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