BP rewards its own innovators
15 Jan 2000
BP Chemicals has named the winners of its 1996 in-house Awards for Innovation. The company launched the competition three years ago to recognise the development of technical innovations by employees world-wide.
The Gold Award was presented to Jean-Claude Chinh's team, at Lavera, France, which developed the High Productivity fluidised bed polyethylene process. This doubles reactor output and cuts new plant investment costs by 50 per cent, BP claims. Output is boosted by vaporising a liquid which is injected into the reactor. The process gas recycle stream is cooled, the liquid is separated and sprayed into the reactor.
Silver went to Paul Wachtendorf's team, at Lima, Ohio, for enhancements to an acrylonitrile plant; and bronze to Jurgen Schnabele's team, at Dietenheim, Germany, for developing a child-proof blister pack.
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