1.  INTRODUCTION

  1.1  I have been a member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Thermodynamic Tables Project Centre since its inception and recently retired as its Deputy Director. The Centre has been at the heart of the development of internationally approved reference standard equations of state for industrially important fluids for more than 30 years and has published 13 volumes in the series "International Thermodynamic Tables of the Fluid State" (see Appendix 1)[17]. The Centre has been recognised as a leader in the promotion, analysis and dissemination of high quality experimental data for the thermophysical properties of fluids. Two major computer software packages have been developed which provide accurate equilibrium thermodynamic and transport property values for pure fluids and mixtures for industrial needs (see Appendix 2)[18]. The international collaboration enjoyed by the Centre has provided it with a comprehensive knowledge of the work carried out world-wide and has enabled it to influence the experimental programmes of work in laboratories throughout the world.

  1.2  An adequate knowledge of the thermophysical properties of all gas and liquid components involved in proposed new industrial processes is required for successful innovation.

2.  SUMMARY

  2.1  The oil, gas and chemical process industries, power generation and refrigeration industries as well as the food, fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries cannot innovate successfully without an adequate knowledge of the thermophysical properties of all the gas and liquid components involved.

  2.2  Research, experimental capabilities and teaching resources which are available in this field in UK universities, industry and Government laboratories have declined drastically in the past 20 years or so.

  2.3  International endeavour in the area of thermophysical properties is not large, therefore it is important for the UK to collaborate with existing work elsewhere and to reinvest in our own skills base.

  2.4  In order to begin to rebuild a viable network of skills, research and information the first requirement is for funding for a network among the few groups which remain within industry and academia in the UK.

  2.5  All Foresight Programmes should consider the needs for adequate data within their area of expertise.

3.  REQUIREMENTS FOR THERMOPHYSICAL PROPERTY DATA

  3.1  The industries referred to in para 2.1 use many pure components and mixtures in both the liquid and gas phase. In order to innovate and to design efficient and environmentally-friendly processes the thermophysical properties of these fluids must be known with an appropriate accuracy.

  3.2  The thermophysical properties required include all the equilibrium thermodynamic properties as well as the transport properties both for pure fluids and for mixtures. Adequate predictions of the phase equilibria of mixtures which may contain many individual components are particularly important; failure to do so may result in missing a potentially profitable innovation or in developing a process which falls below the expected returns on investment.

  3.3  Since it is impractical and prohibitively expensive to measure all properties for all materials of interest, accurate predictive schemes are essential, both for innovation and development of new processes.

  3.4  International research is in progress which uses the high accuracy pure fluid equations of state given in Appendix 11 to improve the prediction of mixture properties; this work is handicapped by a lack of data on mixtures of sufficient accuracy to enable the new models to be rigorously tested.

4.  FACILITIES

  4.1  Research facilities in this area, together with the accompanying highly skilled personnel, within UK universities, have seriously declined in recent years; some departments have closed and others have diminished; there are few researchers being trained at postgraduate level.

  4.2  There is no Government Laboratory which specialises in the measurement of thermophysical properties of fluids; the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), some 15 years ago, closed its own group which had international expertise in the measurement of properties such as vapour pressures, saturated densities and heat capacities of liquids. The National Engineering Laboratory (NEL), historically strong in the area of measurement of the thermophysical properties of fluids is much reduced in size and is now privately owned.

  4.3  The recent downsizing, outsourcing and restructuring exercises by many major oil, gas and chemical companies have greatly reduced their thermodynamic capabilities in both measurement and prediction and instead they now rely on software packages provided externally.

  4.4  There are dangers in this approach[19]: computer prediction packages, although robust, are not entirely reliable, therefore it is essential, for the sake of safety, efficient process design and the ability to innovate successfully, that users are experienced and knowledgeable in the field.

  4.5  Following the downsizing of many companies the age structure of their remaining thermodynamically experienced staff is often now very narrow. Too small a base of expertise leaves companies vulnerable: a level of expertise is required, not only to perform the tasks required in-house, but also to be able to innovate and to take advantage of technological developments which occur elsewhere in the world.

  4.6  Networking is essential to make full use of the few facilities and scarce skills which still remain within the UK. The IUPAC Centre has been functioning as a network node, both nationally and internationally; recent experience of the number of requests for information suggests that many within industry are not aware of other sources.

  4.7  Whilst major multinational enterprises may have access to the necessary skills and specialist facilities world-wide, small and medium sized enterprised (SMEs) will be mainly dependent on their availability within the UK.

  4.8  International cooperation is one of the ways forward in this area. The process which is being used to develop the necessary thermophysical property data for the new refrigerants could be taken as an example (see Appendix 3[20]).

  4.9  The subject of thermophysical properties of fluids is not "fashionable", but it is a necessary part of the foundation required for successful innovation in a wide range of industries.

  4.10  In the foreseeable future industry in the UK will increasingly rely in some areas on inadequate data or predictive facilities operated by a reduced skills base, with consequently retarded rates of innovation as well as increased costs and diminished safety margins.

9 March 1998

18   Not printed. Back

19   Carlson, EC, "Don't Gamble with Physical Properties for Simulations," Chemical Engineering Progress, October 1996, pp35-46. Back

20   Not printed. Back