LONDON, October 11, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- ICIS (http://www.icis.com ), a leading global provider of news and information for the chemical and energy sectors, today announces the winners in the ICIS Innovation Awards 2010 (http://www.icis.com/awards ).
The annual awards are supported by Dow Corning (http://www.dowcorning.com ) as lead sponsor, with CRA International (http://www.crai.com/chemicals ) sponsoring the category for Best Product Innovation and U.S. Chemicals (http://www.uschemicals.com ) sponsoring the category for Innovation with Best Environmental Benefit.
Overall winner for 2010
The panel of five leading industry experts (see below) awarded Tata Chemicals of India the prize for best overall innovation.
This is the second year the ICIS Innovation Awards have selected an overall winner. In 2009, the Award was won by CECA/Arkema of France
The winners of the four award categories are:
Best Product Innovation
Tata Chemicals (India)
Best Innovation by an SME
NiTech Solutions (Scotland)
Best Business Innovation
Huntsman Advanced Materials (Switzerland)
Innovation with Best Environmental Benefit
Teijin Fibers (Japan)
These four innovative companies were chosen as the best from the shortlist of 15 entrants, details of which were published earlier this year in the 2 August issue of ICIS Chemical Business ( http://tinyurl.com/InnovationAwardsSL2010 ).
Full details of the winning entries and interviews on innovation strategy with the sponsors are published in today's 11 October issue of ICIS Chemical Business. View the article here http://cde.cerosmedia.com/1X4caee2d8b0ccf443.cde .
(See below for full details of the winning innovations.)
Awards highlight environmental and sustainability themes
John Baker, who manages the Innovation Awards at ICIS, commented that: "The Awards continue to highlight the best the chemical industry has to offer in the way of innovation and providing solutions to society's needs. Increasingly, entries are focused around helping the environment and maintaining the sustainability of the industry, as well as helping customers and driving bottom line growth for companies."
ICIS congratulates all the winners and indeed all those companies that reached the short-list. The Awards will be presented at a lunch in London on 10 December.
DETAILS OF THE WINNING ENTRIES:
Best Product Innovation/Overall Winner
Tata Chemicals
Ramakrishnan Mukundan
Tata Swach nanotech water purifier
Mumbai, India-based Tata Chemicals has designed a novel purifier for drinking water that uses a combination of natural materials - Âsilicaceous material derived from rice husks - and cutting-edge nanotechnology in the form of minute particles of silver. The Tata Swach delivers safe drinking water at low cost and has a safety cut-off so that when the purifying capacity of the filter cartridge is exhausted, the water flow is stopped.
Best Innovation by an SME
NiTech Solutions
Ian Laird and Xiong-wei Ni with Peter McDonnell (Genzyme)
Use of innovative NiTech reactor by Genzyme to manufacture one of its
products
Working with Genzyme, Scotland's NiTech has commercialized its novel tubular baffled reactor (TBR) to make a pharmaceutical active ingredient (API) in the multi-hundred tonne/year range. The continuous reactor has advantages over batch reactors conventionally used. It creates uniform mixing throughout the reactor and works well with a three-phase solid/gas/liquid system. It has a smaller footprint than conventional stirred tank reactors and reduces the carbon footprint and capital cost.
Best Business Innovation
Huntsman Advanced Materials
Philippe Michaud
New generation of rapid manufacturing equipment and resins
With its Araldite(R) Digitalis(R) polymeric additive fabrication system, Huntsman Advanced Materials, based in Basel, Switzerland, has transformed rapid manufacturing of 3D parts using stereolithography, opening up significant potential for its UV-curable photopolymers in what it estimates is a $1.2bn/year market. At the heart of the innovation is a radical new exposure system, which uses computer-controlled micro-mechanical shutters, allowing a large surface area of photopolymer to be exposed (cf a photo-copier) resulting in the fast production of parts.
Innovation with Best Environmental Benefit
Teijin Fibers
Nobuyoshi Miyasaka
ECO CIRCLE innovative closed-loop recycling system for polyester
Japan's Teijin Fibers has addressed the problem of polyester recycling using a chemical recycling technology that decomposes polyester in clothes and textiles into new polyester raw materials with purity comparable to virgin materials. Marketed as ECO CIRCLE, the closed-loop recycling system is claimed to significantly reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions compared to producing polyester from new raw materials and disposing of the product at the end of life by incineration. Teijin is working with more than 130 companies worldwide to develop recyclable products and collect them for recycling using a plant at its Matsuyama factory in Japan.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The awards are organized by ICIS, the chemical publishing arm of Reed
Business Information, part of global publishing group Reed Elsevier.
2. ICIS is based in the UK, with offices in Sutton, Surrey. It also has
offices in Singapore and New York and Houston in the US.
3. This is the seventh year of the awards. The originator and organizer
of the awards is John Baker, the head of custom publishing at ICIS
and a former editor of ICIS Chemical Business (formerly known as
European Chemical News).
Contact: [email protected]; Tel: +44-20-8652-3153.
4. The awards have been sponsored for all seven years by Dow Corning,
which has a strong focus on innovation and R&D as part of its growth
strategy.
5. The judges this year were:
Dr Neil Checker, vice president and head of the Europe and Middle East
region for chemicals at CRA International
Dr Alfred Oberholz, ex-Evonik Industries board member for research and
technology
Simon Smith, CEO, RockTron
Dr Graham Hillier, director of strategy and futures at the UK's Centre
for Process Innovation
Dr Gregg Zank, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Dow
Corning
About ICIS
ICIS, the trusted information provider for the chemical and energy industries, is part of Reed Business Information (RBI), a division of Reed Business and a member of Reed Elsevier plc (525), (UK:REL) (US:RUK) (NL:45443), the world's leading publisher and information provider. For more information on ICIS visit http://www.icis.com
RBI publishes over 100 market leading publications, directories and online services, and organises many industry conferences and awards. For a full listing visit http://www.reedbusiness.co.uk
About Dow Corning Corporation
Dow Corning provides performance-enhancing solutions to serve the diverse needs of more than 25,000 customers worldwide. A global leader in silicones, silicon-based technology and innovation, Dow Corning offers more than 7,000 products and services via the company's Dow Corning and XIAMETER brands.
Dow Corning is a joint venture equally owned by The Dow Chemical Company and Corning, Incorporated. More than half of Dow Corning's annual sales are outside the US.
About CRA International (CRA)
CRA (http://www.crai.com ) is a global consulting firm specializing in management, litigation, financial, and regulatory consulting. Since 1965, clients have engaged CRA for its unique combination of functional expertise and industry knowledge, and for its objective solutions to complex problems. Headquartered in Boston, CRA has offices throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
CRA's Chemicals Practice applies keen insight and rich experience across the industry, from upstream petrochemicals and polymers to downstream specialty chemicals and materials. We specialise in strategy, technology management, M&A, performance improvement and organisation restructuring.
About U.S. Chemicals LLC
U.S. Chemicals, LLC, is a 50-year-old worldwide specialty chemical distributor serving the textiles, paint, flame retardants, plastic, cosmetic, personal care, food and pharmaceutical industries. A woman-owned business based in Darien, Connecticut, US, U.S. Chemicals actively supports environmentally responsible manufacturers and distributors of chemical products and services.
CONTACTS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
The winning companies can be contacted as follows:
Tata Chemicals
Chintan Joshi
Corporate Communications
Tel: +91-22-6665-7496
Email: [email protected]
Huntsman Advanced Materials
Benjamin Wiekenberg
Marketing communication
Tel: +41-61-299-2280
Email: [email protected]
Teijin Fibers
Rie Mashiba
Public relations & investor relations
Tel: +81-3-3506-4055
Email: [email protected]
NiTech Solutions
Ian Laird, managing director
Tel: +44-777-582-6966
Email: [email protected]
For further information, please contact
John Baker
ICIS
Tel: + 44-20-8652-3153
Email: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.icis.com
Jarrod Erpelding
Dow Corning
Tel: +1-989-496-1582
Email: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.dowchemical.com
Dr Neil Checker
CRA International
Tel: +44-20-7959-1582
Email: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.crai.com/chemicals
Carol Piccaro
U.S. Chemicals LLC
Tel: +1-203-655-8878
Email: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.uschemicals.com
SOURCE ICIS
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