Chemical Vision 2020 Technology Steering Committee Holds First Meeting

October 9, 2001

Representatives of 12 chemical companies and four technical societies recently held the inaugural meeting of the Chemical Industry Vision 2020 Steering Committee. The steering committee will guide the strategic direction of the Chemical Industry Vision 2020 Technology Partnership, and will implement various technology partnerships. The 12 companies participating (which represent over $90 billion in chemical sales) are:

Air Products and Chemicals
BP
Cargill
Ciba Specialty
Degussa
Dow Chemical
Dow Corning
DuPont
General Electric
Millennium
Praxair
Rohm and Haas

The American Chemical Society, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Council for Chemical Research, and Material Technology Institute will also participate in the steering committee.

As an initial step, the steering committee agreed to begin two Chemicals Plus projects. These initial projects, supported by OIT, will focus on assessing the R&D needs and opportunities in: (1) separations technology and (2) the economic and environmentally acceptable use of biomass within chemical plants. The goal of the Chemicals Plus projects is to establish broad-based chemical company collaboration that benefits the entire chemical industry. The steering committee is now prepared to promote the Vision 2020 technology partnership across the chemical industry to seek greater industry involvement and investment in high-risk R&D.