10 - Innovation in the chemical processing industries

Summary

Chemicals and allied products (Standard Industrial Classification 28) is the high-tech sector about which the general public probably has the least knowledge. Yet, judged by criteria that are generally regarded as socially and economically worthwhile, this sector should be ranked at the top of the high-tech scale. A common criterion for “high tech” is an industry's expenditure upon research and development (R&D). Chemicals and allied products are at the very top when industries are ranked in terms of the share of total R&D that is actually financed by private funds. With respect to the composition of R&D expenditures, a far larger share of such expenditures in this sector consists of basic research, and basic research and applied research together represent a much greater share of total R&D than is the case in any other industrial sector (see table 10.1). It is tempting to say that this sector has received so little public attention because its performance has, in certain respects at least, been so exemplary.

Clearly, chemicals and allied products have been heavily dependent upon the performance of scientific research. Having said that, it must be emphasized that such research is only the very beginning of the innovation process, and not the end of it. A laboratory breakthrough is, typically, very far from the availability of a commercializable product. Commercial success or failure in this industry, as in other industries, is largely a matter of what happens after a laboratory discovery. However significant the contribution of science to human welfare in general, the question of who will benefit most from specific innovations generated by science will depend on factors far removed from scientific research capability.