Process industry - the industry in which raw materials are physically or chemically transformed or where material and energy streams may interact and transform each other for reaching value added products – is still the backbone of the production site Europe. However, it is under pressure, facing future challenges such as rising costs and scarcity of raw materials, an increase in the price of energy and intensified competition from Asian countries and the USA.

Chemical information, provided by Process Analytical Chemistry, is of ever increasing importance in today’s process industry. If reliable chemical information of the process under investigation is available, adjustments can be made and actions undertaken on time to assure maximum yield and product quality while reducing energy consumption and waste production to a minimum. As a consequence chemical information has a direct impact on the productivity and thus on competitiveness and on the environmental issues of the respective industries.
In recent years a lot of work was dedicated to specific analytical techniques and data analysis methods applied in process analytics. The next major technological challenge towards efficient – “knowledge based” - production is the acquisition and integration of complex information into an adequate process model to advance from information about one distinct process parameter to knowledge about the process as a whole.

The K-project “Industrial Methods for Process Analytical Chemistry – From Measurement Technologies to Information Systems” (imPACts) bundles industrial and academic research expertise in Process Analytical Chemistry in an excellent way. imPACts represents a consortium of 11 company partners from the classical chemical and metal industries and industries based on processing renewable primary products like pulp, fibre and food, along with Austrian universities and non-university institutions.