ChemPlan is a knowledge-based Decision Support System, providing a unique approach to strategic decision making for the chemical process industries. This innovative PC-based system combines two distinct technologies that result in an indispensable tool for decision makers in the CPI.

     First, it is an exclusive, fully integrated, worldwide database containing site/technology-specific process and product information, as well as market and cost data on specific classes of chemicals. Second, it is a powerful yet easy to use Microsoft Windows based system with built-in expert models using over 800 interactive decision making factors. The software, with its powerful core technology, provides access to some analyses that were previously unavailable or prohibitively time-consuming.

     You can easily search, analyze, customize and report data in ways that directly address your needs. With ChemPlan you get fast, accurate and consistent results for all your planning questions. It allows you to choose the one alternative that would yield the best results.

     The system provides the ultimate answer for your competitive cost/market analyses, product/process planning and development activities. ChemPlan is unique in its power and features. No comparable product exists in the market.

• Water-Soluble Polymers
• Polyurethane Chemicals
• Superabsorbent Polymers
• Organic Intermediate Chemicals
• Engineering Polymers (4Q 2002)

TranTech also offers customized versions of ChemPlan with data extracted from one or more databases for specific need of clients with a minimum requirement. A partial list of popular customized databases are:

• Acrylic Acid/Acrylates/Poly Acrylic Acids/Superabsorbent Polymers
• Acrylonitrile/Acrylamide/Cationic Monomers/Cationic Polymers/Poly Acrylamides
• Alpha Olefins
• Butanediol/Tetrahyd rofuran/PTMEG
• CumenelPhenol/AcetonelBisphenol A/Epichlorohydrin
• Dinitrotoluene/Toluene Diamine/Toluene Diisocyanate
• Dispersing Agents
• Flocculants/Coagulants
• Food Additives
• Integrated Ethylene Derivatives
• Integrated Propylene Derivatives
• Methyl Methacrylate/Methacrylic Acid/Other Methacrylates/Acrylic Coatings
• Nitrobenzene/Aniline/MDI and Polymeric MDI
• Nitrotoluenes/Toluidines
• Nylon Intermediates
• OXO Alcohols/Aldehydes/SynGas
• Pharmaceutical Additives
• Polyether Polyols
• Pulp and Paper Chemicals
• Solvents
• Thickeners
• Waste Treatment Chemicals
• Water Treatment Chemicals
• Many more...

• Environmental protection offices
• World-wide export/import information
• Patents
• Company literature
• Scientific and technical literature
• Trade journals
• Government publications
• Communications with the industry
• Financial statements and 10K reports

In ChemPlan, every factor needed to evaluate a given strategy is at your fingertips. You can link essentially every element in the database with every other one. This powerful feature allows you to integrate diverse factors such as production cost, market growth and plant capacity into an analysis. With over 800 interactive and diverse data items, you can:

• Assess the world-wide competitive cost and market positions of products used in a selected application area.
• Identify promising development opportunities based on technology and market vulnerability/ feasibility analyses.
• Evaluate the profitability of vertical integration for a selected product.
• Develop effective product pricing and intelligent marketing strategies.
• Evaluate plant expansion and partial or complete closure using our state-of-the-art train-size modeling.
• Improve process technology and equipment utilization and flexibility.
• Penetrate high growth regions of the world.
• Make vendor selections based on cost/performance for the purchased materials.
• Select the best available technology and negotiate the most favorable licensing agreement.

• Proprietary analytical and data linkage capabilities
• Accurate and current information
• Exclusive product, process and market data
• Easy-to-use, Microsoft Windows application designed for the chemical process industries
• Integrated spreadsheets with sophisticated expert models
• Ability to customize data simplified with: - comprehensive Data Dictionary - elaborate Data Dependency Table - built-in Data Validation Functions and Auditing Models - help for every conceivable task
• Transfer search results to Microsoft Word or Excel for further enhancements
• Quarterly data and software updates

The data and software are constantly updated and revisions are sent to clients semi-annually or more often should any far-reaching, sudden change in conditions so indicate. We continually strive to enhance ChemPlan and provide our clients with the latest data and added software features.

TranTech offers full-day complimentary on-site training to new and current users. In training, the users learn how to master ChemPlan and apply the system's powerful features to their particular needs. In addition, TranTech provides extensive and context sensitive help as well as a complete user's guide to ChemPlan.

Technical assistance is provided by telephone during business hours (9-5 E.S.T. Monday to Friday), and via email/fax 24 hours a day.

• Corporate Development Director searching for new ventures and profitable acquisitions.
• Technical Manager estimating a foreign competitor's production costs for competing products.
• Senior Research Associate comparing processes/products still in R&D stage with the commercial processes/products in ChemPlan.
• Marketing Director carrying out competitive cost/price analyses to develop intelligent marketing strategies.
• Business Manager searching for ways to improve an existing business.
• Market Development Manager monitoring expanding markets to develop new markets for an existing product.
• Senior Engineering Associate determining site-specific costs to produce certain products using raw materials made at the site.
• Market Research Director identifying new customers for their products.
• Process Technology Manager evaluating various process technologies with emphasis on environmental safety aspects.
• Product Planning Director determining the fixed and variable costs of raw material suppliers for their formulations.

The advent of ChemPlan is indeed a milestone in the chemical industry. No product has attempted to address the same needs. Now, with ChemPlan even a relatively inexperienced user can answer the following questions quickly and accurately:

• Given the tradename of a product, what are its components, properties, line-by-line manufacturing costs, uses, and competing products?
• Who is the lowest cost producer of this product? Product as shipped? Product on 100% active ingredient basis?
• If you want to make this product, should you develop the technology in-house or license from another company? Who offers the best available technology?
• What new products can be manufactured in an idled facility? What are their supply/demand figures and growth rates? What would be the costs?
• What are the replacement investment cost and dollar sales generated by a company during 1996-2000. This information is needed for an initial offer to acquire this company.
• Which products offer the best price/performance ratio in this application area?
• Given a worldwide marketing network, which growing market segments should you enter?
• Which processes have the worst/best environmental impact? Worst/best yields?

The ChemPlan database is the most comprehensive single source of information on organic intermediate chemicals, water-soluble resins, polyurethane chemicals and superabsorbent polymers.

Information has been developed for the United States, Western Europe, Japan, Africa, Asia/Middle East, Asia Pacific, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Mexico. Included are the following categories:

• Products by tradename including:
  - composition and chemical structure function, application and end use
  - physical and chemical properties
  - material safety data
  
• Plants by:
  - location
  - capacities
  - operating rates
  - future capacity within five years
  - raw material suppliers by quantity
  - customers and suppliers by quantity
  
• Manufacturing processes including:
  - process and product technologies
  - equipment and materials of construction
  - capital cost estimates based on maximum train-size and number of trains
  - production cost broken down to materials, utilities (e.g. steam), waste handling
    (e.g. BOD), labor, insurance, etc.
  
• Market data containing:
  - capacity
  - production
  - consumption and use (pounds and dollar)
  - projected growth
  - exports and imports by company
  - market shares
  

The ChemPlan software combines a relational DBMS and a spreadsheet with built-in expert models, specially designed for the chemical industry. This combination is a must for any serious data analysis and management in the CPI.

You can use the system for either "quick analysis" or for creating your own criteria for a "customized analysis". These tasks are simplified with ChemPlan's efficient tools such as Data Dictionary, Data Dependency Table, built-in Data Validation Functions, Auditing Models, and Help for every conceivable task.

ChemPlan has an extensive report facility, which allows the user to preview andlor obtain a hard copy of all the operations.

ChemPlan has an unparalleled capability for search and queries. It transparently links related data so you can easily integrate diverse factors like production cost, projected growth and plant capacity into an analysis. For example, you can:

• Isolate one particular producer and "zoom" in on it. ChemPlan will link that producer to every product that it makes with its plant locations. It will also provide a list of raw materials used in these products and the type of equipment used in making them.
• Access a product to learn who makes it, and for what market...how that market is growing...what other products are used in that market.
• Combine an unlimited number of searches easily with logical operators across the categories.

• Change data to reflect local conditions or to examine "what if" questions like:
  - the impact of location, raw material integration, steam and labor on the final cost.
  - the influence of imports, growth, and use on the supply.

• Assemble new data from the existing data with mathematical operators for capital intensity, price/ performance ratio analysis, vulnerability/feasibility analysis, and quantitative value creation.
• Create a subset of the database for customization.
• Convert units.

Unlike multi-client studies and on-line databases, you can customize the data in ChemPlan and enter your projections and proprietary information to create truly unique analyses. The ChemPlan database will become your own creation, not a static report charting the same course for every company.

The output from ChemPlan searches are generated in pdf formats which is extracted in the form of reports, tables, and charts. These are described in the following:

• Plant List :  Provides a brief description of a plant including producer or formulator,    location, and   type of products.
• Plant & Producer : Detailed report including plant list, total plant capacity and output, capacity, capacity 5 years from now and output of similar products, exports and imports for each product, plant status, city, state and location, and producer vs formulator.

• Capital List : Capital structure is designed to manufacture many products, these are the actual and analogous products produced by every process related to the capital structure. The capital list defines the techniques used to produce these chemicals.
• Capital Investment: Including design capacity which is the maximum sustainable production level of a typical commercial operation generally 330 days/y, chemical engineering index, cost of reactors columns, tanks and vessels, heat exchangers furnaces, compressors, pumps, special equipment, total equipment, purchase cost for battery limit equipment totaled for individual categories, total battery limit investment, utilities and waste treatment and other factors detailing total fixed capital and working capital.
• Capital Investment Summary : Covering design capacity, chemical engineering index, battery limits investment, off-sites investment, total fixed capital and working capital.
• Major Equipment Report: Major battery limit equipment type /materials and equipment type/size and special off-sites facilities which compose a capital structure. Provided in two formats: type with materials of construction, and type with size.