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Francine GÉNIN
French citizen
Feluy Research Center, Total Petrochemicals,
Belgium. Research engineer.
Doctorate in Chemistry and Molecular Physicochemistry
from Université Henri Poincaré
Nancy I, France.
Seniority in the Group: three and a half
years (since end 2002), in Petrochemicals.
I wrote my doctoral thesis in a chemistry/physics
laboratory focused on the environment. While
doing my research and before defending my
thesis, I was part of the teaching and research
staff at Université UHP Nancy I.
At the same time, I kept an eye out for
an opportunity to work as a physicochemist
in industry.
I saw an ad on Total’s Careers site
that fit my profile, so I applied. The Group
was looking for someone with expertise in
near infrared analysis, which was my specialization.
I joined Total’s Petrochemicals business
as a research engineer in the molecular
analysis department at the Feluy research
center near Brussels.
The Feluy center has more than 400 people
with impressive expertise in catalysis and
the technology of petrochemical processes,
making it an important support center for
our production sites. It also supports customers
in the area of polymers and includes more
general departments such as analysis, industrial
property and IT.
Innovation and
technology.
My job is to deploy and track on-line analyses
that make it possible to optimize naphtha
steam cracking and pyrolysis gasoline hydrotreating
yields. In a traditional production system,
naphtha and pyrolysis gasoline are analyzed
once a day, at most. We’re now able
to produce much more frequent analyses thanks
to spectrum acquisition and the modeling
of a number of characteristics. We produce
a large amount of data—on nearly 40
chemical and physical characteristics for
naphtha—in just a few minutes. This
technology is used at our Gonfreville site,
in Normandy.
Total Petrochemicals emphasizes innovation
to promote continuous improvement and development,
both for products and technology. In line
with this policy, my department head suggested
I take a four-day training course on managing
innovation. Université Catholique
de Louvain had set up a pilot program offered
to all Total Petrochemicals sites. The session
comprised three one-day modules, with a
presentation on the last day in which we
were asked to apply what we’d learned
to our own activity and then assess the
training course to help prepare its deployment.
Looking closely
at innovation.
The first day, devoted to strategy, involved
defining innovation concepts and different
types of innovation to create a framework
for our discussions. The second day focused
on a sociological analysis of innovation—the
interactions between technology and sociology
and the importance of networks. On the third
day, we looked at the human resources aspects
of innovation, with topics like developing
innovative teams, group dynamics, behavior
analysis, etc.
These sessions drew my attention to issues
that I never would have thought about on
my own. They also helped me step back from
my daily work. Innovation doesn’t
necessarily mean implementing a revolutionary
idea. It can also involve adapting and combining
methods, processes and other existing “objects”
from your daily environment. From an operational
standpoint, we saw several tangible and
truly remarkable examples and we analyzed
the reasons behind each success or failure.
I’m convinced that this course will
be useful in my future work.
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