A Personal Note from Girish Malhotra
For more than sixty years, I have practiced Sociochemicology — the deliberate exploitation of the mutual behavior of chemicals to simplify manufacturing.
This is not theoretical chemistry. It is the product of decades of careful observation, experimentation, and disciplined thinking. I have seen countless processes burdened by unnecessary steps, wasted energy, and avoidable complexity. I have also seen the profound benefits when simplicity, creativity, and understanding of molecular behavior are applied intentionally.
I share this work not for recognition, nor to claim discovery, but to pass on what I have learned before I leave this planet. My hope is that others — chemists, chemical engineers, and curious minds — will engage with these ideas, challenge them, improve them, and carry them forward.
Science progresses not just through reaction mechanisms or calculations, but through insight, imagination, and disciplined observation. Sociochemicology is my attempt to capture that essence and make it practical.
If even a few minds are inspired to think differently, question inherited norms, and design processes more intelligently, then this work will have served its purpose.
For more than sixty years, I have practiced a method of process design that I later named Sociochemicology — the deliberate exploitation of the mutual behavior of chemicals to simplify manufacturing.
- It is not a new branch of chemistry.
- It is not theoretical abstraction.
- It is applied physical chemistry used intentionally to eliminate unnecessary process burdens.
Most process development begins with a reaction scheme and builds outward. The emphasis is on conversion, yield, and purity. Existing equipment is a facilitator rather than a strategic design variable. Product quality deviations are managed.
Sociochemicology begins differently. It asks:
How do these molecules behave together under realistic manufacturing conditions — and how can that behavior be used to eliminate steps rather than create them?
The Central Premise
Chemicals do not behave in isolation. They interact socially — through solubility differences, phase behavior, crystallization tendencies, density differences, acid-base relationships, thermal characteristics, kinetic preferences, and other physical property differences.
In many industrial processes, we ignore this “social behavior” during early design. As a result:
- We dissolve what we later must separate.
- We overreact and then purify.
- We neutralize only to re-acidify.
- We introduce solvents that complicate recovery.
Then we add equipment, controls, and validation layers to manage the complexity we created.
Sociochemicology reverses this logic. Instead of forcing chemistry and managing consequences, we allow molecular behavior to guide sequencing and staging from inception.
Profitability Through Simplicity
For decades, I have advocated what I call Profitability through Simplicity (1). Not minimalism for its own sake, but disciplined elimination of non-value-adding operations.
Simplicity in manufacturing yields:
- Thoughtful capital investment
- Reduced energy consumption
- Fewer separations
- Less waste
- Minimal solvent use
- Shorter cycle times
- Improved robustness
- Lowest cost
Yet simplicity is often resisted. Complexity creates institutional comfort. Departments form around managing problems. Validation structures grow around inherited designs.
Elimination can feel disruptive. But industrial progress rarely comes from adding steps. It comes from questioning
why they exist.
Sociochemicology in Practice
Sociochemicology does not require exotic technology. It requires disciplined observation and creative application of physical chemistry principles.
It means designing processes around:
- Differential solubility rather than brute-force purification
- Controlled precipitation rather than evaporative concentration
- Selective crystallization rather than chromatographic rescue
- Mutual phase behavior exploited intentionally
- Equipment used as a behavioral amplifier rather than a containment vessel
In site-based chemistries such as Omeprazole, Phthalimide, Metformin, Modafinil, Gabapentin and other active ingredients, simplification did not come from discovering new reactions. It came from reordering steps, staging additions differently, and allowing inherent molecular tendencies to perform separations naturally (2,3,4).
The chemistry was known. The behavior was underutilized. The innovation lay not in reaction discovery, but in interaction management. Alternative routes to established processes needed to be exploited — and we did.
Why It Is Rarely Taught
Academic training emphasizes reaction mechanisms, kinetics, thermodynamics, unit processes and unit operations. These are essential foundations.
However, curricula often do not emphasize free thinking in process staging — the art of asking:
• What happens if we change the order?
• What if we avoid dissolving this component?
• Can we precipitate selectively before impurity formation?
• Can the equipment environment be used to influence behavior?
Industrial design frequently follows precedent. Once a route is validated, it becomes institutionalized.
Sociochemicology challenges inherited structure. It suggests that many “necessary” unit operations and unit processes are artifacts of early decisions rather than chemical inevitabilities.
Not Magic — Discipline
Sociochemicology (1) is sometimes misunderstood as intuitive or anecdotal. It is neither.
It is rooted in:
• Solubility parameters
• Thermodynamic equilibria
• Acid-base interactions
• Mutual solubilities and insolubilities
• Mass transfer behavior
The difference is not scientific rigor — but emphasis. Traditional development asks: “How do we make this reaction work?”
Sociochemicology asks: “How do we make the entire sequence self-organizing?”
A Practical Test
Consider any multi-step API manufacturing process.
For each step, ask:
1. Does this operation exist because of intrinsic chemistry?
2. Or does it compensate for an earlier design decision?
If it is compensatory, simplification may be possible. Often the greatest improvements come not from new molecules or new platforms, but from eliminating what should never have been introduced.
The Future Opportunity
Artificial intelligence and modeling tools may facilitate and optimize defined process structures. However, optimization assumes that the structure itself is appropriate. Simplification requires something different - deliberate understanding of mutual physical behavior and the willingness to question inherited laboratory sequences.
No algorithm replaces thoughtful interrogation of molecular behavior. Imagination and disciplined understanding of physical properties remain essential.
The opportunity ahead is not merely automation of existing complexity — but redesign grounded in behavioral exploitation. Sociochemicology provides a framework for that redesign.
Sociochemicology provides a framework for that redesign. It is not revolutionary chemistry. It is disciplined attention.
Invitation
I have practiced the principles of Sociochemicology since early 1960s, long before the term was coined. Many real-world applications are described in my published work and articles.
But the concept gains power only through discussion. If you believe a process step cannot be simplified, I welcome the example.
Progress begins with conversation.
Editorial refinement support provided by AI tools.
Girish Malhotra PE
EPCOT International
References:
1. Malhotra, Girish Blog Profitability through Simplicity
2. Malhotra, Girish Malhotra, Girish Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Manufacturing: Nondestructive Creation De Gruyter April 2022
3. Malhotra, Girish Chemical Process Simplification: Improving Productivity and Sustainability John Wiley & Sons, February 2011
4. Malhotra, Girish Chapter 4 “Simplified Process Development and Commercialization” in “ Quality by Design-Putting Theory into Practice” co-published by Parenteral Drug Association and DHI Publishing© February 2011
