{"id":90604,"title":"Alkali – The AI Copilot for Chemical Process Design","tagline":"Build chemical projects faster.","body":"**TL;DR:** Scaling a chemical process from lab-scale result to commercial plant can take years and hundreds of millions of dollars. Alkali’s Engineering Copilot (ProcessMate) uses AI to catch process design errors and automate equipment sourcing – keeping your projects on time and on budget.\n\n[Demo!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRsBGalf-7k)\n\n**The Problem:**\n\nAs chemical engineers, we’ve seen how design errors and procurement delays derail project schedules and budgets:\n\n* **Engineering Rework:** Projects often undergo 10+ design iterations due to incorrect equipment selection, overlooked safety requirements, or careless design errors.\n* **Procurement Delays:** Complex part sourcing, manual quote/response workflows, and relentless vendor follow-up (chasing confirmations, shipments, exceptions) can delay projects by months.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post\u0026id=90604\u0026key=user_uploads/2744343/38799444-2d92-431e-9e5c-807e9fe1bbbb)\n\n**Our Solution:**\n\n[Alkali Engineering](https://alkali.engineering/)’s ProcessMate platform streamlines error checking and procurement. Free engineers to do creative work, get projects built on time!\n\n1. **AI-Driven Design Checks** – Like an engineering spell-check for your schematics, AI identifies design errors before it’s too late.\n2. **Smart Equipment Selection** – Cross reference your engineering designs and vendor catalogues to help you get the right parts, faster.\n3. **Version Control \u0026 Chat Interface** – Interpretable version control for engineering schematics. Version control is no longer just for software engineers!\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post\u0026id=90604\u0026key=user_uploads/2744343/c4d82b46-885d-4547-b33e-ede8406b033f)\n\n**The Team:**\n\n* [Emmett Goodman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmett-goodman/) (PhD, Stanford – ex-AWS GenAI Labs): Led delivery of GenAI solutions for AWS’s flagship customers, showcasing “art of the possible” solutions.\n* [Victor Miller](https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-v-a514248b/) (PhD, Berkeley – ex-Shell Engineer): Led 8-figure chemical engineering infrastructure projects.\n\n**Our Ask:**\n\nWe’re looking to talk to:\n\n* Project managers fighting schedule overruns\n* Industrial vendors wanting faster RFP/RFQ cycles\n* EPC/Engineering firms interested in piloting AI-driven design validation and procurement\n\n👇 Know someone who fits? Email us at [founders@alkali-eng.com](mailto:founders@alkali-eng.com) !","slug":"NZM-alkali-the-ai-copilot-for-chemical-process-design","created_at":"2025-05-21T21:21:07.352Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T01:59:03.043Z","total_vote_count":52,"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/NZM-alkali-the-ai-copilot-for-chemical-process-design","share_image_url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/media/?type=post\u0026id=90604\u0026key=user_uploads/2744343/c4d82b46-885d-4547-b33e-ede8406b033f","company":{"id":30498,"name":"Alkali","slug":"alkali","url":"https://alkali.engineering","logo":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/798007bb526034d4bd7924c8d0ab920635b5e47c.png","batch":"Spring 2025","industry":"B2B","tags":["B2B","Design Tools","AI Assistant"],"search_path":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/30498"}}