Inside Alkali: How AI Is Reshaping Chemical Engineering

Alkali is a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2025 with an ambitious goal: to transform how chemical projects are designed, scaled, and built. Traditionally, moving from lab-scale chemistry to full-scale production is a high-stakes process, often spanning years and costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Alkali offers a breakthrough: ProcessMate, an AI-powered engineering copilot that helps chemical engineers avoid costly mistakes, accelerate procurement, and streamline the complex workflows of chemical process design.

With its blend of chemical expertise and generative AI, Alkali stands at the intersection of engineering rigor and technological innovation. By acting as a smart assistant for chemical engineers, Alkali’s software identifies design issues before they snowball, recommends optimal equipment, and manages versioning and vendor communication—all in one intelligent interface.

Why is chemical process design so challenging?

Building a chemical plant is not just about mixing chemicals at scale. It requires precise engineering of process flows, equipment selection, adherence to safety regulations, and a deep understanding of chemical kinetics and thermodynamics. Mistakes are expensive: incorrect piping dimensions, inefficient heat exchangers, or a missed safety control can delay construction, damage equipment, or even endanger lives.

Most chemical projects undergo 10 or more design iterations, driven by preventable design errors, safety oversights, or mismatched equipment. Once a project hits the procurement phase, delays compound due to manual quote tracking, vendor follow-ups, and equipment lead times that are difficult to forecast. This friction often adds months or even years to project timelines.

How does Alkali's ProcessMate solve these problems?

Alkali’s core product, ProcessMate, is designed to be an engineer’s intelligent co-pilot—like a spell-checker for process schematics, but smarter and domain-specific. It uses AI to understand the nuances of chemical process flow diagrams (PFDs), piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), and other design artifacts.

Here’s how ProcessMate helps:

• AI-Powered Design Checks: Detects design inconsistencies, safety violations, and engineering mistakes in schematics before construction begins. Think of it as a real-time review partner that never gets tired.
• Smart Equipment Recommendations: Matches the project’s technical requirements with vendor catalogs to suggest suitable pumps, reactors, valves, and more—reducing reliance on manual research and procurement guesswork.
• Procurement Workflow Automation: Tracks vendor quotes, purchase orders, and shipment statuses in a single interface. Instead of engineers sending reminder emails, ProcessMate handles follow-ups and exception reporting.
• Version Control for Schematics: Engineers can track changes across design iterations using an interface inspired by software development. This brings transparency and traceability to engineering revisions—without the usual file chaos.
• Integrated Chat Interface: Users can interact with ProcessMate conversationally, asking for design feedback, sourcing suggestions, or version comparisons in plain language.

Who are the founders behind Alkali?

Alkali was co-founded by Emmett Goodman and Victor Miller, two PhD-level experts with deep domain knowledge and complementary skill sets.

• Emmett Goodman, a Stanford PhD and former engineer at AWS’s GenAI Labs, brings cutting-edge AI expertise to the table. At AWS, he helped Fortune 500 companies explore next-generation AI applications, making him uniquely suited to lead Alkali’s AI development.
• Victor Miller, a Berkeley PhD and former engineer at Shell, brings deep field knowledge in chemical engineering. He has led large-scale infrastructure projects with budgets in the eight-figure range. His background as both a scientist and a data-driven engineer makes him a bridge between traditional chemical workflows and modern digital tooling.

Together, they combine the precision of chemical engineering with the scalability of artificial intelligence, resulting in a tool that is not only innovative but deeply grounded in industry needs.

What is the market opportunity for Alkali?

The chemical process industry is vast and high-stakes, encompassing everything from energy and pharmaceuticals to manufacturing and materials science. The process engineering software market alone is valued in the billions, with incumbent tools such as Aspen Plus and COMSOL dominating the space, but these are simulation tools, not intelligent copilots.

Alkali differentiates itself by addressing inefficiencies in early-stage design and procurement, where errors are most costly. With ProcessMate, companies can reduce rework, minimize human error, and avoid procurement delays—unlocking massive cost savings and time compression across the project lifecycle.

Given the slow pace of digital transformation in chemical engineering compared to other industries, Alkali is well-positioned to disrupt a conservative sector with modern tools engineered specifically for chemical workflows.

How does Alkali compare to traditional tools?

Traditional engineering software offers simulations, drawing tools, and databases. But they often require expert configuration and manual analysis. Engineers still spend hours debugging spreadsheets, emailing vendors, or fixing errors that appear only after months of work.

Alkali takes a different approach:

• Proactive, not passive: Instead of waiting for engineers to spot mistakes, ProcessMate flags issues in real time.
• Conversational interface: Engineers can ask questions like “Which heat exchanger fits this design?” or “What changed between version 2.1 and 2.2?”—and get intelligent answers instantly.
• Automation-first philosophy: From equipment sourcing to version control, ProcessMate removes repetitive tasks so engineers can focus on creative problem-solving and innovation.

It’s not just a tool—it’s a partner in the engineering process.

What’s next for Alkali?

Alkali is currently in active development and deployment with early customers, refining ProcessMate based on real-world feedback. The startup is focused on:

• Onboarding additional chemical engineering firms and pilot projects to scale its dataset and refine its AI models.
• Integrating with more vendor catalogs and enterprise procurement systems to deepen its equipment intelligence.
• Building out multi-user collaboration features, enabling distributed engineering teams to work together seamlessly.

With its lean team and deep expertise, Alkali is poised to set a new standard for AI-first engineering tools.

Why does Alkali represent a new era in engineering?

In an industry where human expertise is essential but often stretched thin, Alkali’s AI copilot offers a second pair of eyes—precise, data-driven, and always on. It democratizes access to top-tier process engineering insight, allowing smaller teams to punch above their weight and larger teams to avoid costly setbacks.

Just as GitHub Copilot has changed how developers write code, Alkali aims to redefine how engineers build chemical plants. Not by replacing human creativity, but by enhancing it through intelligent automation, smart recommendations, and seamless project oversight.

Alkali’s vision is clear: empower engineers to build faster, safer, and smarter. And with ProcessMate, that future is already unfolding.