Adaptation of TRIZ contradiction matrix for solving problems in process engineering

•Systematic generation of new solutions in process industries.•TRIZ contradiction matrix for chemical engineering.•New 14 characteristics and 8 inventive principles.

TRIZ has been successfully applied in several domains such as aeronautics, car industry, and electronics. However, its popularity among chemical engineers is rather limited (Robles et al., 2009. Chem. Eng. Process.: Process Intensif. 48 (1), 239). The motivation for this paper is facilitation of TRIZ use in chemical process industries (CPI). In the actual form, the most popular TRIZ tool—contradiction matrix, seems to be too abstract for use by the chemical engineers. Therefore an attempt is made to tune the contradiction matrix to the problems most often encountered in process engineering. This article proposes new characteristics and inventive principles for TRIZ contradiction matrix in order to expand its applicability to typical problems encountered in CPI.There are proposed fourteen new characteristics and eight inventive principles obtained as a result of analysis of papers, published in Science Direct database in years 2004–2014, and dealing with chemical process industries and mixing operation in particular.