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The Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX), a 20-year-old trade association that serves as the chemical industry's forum for emerging eCommerce technologies, has announced the availability of a RFID framing white paper, a 46-page document that details the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology on the chemical industry.

Written by a CIDX team of technology experts, including representatives from chemical producers and technology solution providers, the white paper is the industry's first holistic look at the technology that is taking the consumer products and retail sectors by storm.

Used extensively in product movement and logistics applications, RFID is a flexible tool for tracking materials, maintaining security and complying with increasing cradle-to-grave regulations. Authors of the white paper anticipate the use of RFID in the chemical sector will be high, and they argue that the real question is not if it will be used, but rather how and when.

According to Jo Anne Norton, executive director, CIDX is the ideal forum for examining the value of RFID in the chemical industry because CIDX brings members together to share the costs and resources to explore the viability of new technologies and their impact on the sector.

In the RFID framing white paper, the CIDX team examined a wide range of RFID challenges and opportunities in operations, security and standardization. Each topic is outlined and key findings explored. Because there is at present no single operating frequency for RFID, the white paper highlights advantages and disadvantages of various frequency options. The document also previews tag security issues, environmental factors and reader capability issues, as well as physical challenges, including the types of assets being tagged, container composition and product composition.

In research conducted over a year, the CIDX RFID team examined how RFID is used in other industries, exchanging knowledge with vendors and standards bodies currently working on RFID, and assessing their own companies' potential for incorporating the technology.