And BASF

Supply and demand statistics for 1988 for all regions of the wodd as compiled by SRI International are given in Table 5. The wodd producers of acetal resins and their aimual capacities are Hsted in Table 6 (29). Hoechst Celanese and Ultraform Corporation (a joint venture of Degussa and BASF) have aimounced capacity expansions in the United States to 77,000 t and 16,000 t, respectively both were due in place in 1990. Part of general capacity expansion plans, aimounced by Du Pont for completion in 1991, are beHeved to apply to acetal resins. 

Mitsui Toatsu Chemical, Inc. disclosed a similar process usiag Raney copper (74) shortiy after the discovery at Dow, and BASF came out with a variation of the copper catalyst ia 1974 (75). Siace 1971 several hundred patents have shown modifications and improvements to this technology, both homogeneous and heterogeneous, and reviews of these processes have been pubHshed (76). Nalco Chemical Company has patented a process based essentially on Raney copper catalyst (77) ia both slurry and fixed-bed reactors and produces acrylamide monomer mainly for internal uses. Other producers ia Europe, besides Dow and American Cyanamid, iaclude AUied CoUoids and Stockhausen, who are beheved to use processes similar to the Raney copper technology of Mitsui Toatsu, and all have captive uses. Acrylamide is also produced ia large quantities ia Japan. Mitsui Toatsu and Mitsubishi are the largest producers, and both are beheved to use Raney copper catalysts ia a fixed bed reactor and to sell iato the merchant market. 

Because of projected nylon-6,6 growth of 4—10% (167) per year in the Far East, several companies have announced plans for that area. A Rhc ne-Poulenc/Oriental Chemical Industry joint venture (Kofran) announced a 1991 startup for a 50,000-t/yr plant in Onsan, South Korea (168,169). Asahi announced plans for a 15,000-t/yr expansion of adipic acid capacity at their Nobeoka complex in late 1989, accompanied by a 60,000-t/yr cyclohexanol plant at Mizushima based on their new cyclohexene hydration technology (170). In early 1990 the Du Pont Company announced plans for a major nylon-6,6 complex for Singapore, including a 90,000-t/yr adipic acid plant due to start up in 1993 (167). Plans or negotiations for other adipic acid capacity in the area include Formosa Plastics (Taiwan) (171) and BASF-Hyundai Petrochemical (South Korea) (167). Adipic acid is a truly worldwide... 

There are three commercial suppHers that manufacture polysulfones Amoco Corporation ia the United States, BASF Corporation ia Germany, and Sumitomo Chemical Company ia Japan. A listing of the resias suppHed by each of these companies along with the trade names particular to each of these suppHers is shown ia Table 9. AH three companies supply a polyethersulfone-type product. Polysulfone, on the other hand, is suppHed by Amoco and BASF, and Amoco is the sole suppHer of polyphenylsulfone. 

These reductions in capacity, coupled with the growth in aniline demand led to shortages in aniline supply in 1987 and 1988. The shortage is expected to persist into the early 1990s until new capacity comes on stream. Mobay and BASF have aimounced plans to build new plants (113,000 and 54,000 t, respectively), which are to start in 1992. 

Manufacture. There are two main 2-pyrroHdinone producers. International Specialty Products (ISP) (GAF Corporation) has manufacturing facihties in Calvert City, Kentucky, and Texas City, Texas, and BASF manufactures it at Ludwigshafen, Germany. Both producers consume most of thek production in the manufacture of l-vinyl-2-pyrrohdinone. 

In addition to ISP and BASF, ARCO has begun producing l-methyl-2-pyrrohdinone at a plant in Texas. NMP is also made in Japan (Mitsubishi) and in Russia. Annual U.S. production (1991) has been estimated by OSHA at 36,000—39,000 t. 

Ma.nufa.cture. The principal manufacturers of A/-vinyl-2-pyrrohdinone are ISP and BASF. Both consume most of their production captively as a monomer for the manufacture of PVP and copolymers. The vinylation of 2-pyrrohdinone is carried out under alkaline catalysis analogous to the vinylation of alcohols. 2-Pyrrohdinone is treated with ca 5% potassium hydroxide, then water and some pyrroHdinone are distilled at reduced pressure. A ca 1 1 mixture (by vol) of acetylene and nitrogen is heated at 150—160°C and ca 2 MPa (22 atm). Fresh 2-pyrrohdinone and catalyst are added continuously while product is withdrawn. Conversion is limited to ca 60% to avoid excessive formation of by-products. The A/-vinyl-2-pyrrohdinone is distilled at 70-85°C at 670 Pa (5 mm Hg) and the yield is 70-80% (8). 

Poly(Vinylpyrrolidinone-CO Vinyl Acetate). The first commercially successful class of VP copolymers, poly(vinylpyrroHdinone-co-vinyl acetate) is currently manufactured in sizeable quantities by both ISP and BASF. A wide variety of compositions and molecular weights are available as powders or as solutions in ethanol, isopropanol, or water (if soluble). Properties of some examples of this class of copolymers are Hsted in Table 15. 

This process may be competitive with butane oxidation (see Hydrocarbon oxidation) which produces a spectmm of products (138), but neither process is competitive with the process from synthesis gas practiced by Monsanto (139) and BASF (140) which have been used in 90% of the new acetic acid capacity added since 1975. 

Registered tradenames of Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto, and BASF. 

Whilst there is a large number of manufacturers, two companies, Dow and BASF, have a significant share of the market, with 16.2% and 11.4% respectively for their products Styron and Polystyrol. 

Helmut Orth first reported the use of laetones to accelerate phenolic resole cure in 1957 [161]. A year later, Orth discovered that this effect could be extended to aliphatic esters as well [162], Despite the dramatic nature of the acceleration seen, Orth s observations were not applied in industry for a decade. In 1967, Sumitomo and BASF applied esters to soil grouting and wood uses [133,163, 164]. Neither of these applications were commercially successful, however, and commercial success would not occur until 1980 when Borden introduced ester-cured sand binders for foundry [165]. This technology was highly successful in UK and spread to the US, where it was applied immediately to foundry in 1981 and eventually to wood products in 1990 [119,166-173]. Esters are capable of reducing the gel times of resoles from several weeks to less than 30 s at room temperature. Both gaseous and liquid esters are applicable [119,166]. 

Battelle (Seifert and Giesbrecht 1986) and BASF (Stock 1987) each conducted studies on exploding fuel jets, the former on natural gas and hydrogen jets, and the latter on propane jets. The methane and hydrogen jet program covered subcritical outflow velocities of 140, 190, and 250 m/s and orifice diameters of 10, 20, 50, and 100 mm. In the propane jet program, outflow conditions were supercritical with orifice diameters of 10, 20, 40, 60, and 80 mm. The jets were started and ignited after they had achieved steady-state conditions. 

The Texaco, Polymer Cracking, VEBA and BASF processes all produce mainly liquid organics or gases that replace primary oil- or gas-based resources. However, it has to be acknowledged that both BASF and VEBA have been closed down or will be closed down shortly, and that the other two processes have not yet been realised on a large scale. 

Acknowledgements. It is a pleasure to thank my coworkers whose names are mentioned in the references and in particular to Dr. Beckhaus for excellent collaboration and important contributions to our own work reported in this review. We are also indepted to the Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft, the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie, and BASF AG for financial support of our work. 

Gasynthan A process for making synthetic natural gas from naphtha by a two-stage steam reforming process. Developed by Lurgi and BASF in the 1960s. In 1975, over 30 units were operating. 

Acknowledgement. Generous support of the work carried out in the author s laboratory by Deutsche Forschungsgcmeinschaft. Fonds der Chemischen Industrie and BASF Aktiengesell-schaft is gratefully acknowledged. The author expresses thanks to Drs. A. C. Testa, St. Johns University, New York, and J. CorneUsse, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, for critical comments on the manuscript. 

We will briefly trace the evolution of chemicals production through three of the largest U.S. chemical companies and the German cartel. We will see that each of these companies can be basically defined through a single chemical DuPont by HNO3, Union Carbide by acetylene, Dow Chemical by CI2, and BASF by the dye industry. 

Fluorescent blue colours are less common and are usually in the bright turquoise shade area, with anthraquinones such as Cl Disperse Blue 60 or the newer methines such as Cl Disperse Blue 354 or indoanilines being the products of choice. Typical products from the ranges of DyStar and BASF (textile colours business is now part of DyStar) are given in Table 3.7. 

Metal reflector plate based pigments. Metal reflector based systems, developed by DuPont, Flex Products and BASF," consist of a metal disc, usually aluminium, coated with a dielectric layer, such as SiOj or MgF, followed by an ultra-thin transparent layer or an absorbing layer, e.g. FejOj. Some of the possible combinations are shown in Figure 5.20. 

In this connection the reduction of acetic acid to ethanol by Humphreys Glasgow, Davy McKee and BASF must be quoted as an attractive route to ethanol. This route combines the high selectivity of the Monsanto acetic acid process with a hydrogenation step. 

Whereas the United States are the biggest agrochemicals market, the top three companies, Bayer CropScience, Syngenta, and BASF Agricultural Products Nutrition, are located in Germany and Switzerland (see Table 11.6). The United States follows in importance. Out of the top—albeit mainly small ones—20 companies, 8 companies are based in Japan. 

Throughout this chapter and in previous chapters, brief histories of several well-known companies started were presented— DuPont, Alcoa, Bayer, and BASF. In this final section on the chemical industry, the histories of several well-known companies using chemical technologies are presented. 

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