APPLICATION CHEMICAL INDUSTRY Oxides

Similar approaches are applicable in the chemical industry. For example, maleic anhydride is manufactured by partial oxidation of benzene in a fixed catalyst bed tubular reactor. There is a potential for extremely high temperatures due to thermal runaway if feed ratios are not maintained within safe limits. Catalyst geometry, heat capacity, and partial catalyst deactivation have been used to create a self-regulatory mechanism to prevent excessive temperature (Raghaven, 1992). 

The main use of rhodium is with platinum in catalysts for oxidation of automobile exhaust emissions. In the chemical industry, it is used in catalysts for the manufacture of ethanoic acid, in hydroformylation of alkenes and the synthesis of nitric acid from ammonia. Many applications of iridium rely on... 

Uses. Since 1947, 70 to 85% of the annual USA production of nitric acid has gone into the production of NH4 nitrate fertilizer, initially in the form of solid prills currently, increasing amounts have been supplied mixed with excess ammonia and/or urea as aqueous nitrogen solution for direct application to the soil. Some 15% is used in explsj (nitrates nitro compds), and about 10% is consumed by the chemical industry. As the red fuming acid or as nitrogen tetroxide, nitric acid is used extensively as the oxidizer in proplnts for rocketry. It is estimated that current USA capacity for nitric acid is in excess of 10 million tons (Refs 30, 34, 36 37)... 

Examples of chemical reactions have been presented and carried out in different types of HEX reactors. Applications such as oxidation, nitration, hydrosilylation, are still in progress in the industrial companies... 

New materials are also finding application in the area of catalysis reiated to the Chemicals industry. For example, microporous [10] materials which have titanium incorporated into the framework structure (e.g. so-calied TS-1) show selective oxidation behaviour with aqueous hydrogen peroxide as oxidizing agent (Figure 5). Two processes based on these new catalytic materials have now been developed and commercialized by ENl. These include the selective oxidation of phenol to catechol and hydroquinone and the ammoxidation of cyclohexanone to e-caproiactam. 

Fluidised catalysts are also used in the synthesis of high-grade fuels from mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, obtained either by coal carbonisation or by partial oxidation of methane. An important application in the chemical industry is the oxidation of naphthalene to phthalic anhydride, as discussed by Riley(131). The kinetics of this reaction are much slower than those of catalytic cracking, and considerable difficulties have been experienced in correctly designing the system. 

Oxidation of ethyl alcohol was one of the two important commercial routes to acetaldehyde until the 1950s, The other, much older route was the hydration of acetylene. The chemical industry was always after a replacement of acetylene chemistry, not just for acetaldehyde production, but all its many applications. Acetylene was expensive to produce, and with its reactive, explosive nature, it was difficult to handle. In the 1950s, acetylene chemistry and the ethyl alcohol oxidation route were largely phased out by the introduction of the liquid phase direct oxidation of ethylene. Almost all the acetaldehyde produced uses the newer process. 

Cobalt salts and their complexes have been widely used as homogeneous oxidation catalysts in organic syntheses as well as in the chemical industry [19]. Various complexes of cobalt are useful as catalysts for oxidative organic transformations [20-25]. In view of the ability of cobalt to cycle between the commonly encountered II and III oxidation states, complexes of cobalt find application as catalysts in the oxidation of a variety of substrates... 

Besides the chemical industry, silicon is used as a powder in the ceramics (qv) industry for the production of silicon carbide and silicon nitride parts (see Advanced CERAMICS). Silicon powder is also used as an explosive for defense applications and in the refractory industry for plasma spraying with other oxide mixtures (see Refractory coatings). 

Millions of tons of oxygenated compounds are annually produced in the world and find applications in all areas of the chemical industry.83 94 Table 2 lists the main industrial oxygenated products obtained by catalytic oxidation, their capacities, their mode of manufacture and their applications. Most of these processes use dioxygen or air as the oxidant and operate under homogeneous or heterogeneous conditions. 

Nitric acid has enormously diverse applications in the chemical industry. It has commercial uses as a nitrating agent, oxidizing agent,... 

Plasma oxidation of fibers is an example of a treatment aimed at chemically modifying the surface to improve a surface property. These treatments have wide application in industry and are used to improve wettability and printability of plastics, the adhesion of materials to surfaces including tissue culture cells, and a variety of other applications (36). 

Alkanes, which are the principal components of natural gas and crude oil, are still the preferred energy source of our society. In regard to the prime importance of alkanes as feedstock for the chemical industry, it appears a waste of resources simply to burn these precious raw materials. Unfortunately, attempts to transform alkanes into more valuable products are hampered by their low reactivity, as best illustrated by the use of alkanes as inert solvents. For example, the cracking process requires temperatures of about 1000 °C in order to convert long-chain alkanes into short-chain alkanes. Controlled conversion of hydrocarbons is difficult to achieve and limited to partial oxidations, such as the conversion of butane into acetic acid. It is obvious that processes that would enable efficient functionalization to occur at low temperature would have enormous potential application. Achievements towards this goal will almost certainly rely on the use of catalysts, which will have to activate the stable C-H bond (375-440 kf mol-1) in order to induce its scission. 

The use of organometallic rhenium complexes has found a very broad scope as oxidation catalysts as described in the previous section, making MTO the catalyst of choice for many oxidation reactions of olefins. Interestingly, MTO and related rhenium compounds have also found application in the reverse reaction, the deoxygenation of alcohols and diols. Especially in recent years, this reaction has attracted much attention due to the increased interest in the use of biomass as feedstock for the chemical industry. This section provides an overview of the use of rhenium-based catalysts in the deoxygenation reaction of renewables. 

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