Aristech Chemical

A = Aristech Chemical B = BP Chemicals Ce = Celanese Cy = CYRO Industries Do = Dow Chemical Du = Du Pont E = Eastman Chemical G = General Electric R = Rohm Haas S = Shell Chemical U = Union Carbide... 

Aristech Chemical Corp. United States and Canada butyraldehyde... 

The ammonolysis of phenol (61—65) is a commercial process in Japan. Aristech Chemical Corporation (formerly USS Chemical Division of USX Corporation) currently operates a plant at Ha verb ill, Ohio to convert phenol to aniline. The plant s design is based on Halcon s process (66). In this process, phenol is vapori2ed, mixed with fresh and recycled ammonia, and fed to a reactor that contains a proprietary Lewis acid catalyst. The gas leaving the reactor is fed to a distillation column to recover ammonia overhead for recycle. Aniline, water, phenol, and a small quantity of by-product dipbenylamines are recovered from the bottom of the column and sent to the drying column, where water is removed. 

According to the U.S. International Trade Commission s Synthetic Organic Chemicals, Production and Sales, 1987, the three manufacturers of diphenylamine are Rubicon, Inc., Aristech Chemical Corp., and Uniroyal Chemical Co. No production figures have been given siace 1974, but U.S. production ia the range of 5,000—10,000 t/yr appears reasonable. 

Aristech Chemical Corp. Pasadena, Texas BASF Corp. Freeport, Texas Eastman Kodak Co. Longview, Texas Hoechst Celanese Bay City, Texas Union Carbide Corp. Texas City, Texas 114 99 284 136 330 11.4 19.5 166 13.6 33 Rli Rli Co " Rli Rli... 

Aristech Chemical Atofina Chemicals CONDEA (Germany)... 

Aristech Chemical BP Amoco Chemicals (UK) Degussa-Huls (Geiinany)... 

Aristech Chemical Corporation, See Sunoco Chemicals Unit of Sunoco Inc. (US)... 

Aristech Chemical Corporation, See Sunoco Chemicals Unit of Smioco hic. (US), 217 Arizona Chemical, 217 Arizona Department of Agriculture, 290 Arizona Department of Eiivkonmental Quality, 290 Arizona Industrial Commission, 290 Arizona Poison and Drug hiforniation Center, 311 Arkansas Department of Eiivironmental Quality, 290 Arkansas Poison and Drug Infomiation Center, 311 Arkansas State Plant Board, 290 Aniienian National Academy of Sciences, 255 Armour Polymers Ltd., 168 Arris Intemational Corporation, 218 Arsenic acid, 19... 

Suppliers Shell, Sunoco Chemical, Aristech Chemical, Georgia Gulf, Dow Phenolchemie, Union Carbide, and others. 

Aristech Chemical, ExxonMobil, Koppers, Stepan, Sterling Chemical. 

The most recent report available on di- -octylphthalate lists three commercial producers Vista Chemical Company, Houston, Texas Aristech Chemical Corporation, Neville Island, Pennsylvania and Teknor Apex Company, Hebronville, Massachusetts and Brownsville, Texas (EPA 1993a). Additional reported producers include Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York (USITC 1994) Tenneco Chemical, Inc., Chestertown, Maryland (EPA 1987a) Alfa Products, Morton Thiokol, Inc., Danvers, Massachusetts Primachem, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and GCA Chemical Corp., Stamford, Connecticut (HSDB 1995). Table 4-1 lists the U.S. facilities that manufacture or process di-w-octylphthalate. 

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate is available in a variety of technical grades (including a special grade for capacitor applications and a low residuals grade). Typical specifications are minimal ester content, 99.0-99.6% maximal moisture content, 0.1% and acidity (as acetic acid or phthalic acid), 0.007-0.01% (Aristech Chemical Corp., 1992 WHO, 1992). 

Four companies operating five facilities appear to be the primary U.S. producers of DEHP. These are Aristech Chemical Company in Neville Island, Pennsylvania Hatco Chemical Company in Fords, New Jersey Teknor Apex Company in Brownsville, Tennessee and Hebronville, Massachusetts and Tennessee Eastman Company in Kingsport, Tennessee (Mannsville Chemical Products Corporation 1999). SRI (1998a), however, lists only Tennessee Eastman and Aristech Chemical Company, as above, but also adds Velsicol Chemical Corporation in Chestertown, Maryland, which was not included in the above list. 

The catalysts are Al203 Si02 (possibly as zeolites) and oxide mixtures of Mg, B, A1 and Ti. These can be combined with additional co-catalysts such as Ce, V or W. With a large excess of ammonia, the selectivity to aniline is 87% to 90% at a phenol conversion of 98%. The by-products are diphenylamine and carbazole. This technology is used at one plant by Sunoco (previously Aristech Chemical) in Ohio and at another plant in Japan. The economics of this process are favorable if low-cost phenol is available, and high-purity aniline is desired. Capital costs are low because benzene nitration is avoided. A typical process sketch along with a material balance is shown in Figure 20.2139. 

Commercial plants Thirty plants worldwide have been built or are now under construction with a total phenol capacity over 2.8 MMtpy. Three grassroots phenol plants, using KBR s phenol technology started up in 1999/2000 100,000-tpy for Aristech Chemical, Ohio 225,000-tpy for Shell Chemical, Texas and 37,500-tpy for Shanghai Gaogiao Petrochemicals, Shanghai, China. An additional three plants are in design. More than 50% of the world s phenol is produced via this process. 

In the Halcon process, the amination of 7 takes place in the vapor phase with a silica-alumina catalyst (Scheme 3). Amination of phenol has the advantage of reduced capital costs, long catalyst life and high quality product. Excess ammonia favors high conversion of the mildly exothermic (AH = —544 kcal ruol 1) and reversible reaction, and also minimizes formation of byproducts. Generally, however, the price of phenol makes this process more expensive than the nitrobenzene routes. The last plant in the US to produce aniline from phenol by amination was operated by Sunoco Chemicals. It produced 140 million lbs./year-1, with diphenylamine, or DPA (8) as a coproduct, at Haverhill, Ohio, and ceased production in 200213,14. Aristech Chemical Corporation at one time operated a phenol-to-aniline process in the US. 

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