Basic commodity chemicals

In 2001 it was estimated that the world merchant market for catalysts was worth ca. US 25 billion, divided roughly equally between refining, petrochemicals, polymers, environmental (20-25% each) and with about 11% being used in fine chemicals. Refining is about the production of fuels (Chapter 3, Box 2), petrochemicals cover many of the basic commodity chemicals and the monomers required for the polymer industries fine chemicals include pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, as well as flavours and fragrances and environmental is about exhaust gas and waste product clean-up. Vehicle catalytic converters use catalysts, as does the production of the main tonnage polymers polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene terephthalate. 

For comparison, about 400000 tons of phenol used in phenol-formaldehyde resins were produced in the United States annually in the period 1983-1985 (30). While demand for condensed tannins does not compare with basic commodity chemicals such as phenolic resins, they can be considered to be specialty polymers with sizable markets. 

Ethyl benzene is produced by reacting two basic commodity chemicals, benzene and ethylene, see Figure 5.28. 

Production Rc-quirc-mc-nts. Production of commodity chemicals usuaHy requkes large dedicated plants, generaHy in continuous operation and often with a proprietary process. A basic raw material position is preferred and is sometimes requked. Specialty chemicals, on the other hand, requke smaH- to medium-sized batch-type plants with inherent flexibHity. A basic raw material position is rarely requked. 

The predominant use of arsenic ia the United States is ia the manufacture of chemicals. During the 1980s, the market for arsenic chemicals had shifted from cotton farming, where its use is now restricted because of environmental considerations, to wood (qv) preservatives for the protection of lumber and other wood products. Arsenic trioxide is the basic commodity of commerce from which a number of important chemicals are manufactured. 

The products that depend on chemical engineering emerge from a diverse array of industries that play a key role in our economy (Table 2.1). These industries produce most of the materials from which consumer products are made, as well as the basic commodities on which our way of life is built. In 1986, they shipped products valued at nearly 585 billion. They had a payroll of 3.3 milhon employees, or... 

The petrochemical and chemical industries are the traditional industries for IR analyzers. The needs are extremely diverse and the versatility associated with process IR spectral measurements make the analyzers a good fit. Products manufactured by the petrochemical and chemical industries range from commodity materials (basic chemicals and raw materials) to fully formulated or compounded end-use products. Value-added products (formulated products) often require an advanced spectral analyzer, such as a process FTIR, whereas commodity chemicals are often served by a traditional IR photometer. 

The basic research in the future should be oriented towards novel materials for use in carbon dioxide as a solvent. These materials may have important applications in the synthesis of polymers, pharmaceuticals and other commodity chemicals, in the formation of thin films and foams, in coatings and extracts, and in the manufacture of microelectronic circuits. The full deployment of these applications would result in significant reductions in both volatile emissions and aqueous- and organic liquid wastes in manufacturing operations. 

Fig. 6.2 Commodity chemicals have outperformed most basic commodities.

Linked to the oil industry, to petrochemicals, and to the large commodity chemicals, the catalyst industry can hardly escape the economic ups and downs affecting these three large sectors. Its clients are understandably both demanding and prudent, for the catalytic system is basic to the good running of production units. This explains why it is an area of business that is so difficult to penetrate and run profitably. Its structure should therefore remain rather stable even with the development of catalytic exhaust systems. Introduction... 

Examples of the application of recyclable solid base catalysts are far fewer than for solid acids [103]. This is probably because acid-catalyzed reactions are much more common in the production of commodity chemicals. The various categories of solid bases that have been reported are analogous to the solid acids described in the preceding sections and include anionic clays, basic zeolites and mesoporous silicas grafted with pendant organic bases. 

Nonetheless, a (partial) switch to renewables is desirable for other reasons, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability and lower toxicity, i.e. renewable raw materials leave a smaller environmental footprint [3]. That the chemical industry has been slow to make the transition, in the three decades following the Report of the Club of Rome, is a consequence of the fact that oil and natural gas are excellent basic feedstocks and highly atom efficient, low waste, catalytic procedures are available for their conversion into commodity chemicals. The same cannot be said for the fine chemicals industry where processes are, generally speaking, much less efficient in many respects and there is considerable room for improvement. 

Whether the end product is a pharmaceutical or a plastic bag, each industry is part of a value chain. The pharmaceutical company that markets the drug depends on fine chemicals or speciality producers to make the active pharmaceutical or its precursors. In turn, the commodity chemical companies supply the building blocks for the basic fine chemicals, whilst the refiners produce the feedstock for the commodity chemical companies. 

Asymmetric Alkylation. 4-Pseudoephedrine ([IS, 2S]-(+)) is a commodity chemical employed in over-the-counter medications with annual worldwide production in excess of 300 metric tons. The enantiomer, /-pseudoephedrine, is also readily available in bulk and is inexpensive. Pseudoephedrine has been shown to be highly effective as a chiral auxiliary in asymmetric alkylation reactions. Treatment of either enantiomer of pseudoephedrine with carboxylic acid chlorides and anhydrides leads to efficient and selective iV-acylation to form the corresponding tertiary amide derivatives (Table 1). Typically, the only by-product in the acylation reactions is a small amount (<5%) of the A,0-diacylated product, which is easily removed by crystallization or flash column chromatography. Because intramolecular 0- -N acyl transfer within pseudoephedrine 3-amino esters occurs rapidly, and because the A-acyl form is strongly favored under neutral or basic conditions, products arising from (mono)acylation on oxygen rather than nitrogen are not observed. 

Other compounds that can be produced directly from biomass in good yields, but which do not retain the basic structural characteristics of biomass, are also classified as commodity chemicals. Examples are acetic acid, methane, and synthesis gas. They are not manufactured in large volumes from biomass because fossil fuels are the preferred feedstocks in commercial production systems. Technically, biomass can serve as a feedstock for production of the entire range of commodity organic chemicals presently manufactured from fossil fuels. The various routes to large-volume chemicals from biomass will be examined later. Consider first some of the existing biomass-based chemicals, most of which are specialty chemicals that are manufactured for commercial markets. 

This limitation was a significant problem, for in the chemical industry some 30,000 finished products are produced, and they are obtained from approximately 500 basic or commodity chemicals such as acetone, methanol, water, and so forth. The end products are u.sually complex molecules for which the conventional modeling methods mentioned are not always adequate. The phase behavior of the molecules in the basic chemicals category is simpler to model however, these chemicals are produced... 

Thus by the end of the twentieth century, the American chemical industry consisted of two multisectored core companies, Du Pont and Dow, as well as a number of specialty chemicals manufacturers still focused on products commercialized in the 1920s or in the 1940s and 1950s. The oil and gas companies produced feedstocks, basic petrochemicals, and commodity chemicals. Except for the German and Swiss companies, which from the start had commercialized pharmaceuticals, the European multisectored chemical companies had also become producers of specialty chemicals. For example, Britain s ICI, after spinning off in 1993 its most profitable division (pharmaceuticals) as a separate enterprise (Zeneca), used the funds generated to acquire Unilever s specialty chemical division. 

Union Carbide is continuously transforming itself from a commodity chemical company to a more balanced blend of specialties and commodities. In recent years, the company s profitability has fluctuated as measured by profit margin and stockholders equity (see Table 7.21). Basic strategies were set in place to increase profitability by the following means ... 

Surfaces and interfaces chemistry is the study of the structure and reactivity of liquid and solid surfaces. The surfaces may be extended or may be limited to the nanometer scale. The surface, often a transition metal, may be a catalyst for a chemical reaction. Such studies provide the fundamental principles of the commercially important area of heterogeneous catalysis, which is essential to fuel and metal production, food processing, and commodity chemical manufacturing. The surface may also be consumed as a reactant, such as in semiconductor etching. These studies provide the basic chemistry of the manufacturing of electronic components and devices. 

While chemical stocks sold at a significant premium over the Dow Jones Industrial Average, that situation is not true today. It doesn t take long to find that the explanation is poor profit performance, and too often poor profit performance can be traced to price erosion in basic commodities. Hence the need for careful selectivity for capital investment. 

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