Bulk chemicals

Catalytic gas-phase reactions play an important role in many bulk chemical processes, such as in the production of methanol, ammonia, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid. In most processes, the effective area of the catalyst is critically important. Since these reactions take place at surfaces through processes of adsorption and desorption, any alteration of surface area naturally causes a change in the rate of reaction. Industrial catalysts are usually supported on porous materials, since this results in a much larger active area per unit of reactor volume. 

Example 10 Six samples from a bulk chemical shipment averaged 77.50% active ingredient with 5- = 1.45%. The manufacturer claimed 80.00%. Can this claim be supported ... 

Waterborne Transport. Despite natural limitations, the transportation of chemicals by water has enjoyed substantial growth, especially siace the ead of World War 11. Assisted by governmental developmeat of the inland waterways system, including locks and other navigational aids, water carriers transport large quantities of bulk chemicals in barges between inland ports or between such ports and coastal ports. In addition, bulk chemicals ate transported by self-propelled tank vessels between U.S. coastal points, and between U.S. ports and overseas destinations. In 1989, 56.1 million metric tons (61.9 million short tons) of chemicals were transported in the U.S. domestic waterborne commerce (16). 

In bulk chemical reactions, an oxidizer (electron acceptor) and fuel (electron donor) react to form products resulting in direct electron transfer and the release or absorption of energy as heat. By special arrangements of reactants in devices called batteries, it is possible to control the rate of reaction and to accomplish the direct release of chemical energy in the form of electricity on demand without intermediate processes. 

Batteries are miniatuie chemical leactois that convert chemical energy into electrical energy on demand. The thermodynamics of battery systems foUow direcdy from that for bulk chemical reactions (10). For the general reaction... 

The Van t Hoff isotherm identifies the free energy relationship for bulk chemical reactions. 

Activation Processes. To be useful ia battery appHcations reactions must occur at a reasonable rate. The rate or abiUty of battery electrodes to produce current is determiaed by the kinetic processes of electrode operations, not by thermodynamics, which describes the characteristics of reactions at equihbrium when the forward and reverse reaction rates are equal. Electrochemical reaction kinetics (31—35) foUow the same general considerations as those of bulk chemical reactions. Two differences are a potential drop that exists between the electrode and the solution because of the electrical double layer at the electrode iaterface and the reaction that occurs at iaterfaces that are two-dimensional rather than ia the three-dimensional bulk. 

Characterization. Ceramic bodies are characterized by density, mass, and physical dimensions. Other common techniques employed in characterizing include x-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron or petrographic microscopy to determine crystal species, stmcture, and size (100). Microscopy (qv) can be used to determine chemical constitution, crystal morphology, and pore size and morphology as well. Mercury porosknetry and gas adsorption are used to characterize pore size, pore size distribution, and surface area (100). A variety of techniques can be employed to characterize bulk chemical composition and the physical characteristics of a powder (100,101). 

Clay particles are so finely divided that clay properties are often controlled by the surface properties of the minerals rather than by bulk chemical composition. Particle size, size distribution, and shape the nature and amount of both mineral and organic impurities soluble materials, nature, and amount of exchangeable ions and degree of crystal perfection are all known to affect the properties of clays profoundly. 

Commercial scale plant started up in the spring of 1988 purifying a bulk chemical. This is the first application of the CCCC process on this bulk chemical. 

Develop a general classification system for dry bulk chemical additives and filter aids based on ease of feeding to a filtering machine. 

Explain the terms angle of repose, angle of internal friction, and angle of slide. Why are these important to dry bulk chemical handling ... 

Continuous crystallizers find widespread application for the production of bulk chemicals such as fertilizers, fibre intermediates, salts and sugars. Production rates are typically 100 kTe/yr, or more with vessel capacities typically exceeding 20 m. Typical continuous crystallizers are depicted in Figure 9.18 and are described in more detail in Chapter 3. 

FIG. 22 Coexistence curves for the lattice-gas model, (a) bulk (------) chemically... 

The discussion of acylation reactions in this chapter is focused on fluonnated carboxylic acid derivatives and their use to build up new fluorine-containing molecules of a general preparative interest Fifteen years ago, fluonnated carboxylic acids and their derivatives were used mainly for technical applications [/] Since then, an ever growing interest for selectively fluonnated molecules for biological applications [2, 3, 4, 5] has challenged many chemists to use bulk chemicals such as tnfluoroacetic acid and chlorodifluoroacetic acid as starting materials for the solution of the inherent synthetic problems [d, 7,, 9]... 

Examples of modem fluonne-contaimng herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides are shown below Most of these compounds are prepared starting from fluonnated bulk chemicals, such as fluonnated carbocyclic and heterocychc compounds, benzotnfluonde, fluonnated acetic acid denvatives, and Freons Direct fluonnation is used only occasionally by producers of fme chemicals and wiU, at least in the near future, remain the domam of producers of bu Ik chemicals who have the necessary techmcal expertise Fungicides... 

Heterogeneous catalysts can be divided into two types those for use in fixed-bed processing wherein the catalyst is stationary and the reactants pass upward (flooded-bed) or downward (trickle-bed) over it, and those for use it slurry or fluidized-bed processing. Fixed-bed catalysts are relatively large particles, I/32 to 1 /4 inch, in the form of cylinders, spheres, or granules. Slurry or fluidized-bed catalysts are fine powders, which can be suspended readily in a liquid or gas, respectively. Fixed-bed processing is especially suited to large-scale production, and many important bulk chemicals are made in this mode. 

The term biotransformation or biocatalysis is used for processes in which a starting material (precursor) is converted into the desired product in just one step. This can be done by use either of whole cells or of (partially) purified enzymes. Product examples range from bulk chemicals (such as acrylamide) to fine chemicals and chiral synthons (chiral amines or alcohols, for example). There are several books and reviews dealing with the use of bio transformations either at laboratory or at industrial scales [1, 10-13]. 

On the fuel side, the issues are even more complex. Hydrogen, although currently it is made in relatively large amounts inside oil refineries for upgrading petroleum products and for making many bulk chemicals (e.g., ammonia), it is not currently distributed like conventional fuels. 

The design of production plants for the manufacture of the three categories of product varies considerably. Fine chemicals are usually produced in batch reactors, which may also be used for the production of a variety of similar products. Fine chemicals usually have demanding product quality specifications and, consequently, a significant fraction of the production costs are involved in product purification and testing. Intermediate volume chemicals have less rigorous quality specifications than fine chemicals and are usually manufactured in product-specific-plants, either as batch or continuous flow processes. Bulk chemical production plants usually operate continuous flow processes... 

Methanol can be produced relatively cheaply as a bulk chemical by the oxidation of methane. Several processes have been developed to produce feed-grade SCP using methanol as a substrate. We will now examine one such process in depth, to show how a process is developed, from inception to production scale, and how the many problems encountered can be tackled and overcome. 

Carbohydrates are relatively cheap, available in large quantities and are readily utilisable source of carbon and energy for most micro-organisms. These considerations are particularly important for those exopolysaccharides produced on a large (bulk chemical) scale. 

Fig. 12.13C-NMR spectrum of erythrodiisotactic poly(l,2-dimethyltetramethylene) at 75.47 MHz and 303 K. a) in solution of CDC13, b) CP-MAS spectrum of the semicrystalline polymer in the bulk. Chemical shifts given at the signals refer to TMS = 0 ppm. (Ref.20))...

Volume 2 Calcium Magnesium Acetate. An Emerging Bulk Chemical for Environmental Applications... 

Figure 4.15. Expected and found correlations among nine quality indices determined for 43 batches of a bulk chemical for details, see text.

Situation There are two vendors for a particular bulk chemical who meet all written specifications. The products are equally useful for the intended reaction as far as the chemical parameters are concerned both comply in terms of one physical parameter, the size distribution of the crystals, but on the shop floor the feeling prevails that there is a difference. Because the speed of dissolution might become critical under certain combinations of process variables, the chemical engineers would favor a more finely divided raw material. On the other hand, too many fine particles could also cause problems (dust, static charging). 

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