Butylene, production volume

Polymer Gasoline. Refinery trends tend to favor alkylation over polymerisation. Unlike the alkylation process, polymerisation does not require isobutane. The catalyst is usually phosphoric acid impregnated on kieselghur pellets. Polymerisation of butylenes is not an attractive alternative to alkylation unless isobutane is unavailable. The motor octane number of polymer gasoline is also low, and there is considerable shrinkage ia product volume. The only commercial unit to be built ia recent years is at Sasol ia South Africa. The commercial process was developed by UOP ia the 1940s (104). 

All of the above high-volume organic chemicals are obtained from petroleum or natural gas. This is why the modern organic chemical industry is frequently referred to as the petrochemical industry. The high-volume status of some of these compounds is due to their use to make others lower on the list. For example, ethylene is used to make ethylene dichloride, which, in turn, is used to make vinyl chloride. Ethyl benzene, made from benzene and ethylene, is used to make styrene. Methyl r-butyl ether is made from methanol and butylene, a captive intermediate for which production data is not available. 

Acetaldehyde once was widely used as raw material for a variety of large-volume chemical products such as acetic acid and butanol. U.S. usage peaked in 1969 at 1.65 billion lb. Today, most of the former uses have been superseded by routes based on C, or other chemistry such as methanol carbonylation to acetic acid and butanol from propylene by oxo chemistry. Of the remaining uses, which totaled about 400 million lb in the United States in 2000, pyridine and substituted pyridines are the major consumers at 40 percent. It is also used as a raw material for peracetic acid, pentaery-thritol, and 1,3-butylene glycol. 

A single plant operating in Texas, based on the noncatalytic controlled oxidation of propane-butane hydrocarbons, is reported to consume over 50 million gal annually of these light hydrocarbons together with large volumes of natural gas in the production of over 300 million lb of chemicals per year. Chemical products include formaldehyde purified to resin grade by means of ion-exchaiige resins, acetic acid, methanol, propanol, isobutanol, butanol, acetaldehyde, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, mixtures of C4-C7 ketones, mixtures of C4-C7 alcohols, and propylene and butylene oxides. Catalytic liquid-phase oxidation of propane and butane is much more specific, and major yields of acetic acid are obtained. 

An abundant and relatively cheap raw material is almost sure to find in time a use to which it can be economically put. The cracking of petroleum, especially vapor-phase cracking, produces tremendous volumes of olefin gases, which are now extensively used as raw materials for alcohol production. The alcohols made by this procedure are ethyl from ethylene, isopropyl from propylene, normal butyl indirectly from ethylene, secondary butyl from normal butylene, tertiary butyl from isobutylene, and secondary and tertiary amyl from amylenes. 

If one assumes the total production is a single 5 denier per filament (dpf) ( 20 pm in diameter) filament, the total length would be about 0.01 light years ( 10 " m) or the equivalent of about one million trips to the moon. While other polyesters are commercially produced in fiber form—poly(ethylene naphthalate) (PEN) poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) poly(propylene terephthalate) (PPT) and poly(lactic acid) (PLA) thermotropic polyester (liquid crystalline polymer (LCP)—these are of insignificant volume compared to PET. Hence this chapter focuses primarily on PET. 

In terms of tonnage and use, poly(ethylene terephthalate) is these days virtually a commodity plastic, with widespread, large volume, use in food packaging, beverage bottle and fibres. Other aromatic polyesters have increased in volume production over the last decade or so, such as poly( butylene terephthalate) and poly(ethylene naphthalate). There is also the promise of large quantity use of the most recently commercialised member of the family, poly (trimethylene terephthalate). 

Poly(methyl methacrylate) and poly(vinyl acetate) precipitate from the resin solution as it cures. This mechanism offsets the contraction in volume as the polyester resin cross-links, resulting in a nonshrinking thermoset. Other polymer additives such as poly(butylene adipate) provide similar shrinkage control. The change in volume and compatibility of the polymer produces a whitening of the composite and results in nonuniform coloration in pigmented products. Polystyrene additives used in BMC can be formulated into nonshrinking, pig-mentable compounds suitable for colored electrical products and kitchen utensils. 

Polyesters are heteroehain macromolecular substances characterized by the presenee of carboxylate ester groups in the repeating units of their ehains. Predominant in terms of volume and products value are those based on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), long established as basis of fibers, films, molding plasties and containers for liquids, and poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) largely used to produee fibers as well as for speeial applications in motor and electric industry. [1-3]... 

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