Chemical global consumption

In 1973, global consumption of nickel was 660,000 tons and that of the United States 235,000 tons (Sevin 1980). End uses of nickel in the United States in 1973 were transportation (21%), chemicals (15%), electrical goods (13%), fabricated metal products (10%), petroleum (9%), construction (9%), machinery (7%), and household appliances (7% IARC 1976). A similar pattern was evident for 1985 (Table 6.3). In 1988, 40% of all nickel intermediate products consumed was in the production of steel 21% was in alloys, 17% in electroplating, and 12% in super alloys (USPHS 1993). The pattern for 1985 was similar (Table 6.3). In Canada, nickel is the fourth most important mineral commodity behind copper, zinc, and gold. In 1990, Canada produced 197,000 tons of nickel worth 2.02 billion dollars and was the second largest global producer of that metal (Chau and Kulikovsky-Cordeiro 1995). Most of the nickel used in the United States is imported from Canada and secondarily from Australia and New Caledonia (USPHS 1977). 

Figure 8.7 Global consumption of polyethylene by type (2008). (Total demand -169 billion pounds (2008) C. Lee and B. B. Singh, Chemical Marketing Resources, Webster, TX, personal communication, June, 2009).

With pentaBDE and octaBDE no longer manufactured, decaBDE is now the sole PBDE chemical still in production, with global consumption at 56,418 metric tons per year. Similar to its lower brominated cousins, decaBDE is found widely in the environment in houses, cars, humans, and wildlife." DecaBDE degrades into lower PBDE congeners. And there are health hazards associated with commercial decaBDE and its breakdown products. The European Union, for example, recently banned decaBDE use in electrical and electronic equipment because decaBDE formulations contain significant concentrations of nonaBDE (nine bromine atoms). ... 

In terms of volume (not profit), sulfuric acid is the largest chemical produced worldwide. Global consumption is around two hundred million tons per year—a number that is just... 

The highest global consumption of any plastic coupled with the many distinct types of commercially available polyethylenes are testament to the rich history of major innovations in products, processes and breadth of applications of polyethylene. This chapter will give a historical perspective of these innovations in polyethylene including a breadth of product applications of polyethylene and the impact of metallocene polyethylenes commercialized in last 15 years. A very recent innovation of olefin block copolymers by The Dow Chemical Company will be described and some remarks will be made on future product innovations and trends. 

HOPE, LDPE, and LLDPE are the three main types of commercial polyethylenes with a combined global consumption of >80 Mt/year. HDPE is a strictly linear homopolymer while LDPE is a long-branched homopolymer because of the different methods of polymerization. LLDPE, on the other hand, is a linear ethylene copolymer with small amounts of a-olefin comonomers such as butene, hexene, or octene. Traditionally, polyethylenes are classified according to the densities. The density of polyethylene decreases as the branching and/or comonomer content increases. The crystallinity and the properties associated with crystallinity, such as stiffness, strength, and chemical resistance, progressively decrease from HDPE to LDPE/LLDPE to POE grades. 

Demand for polycarbonate in particular is growing mainly because of its usage in DVDs. By 2005, Bayer estimates that optical discs will account for one-third of production, i.e., 800,000 tonnes of polycarbonate out of a global consumption of 2.4 M toimes. Much of the demand is coming from China, where a growth rate of 16.7% in the optical storage market has been predicted by Plastics and Chemicals Intelligence Asia. 

The annual global consumption of surface active agents or surfactants in 2006 was estimated to reach 13 million metric tons, with the break up of regional sales as depicted in Figure 1.1. There are arguably five major participants in the surfactant supply chain including (1) basic raw-material processors, (2) feedstock and diversified chemical producers, (3) surfactant converters, (4) product formulators, and (5) distributors/retailers, some of which are listed in Figure 1.2. 

Besides providing lumber, furniture, plywood and veneer, wood is the source of pulp board and paper and of hundreds of chemicals derived from cellulose, lignin and certain resins. Wood is also a major source of the world s fuel. The global consumption of wood reached a maximum in the 1980s since then, this level of use has been maintained or may even be decreasing. However, the number of species offered has diminished remarkably. The largest timber resources are in the Amazon basin, Central Africa and Southeast Asia. 

Acetic acid is a bulk chemical that is used in a broad range of applications. Its global consumption was 10.9 x 10 t a in 2006 and was expected to increase to approximately 13.2 x 10 ta in 2011. Figure 6.15.2 gives an overview, based on a worldwide analysis, of the different applications and products that consumed acetic acid in 2008. 

Fig. 3.2 Global consumption of chemical additives (turnover in billion ) for pulp and paper production in 2004.

Rao et al., 2006 Sakakibara et al., 2009). Annually around 30,000 tons of xylitol are produced by the chemical hydrogenation of xylose (Tamburini et al., 2010). The current xylitol market is around 340 million. The global consumption was 43,000 tons in 2005 the major consumers accounting, for 30% and 37%, respectively, were the United States and Western Europe. The chemical process of production is not ecofriendly, which further increases the capital investment and costs for xylitol production (Prakash et al., 2011). 

Production and Economic Aspects. Aspirin is produced in the United States by The Dow Chemical Company, Rhc ne-Poulenc, and Norwich (a division of Proctor Gamble). Globally, Rhc ne-Poulenc has additional production faciHties in France and in Thailand. Bayer is self-suppHed from production units in Spain and Turkey over the years many small plants have been estabHshed around the world for regional or country supply. The aspirin market is increasingly globally suppHed. Aspirin is generally considered mature, and only population increases and new uses will affect its production and demand, which is thought to be of the order of 30—35,000 t for total world consumption. The May 1995 price was 8.30/kg (18). 

Agriculture is the largest industry for sulfur consumption. Historically, the production of phosphate fertilizers has driven the sulfur market. Phosphate fertilizers account for approximately 60% of the sulfur consumed globally. Thus, although sulfur is an important plant nutrient in itself, its greatest use in the fertilizer industry is as sulfuric acid, which is needed to break down the chemical and physical stmcture of phosphate rock to make the phosphate content more available to plant life. Other mineral acids, as well as high temperatures, also have the abiUty to achieve this result. Because of market price and availabiUty, sulfuric acid is the most economic method. About 90% of sulfur used in the fertilizer industry is for the production of phosphate fertilizers. Based on this technology, the phosphate fertilizer industry is expected to continue to depend on sulfur and sulfuric acid as a raw material. 

It is presumed that the global-quenching criteria of premixed flames can be characterized by turbulent shaining (effect of Ka), equivalence ratio (effect of 4>), and heat-loss effects. Based on these aforemenhoned data, it is obvious that the lean methane flames (Le < 1) are much more difficult to be quenched globally by turbulence than the rich methane flames (Le > 1). This may be explained by the premixed flame shucture proposed by Peters [13], for which the premixed flame consisted of a chemically inert preheat zone, a chemically reacting inner layer, and an oxidation layer. Rich methane flames have only the inert preheat layer and the inner layer without the oxidation layers, while the lean methane flames have all the three layers. Since the behavior of the inner layer is responsible for the fuel consumption that... 

Domestic consumption of selenium in 1981 exceeded 453,000 kg. About 50% was used in electronic and copier components, 22% in glass manufacturing, 20% in chemicals and pigments, and 8% miscellaneous (Cleveland et al. 1993). In 1987, world production of selenium was about 1.4 million kg (USPHS 1996). In 1986, 46% of the global selenium produced was used in the semiconductor and photoelectric industries 27% in the glass industry to counter coloration impurities from iron 14% in pigments and 13% in medicine, in antidandruff shampoos, as catalysts in... 

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