Feedstocks, chemical industry

ORIGIN/INDUSTRY SOURCES/USES manufacture of industrial and agricultural products intermediate in chemical industry feedstock to manufacture 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and its derivatives (germicides, soil sterilants) moth proofing antiseptics seed disinfectants organic synthesis... 

The term feedstock in this article refers not only to coal, but also to products and coproducts of coal conversion processes used to meet the raw material needs of the chemical industry. This definition distinguishes between use of coal-derived products for fuels and for chemicals, but this distinction is somewhat arbitrary because the products involved in fuel and chemical appHcations are often identical or related by simple transformations. For example, methanol has been widely promoted and used as a component of motor fuel, but it is also used heavily in the chemical industry. Frequendy, some or all of the chemical products of a coal conversion process are not isolated but used as process fuel. This practice is common in the many coke plants that are now burning coal tar and naphtha in the ovens. 

Production of Eastman s entire acetic anhydride requirement from coal allows a reduction of 190,000 m /yr (1.2 million barrels/yr) in the amount of petroleum used for production of Eastman chemicals. Now virtually all of Eastman s acetyl products are made in part from coal-based feedstocks. Before the technology was introduced, these chemicals had been made from petroleum-based acetaldehyde. Reduced dependence on petroleum, much of which must be obtained from foreign sources, is important to maintain a strong domestic chemical industry. 

Low Temperature Carbonization. Low temperature carbonization, when the process does not exceed 700°C, was mainly developed as a process to supply town gas for lighting purposes as well as to provide a smokeless (devolatilized) soHd fuel for domestic consumption (30). However, the process by-products (tars) were also found to be valuable insofar as they served as feedstocks (qv) for an emerging chemical industry and were also converted to gasolines, heating oils, and lubricants (see Gasoline and OTHER motor fuels Lubrication and lubricants) (31). 

Chemical Use. Both natural gas and natural gas Hquids are used as feedstocks in the chemical industry. The largest chemical use of methane is through its reactions with steam to produce mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (qv). This overall endothermic reaction is represented as... 

The dominant role of petroleum in the chemical industry worldwide is reflected in the landscapes of, for example, the Ruhr Valley in Germany and the U.S. Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast, where petrochemical plants coimected by extensive and complex pipeline systems dot the countryside. Any movement to a different feedstock would require replacement not only of the chemical plants themselves, but of the expensive infrastmcture which has been built over the last half of the twentieth century. Moreover, because petroleum is a Hquid which can easily be pumped, change to any of the soHd potential feedstocks (like coal and biomass) would require drastic changes in feedstock handling systems. 

Eigure 1 illustrates the Bayer process as it is practiced in the 1990s. The primary purpose of a Bayer plant is to process bauxite to provide pure alumina for the production of aluminum. World production of Al(OH)2 totaled ca 55 x 10 t in 1988. Practically all of the hydroxide was obtained by Bayer processing and 90% of it was calcined to metallurgical grade alumina (AI2O2). However, about 10% of the bauxite processed serves as feedstock to the growing aluminum chemicals industry. 

Feedstocks. A separate breakdown between fuels and feedstocks (qv) for the chemical industry (2) shows that the quantity of hydrocarbons (qv) used direcdy for feedstock is about as great as that used for fuel (see Fuels, synthetic Gasoline and other motor fuels). Much of this feedstock is oxidized accompanied by the release of heat, and in many processes, by-product energy from feedstock oxidation dominates purchased fuel and electricity. A classic example is the manufacture of nitric acid (qv) [7697-37-2] HNO. Ammonia (qv) [7664-41-7] burned in air on a catalyst at a pressure... 

Converting Heat to Work. There has been a historic bias in the chemical industry to think of energy use in terms of fuel and steam (qv) systems. A more fundamental approach is to minimise the input of work potential embedded in the fuel and feedstock, as well as work purchased direcdy as electricity. Steam is really just a medium of exchange, like money in an economy. 

In bioprocesses, the feedstocks required to grow the catalysts and produce the chemical renewable are generally renewable resources, such as sugar from crops. Conversely, purely feedstocks chemical synthesis relies largely on non-renewable resources such as oil, coal and natural gas. It follows that as non-renewable resources dwindle, it is likely that biotechnology will become increasingly important to the chemical industry. 

Saturated hydrocarbons are the main constituents of petroleum and natural gas. Mainly used as fuels for energy production they also provide a favorable, inexpensive feedstock for chemical industry [74]. Unfortunately, the inertness of alkanes renders their chemical conversion challenging with respect to selectivity. Clearly, the development of new and improved methods for the selective transformation of alkanes belongs to the central goals of catalysis. Iron-catalyzed processes might be a smart tool for such transformations (for reviews see [75-77]). 

Conjugated dienes are among the most significant building blocks both in laboratories and in the chemical industry [1], Especially, 1,3-butadiene and isoprene are key feedstocks for the manufacture of polymers and fine chemicals. Since the discovery of the Ziegler-Natta catalyst for the polymerizations of ethylene and propylene, the powerful features of transition metal catalysis has been widely recognized, and studies in this field have been pursued very actively [2-7]. 

J. F. Knifton, R. J. Taylor, and P.E. Dai, Diisopropyl ether one-step generation from acetone-rich feedstocks, Chemical Industries (Dekker) 85 Catal. Org. React.) 131-141 (2002). 

At the Coal Research Establishment of the National Coal Board, methods for the liquefaction of coals to produce transport fuels, feedstocks for the chemical industry and high purity carbons suitable for electrode manufacture are being developed. 

The process developed by Asahi Chemical Industry in Japan [110], and performed in a tetraphasic system combining gas, oil, water and ruthenium particles with an average diameter of 20 nm, is a significant milestone in this area. The selectivity is very high and a yield of 60% in cyclohexene is obtained with this bulk ruthenium catalyst in the presence of zinc as co-catalyst at 150 °C and under 50.4 bar of H2. The cyclohexene produced by this process is used as a feedstock for caprolactam. 

Commercial Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), is a mixture of the liquefied gases of propane (C3) and butane (C4). It is obtained from natural gas or petroleum. LPG is liquefied for transport and then vaporized for use as a heating fuel, engine fuel or as a feedstock in the petrochemical or chemical industries. It has a flammability range of 1.8% to 10% and the vapor has a density of 1.5 to 2.0 that of... 

The chemical industry is linked to virtually every segment of the American economy as shown in Figure 1. Chemicals are used by other industries as feedstocks, cleaners, additives, and processing aids for a wide range of products and industrial processes. The chemical industry also provides consumer products directly. These range from soaps and detergents to ink and paint. The effects of chemical innovations, then, are felt far beyond the chemical industry. 

Beyond the transportation sector, biomass is also a promising feedstock for the chemical industry. This industry accounts for 5-10% of today s oil and gas consumption. It may require an even larger fraction in the future as the demand for chemicals has outpaced that for energy in the last few decades. Recently, the chemical industry has indeed showed a significant interest in converting agricultural feedstock into chemical intermediates such lactic acid or propene-l,3-diol. 

Classical examples of industrial biotechnology include the manufacture of ethanol, lactic acid, citric acid, and glutamic acid. The share of renewables in the feedstock of the chemical industry is expected to increase substantially in the years to come [2-4], A newcomer here is propane-1,3-diol (DuPont/Tate Lyle), with the start-up of industrial fermentation foreseen within one year. 

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