Chemical industry manufacturing changes

In the early days of the chemical industry, manufacturers were reluctant to set up laboratories, but towards the end of the nineteenth century firms started to build laboratories both for analysis and research.280281 Analysis also played a role in the development of the laboratory in the early pharmaceutical industry.282 The history and development of the analytical and quality control laboratories at the Merck company in Darmstadt has been examined.283 The changing role of the chemist in the British alkali industry has also been investigated.284,285... 

The capacity of PVA in 1995 was greater than 550,000 t. Several manufacturers have added capacity since 1987. Air Products Chemicals added 40,000 t of new capacity Chang-Chun, Nippon Gohsei, and Hoechst all debottlenecked their plants and a new small plant was built in Korea by Oriental Chemical Industries (10,000 t). 

Dedicated plants predominate in the bulk chemicals industry. They suit the manufacture of well-defined products using a determined technology. Any change of the product or the production process usually produces problems, which illustrates the inflexibility of a dedicated plant. A batch plant may also be operated as a dedicated plant to produce a single chemical. Some fermentation plants (with reactors of up to 200 m volume) are examples of dedicated batch plants for the production of a family of similar products. So-called bulk fine chemicals, i.e. compounds that are produced in larger quantities, are also manufactured in dedicated plants, e.g. vitamin C and aspirin (see Fig. 7.1-1). The va.st majority of batch plants, however, produce several chemicals. 

These effects and those of other regulations proposed or implemented by EPA have stimulated a flow of initiatives by the chemical industry and its major trade associations to propose changes in these or new concepts for other, regulations, as described by S. Davis, Esq., in her analysis. Many of these changes and concepts are of particular interest to the smaller chemical manufacturer. Their limited financial and manpower resources are far less able to cope with the requirements of TSCA, with the result that this significant source of chemical innovation is at a serious disadvantage. 

This change in official U.S. policy came as a result of lobbying that the American chemical industry (primarily the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA)) undertook with the new Administration after it assumed office in January 1981. The major concern that CMA stated was that the proposed Council Decision on MPD, as written, might legally bind the U.S. to amend TSCA and require the MPD as part of PMN s in this country. CMA long had opposed any concept of base set" testing for all new substances under TSCA, and viewed the MPD, particularly if incorporated in a Council Decision, as being directly contrary to that position. 

On January 1, 1977, the chemical industry truly became a regulated industry. The environmental laws up until that time had covered some chemicals, but had been media oriented. That is — they were concerned about certain chemicals that escaped as emissions or pollutants to various media - the air, our water, contaminated our food or entered the workplace. TSCA changed that direction. It was designed to regulate commerce on chemical substances. TSCA potentially applies to all chemicals manufactured, processed, distributed or used in the U.S. except those chemicals already regulated under certain other federal laws. TSCA affects not only the chemical industry itself, but the many other industries whose products are chemical in nature. This includes most all industrial products. 

Unlike most of the rest of the chemical industry, continuous processing is a relatively new concept in API manufacture. It is therefore necessary to understand where the industry has come from in terms of manufacturing methods before considering the factors necessary for change. 

Although the numbers change each year, percentages of each sector do not change very much. Note that manufacturing is one of the largest sectors in terms of value added and amounts to about 16% or almost one sixth of the GDP. The chemical industry is a part of this manufacturing sector. 

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