Chemical technological competitiveness

Meerts lA, van Zanden JJ, Luijks EA, van Leeuwen-Bol I, Marsh G, Jakobsson E, Bergman A, Brouwer A (2000) Potent competitive interaction of some brominated flame retardants and related compounds with human transthyretin in vitro. Toxicol Sci 56 95-104 Mengel K (1985) Dynamics and availability of major nutrients in soils. Adv Soil Sci 2 67-134 Mercer JW, Cohen RM (1990) A review of immiscible fluids in the subsurface Properties, models, characterization, and remediation. J Contam Hydrol 6 107-163 Mertens JA (2000) Trichloroethylene. In Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. Wiley New York. Available at http //www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/emrw/9780471238966/ kirk/article/tricmert.aOl/current/pdf... 

All of these enterprises were the U.S. first movers in somewhat different paths of learning within the new electrolytic chemical technology that came into being with the invention of the dynamo. The operating units in the merged enterprise thus included integrated learning bases in materials and the end-products made from them. Each required a somewhat different set of product-specific functional capabilities, but their competitive success rested on much the same related technical capabilities. 

In order to understand the technological competitiveness of the U. S. chemical industry, it would also be necessary to examine the patterns and results of investments... 

Landau, R., Foreign Chemical Technology in the U.S., International Business, prepared by editors of Chemical Engineering Progress, published by AICHE, N.Y.C., presented at the International Business Symposium, Foreign Competition in the U.S.A., AICHE, Atlantic City, N.J., Sept. 21, 1966. 

Intensive research activities led to rapid improvement in MFC performance in the past decade. The power density of MFCs has been increased several orders of magnitude in <10 years. Until now, the highest reported power densities are on the order of 1W m and 1 kW m , which are still about two to three orders of magnitude lower than those of chemical fuel cells. Further improvement in power density is necessary to make MFC technology competitive and commercially viable, which requires breakthroughs in low-cost and high-performance materials for MFCs. 

HARM G. SCHROTER studied in Hamburg and Norwich and wrote his doctoral thesis on the relationship between state and industry in the interwar period. He has widely published on economic competition and concentration, particularly cartels and multinational enterprises. Since 1990 his interest has focused on the history of technology and on chemical technologies in particular. He is currently professor of economic history at the University of Cologne. Address Birkenhain 1, D-22113 Oststeinbek, Germany. 

Asahi Chemical Industries (ACl, Japan) are now the leading producers of cuprammonium rayon. In 1990 they made 28,000 t/yr of filament and spunbond nonwoven from cotton ceUulose (65). Their continuing success with a process which has suffered intense competition from the cheaper viscose and synthetic fibers owes much to their developments of high speed spinning technology and of efficient copper recovery systems. Bemberg SpA in Italy, the only other producer of cuprammonium textile fibers, was making about 2000 t of filament yam in 1990. 

Many competitive programs to perfect a metallic anode for chlorine arose. In one, Dow Chemical concentrated on a coating based on cobalt oxide rather than precious metal oxides. This technology was patented (9,10) and developed to the semicommercial state, but the operating characteristics of the cobalt oxide coatings proved inferior to those of the platinum-group metal oxide. 

Knowledge of photoiaduced electroa-transfer dyaamics is important to technological appUcations. The quantum efficiency, ( ), ie, the number of chemical events per number of photons absorbed of the desired electron-transfer photoreaction, reflects the competition between rate of the electron-transfer process, eg, from Z7, and the radiative and radiationless decay of the excited state, reflected ia the lifetime, T, of ZA ia abseace ofM. Thus,... 

Chevron Chemical Co. began commercial production of isophthahc acid in 1956. The sulfur-based oxidation of / -xylene in aqueous ammonia at about 320°C and 7,000—14,000 kPa produced the amide. This amide was then hydrolyzed with sulfuric acid to produce isophthahc acid at about 98% purity. Arco Chemical Co. began production in 1970 using air oxidation in acetic acid catalyzed by a cobalt salt and promoted by acetaldehyde at 100—150°C and 1400—2800 kPa (14—28 atm). The cmde isophthahc acid was dissolved and recrystallized to yield a product exceeding 99% purity. The Arco technology was not competitive and the plant was shut down in 1974. 

The principal objective of technical service in the chemical industry is to provide timely and professional information and support to downstream customers regarding chemical products and thek uses. It is neither cost-effective nor necessary for a consumer of chemical products to develop a staff of speciahsts having detailed expertise in all aspects of chemical raw materials and thek uses, particularly in a time of increa singly complex and rapidly technologically driven economies. Rather, this variety of expertise is provided in the chemical marketplace by technical service professionals whose knowledge and skills are made available by chemical products suppHers. As such, successful chemical companies provide technical service as a critical element of thek offerings to the marketplace making use of this aspect of the value chain to enhance thek competitiveness. 

Ethanol s use as a chemical iatemiediate (Table 8) suffered considerably from its replacement ia the production of acetaldehyde, butyraldehyde, acetic acid, and ethyUiexanol. The switch from the ethanol route to those products has depressed demand for ethanol by more than 300 x 10 L (80 x 10 gal) siace 1970. This decrease reflects newer technologies for the manufacture of acetaldehyde and acetic acid, which is the largest use for acetaldehyde, by direct routes usiag ethylene, butane (173), and methanol. Oxo processes (qv) such as Union Carbide s Low Pressure Oxo process for the production of butanol and ethyUiexanol have totaUy replaced the processes based on acetaldehyde. For example, U.S. consumption of ethanol for acetaldehyde manufacture declined steadily from 50% ia 1962 to 37% ia 1964 and none ia 1990. Butadiene was made from ethanol on a large scale duriag World War II, but this route is no longer competitive with butadiene derived from petroleum operations. 

Make no mistake about it - air pollution abatement, especially based upon end-of-pipe treatment technologies is expensive. Not too long ago the prevailing attitude among industry stakeholders was that air pollution control was simply a part of the cost of doing business, and that add-on costs associated with compliance simply had to be passed on to the consumer s purchase price for products. With the intensity of international competition in the chemical and allied industries, this philosophy simply does not cut it anymore. 

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