Chemicals, production

Since metals melt at higher temperatures, higher intensity burners are often used in these applications. This includes, for example, oxygen-enhanced combustion (OEC) [28,29] (see Chapter 27) and air preheating (see Chapter 21) to increase the flame temperatures and metal melting capability. These higher intensity burners have the potential to produce high pollutant emissions 

Many of the minerals applications employ some type of heat recovery in the form of air preheating to improve 

Ladle preheater. (From Baukal, C. E., ed., Industrial Burners Handbook, Boca Raton, FL CRC Press, 2004.) 

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The Zaporozhje Motor-Sich plant manufactures aircraft engines for all the CIS countries. One of the world largest aerospace concerns - Pivdenny - is functioning in Dniepropetrovsk Kharkov turbines are known in many countries. A high-capacity chemical production complex is located in the city of Kaloush. 

A catalyst is a material that accelerates a reaction rate towards thennodynamic equilibrium conversion without itself being consumed in the reaction. Reactions occur on catalysts at particular sites, called active sites , which may have different electronic and geometric structures than neighbouring sites. Catalytic reactions are at the heart of many chemical industries, and account for a large fraction of worldwide chemical production. Research into fiindamental aspects of catalytic reactions has a strong economic motivating factor a better understanding of the catalytic process... 

Ethylene (as well as propylene) produced from carbon dioxide subsequently allows ready preparation of the whole array of hydrocarbons, as well as their derivatives and products that have become essential to our everyday life. Whereas the nineteenth century relied mostly on coal for energy as well as derived chemical products, the twentieth century greatly supplemented this with petroleum and nat-... 

While the principal value of the book is for the professional chemist or student of chemistry, it should also be of value to many people not especially educated as chemists. Workers in the natural sciences—physicists, mineralogists, biologists, pharmacists, engineers, patent attorneys, and librarians—are often called upon to solve problems dealing with the properties of chemical products or materials of construction. Eor such needs this compilation supplies helpful information and will serve not only as an economical substitute for the costly accumulation of a large library of monographs on specialized subjects, but also as a means of conserving the time required to search for... 

The value of many chemical products, from pesticides to pharmaceuticals to high performance polymers, is based on unique properties of a particular isomer from which the product is ultimately derived. Eor example, trisubstituted aromatics may have as many as 10 possible geometric isomers whose ratio ia the mixture is determined by equiHbrium. Often the purity requirement for the desired product iacludes an upper limit on the content of one or more of the other isomers. This separation problem is a compHcated one, but one ia which adsorptive separation processes offer the greatest chances for success. 

Many industrial processes involve a chemical reaction between two Hquid phases, for example nitration (qv), sulfonation (see Sulfonation and sulfation), alkylation (qv), and saponification. These processes are not always considered to be extractions because the main objective is a new chemical product, rather than separation (30). However these processes have many features in common with extraction, for example the need to maintain a high interfacial area with the aid of agitation and the importance of efficient phase separation after the reaction is completed. 

Coal is used ia industry both as a fuel and ia much lower volume as a source of chemicals. In this respect it is like petroleum and natural gas whose consumption also is heavily dominated by fuel use. Coal was once the principal feedstock for chemical production, but ia the 1950s it became more economical to obtain most industrial chemicals from petroleum and gas. Nevertheless, certain chemicals continue to be obtained from coal by traditional routes, and an interest in coal-based chemicals has been maintained in academic and industrial research laboratories. Much of the recent activity in coal conversion has been focused on production of synthetic fuels, but significant progress also has been made on use of coal as a chemical feedstock (see Coal CONVERSION processes). 

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. 

Because of the ovedapping roles of coal in industry, many of the technologies covered here have been developed for synthetic fuel appHcations, but they also have been used or have demonstrated potential for production of significant quantities of chemicals. The scope of an article on coal as a chemical source would not be complete without coverage of synfuel processes, but the focus will be on the chemical production potential of the processes, looking toward a future when coal again may become the principal feedstock for chemical production. 

In 1980, the last year for which a breakdown has been pubUshed, the amount of benzene derived from coal in the United States was 168,000 t or 2.5% of domestic benzene production. Coal-derived toluene was 0.8% of production, and xylenes from coal were only 0.1% of total chemical production (9). The amounts and proportions of BTX components derived from coal in the United States are expected to be nearly the same today as in 1980. Based on information submitted to the International Trade Commission, approximately 25 companies participated in the coal-tar industry in the United States in 1990. 

In 1991, the relatively old and small synthetic fuel production faciHties at Sasol One began a transformation to a higher value chemical production facihty (38). This move came as a result of declining economics for synthetic fuel production from synthesis gas at this location. The new faciHties installed in this conversion will expand production of high value Arge waxes and paraffins to 123,000 t/yr in 1993. Also, a new faciHty for production of 240,00 t/yr of ammonia will be added. The complex will continue to produce ethylene and process feedstock from other Sasol plants to produce alcohols and higher phenols. 

A number of chemical products are derived from Sasol s synthetic fuel operations based on the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis including paraffin waxes from the Arge process and several polar and nonpolar hydrocarbon mixtures from the Synthol process. Products suitable for use as hot melt adhesives, PVC lubricants, cormgated cardboard coating emulsions, and poHshes have been developed from Arge waxes. Wax blends containing medium and hard wax fractions are useful for making candles, and over 20,000 t/yr of wax are sold for this appHcation. 

Economic Aspects. In the United States fluoroboric acid is manufactured by Atotech USA, Inc., General Chemical, C.P. Chemical Co., Fidehty Chemical Products, and Chemtech Harstan. Research quantities of reagent grade are made by Advance Research Chemical Co., Johnson-Mathey, and Ozark-Mahoning Co. The price for 48% fluoroboric acid in tmcHoad quantities in 1993 was 2.13—2.25/kg (20). 

The large amount of fluorine values released from phosphate rock in the manufacture of fertilisers (qv) gives a strong impetus to develop fluorine chemicals production from this source (see Phosphoric acid and the phosphates). Additional incentive comes from the need to control the emission of fluorine-containing gases. Most of the fluorine values are scmbbed out as fluorosiUcic acid, H2SiPg, which has limited useflilness. A procedure to convert fluorosihcic acid to calcium fluoride is available (61). 

Publication No. N-154, Eastman Chemical Products, Inc., Kingsport, Term., 1985. 

Chemical Product Synopsis, MaimsviUe Chemical Products, New York, Nov. 1978. 

HydrochloricMcid, Chemical Products Synopsis, MansviUe Chemical Products Corp., Asbury, N.J., Jan. 1993. 

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