Commodities

If one talks henceforth about the necessity of matching an engine and its fuel, the demand for quality in motor fuels has, however, never ceased to be a preoccupation for refiners ever since gasoline became a commodity item. Two main classes of products are added to gasoline coming from refining octane number improvers and detergents. 

After many decades of application, industry has completely accepted standard NDT as an inevitable but invaluable part of production and maintenance of components. Its application has been well-regulated, acceptance criteria for weld defects exist, good schemes for personnel qualification are in place and equipment has evolved to a standard of nearperfection. NDT has become a commodity. Pioneering years are over. 

However, such a situation implies a risk. Industry tends to cut costs on commodities such as NDT, especially when they are needed because the code says so. And therefore NDT prices are under pressure, and competition is heavy. 

The earliest ball and stick models were exactly that wooden balls in which holes were drilled to ac commodate dowels that connected the atoms Plastic versions including relatively inexpensive student sets became available in the 1960s and proved to be a valuable learning aid Precisely scaled stainless steel framework and plastic space filling models although relatively expensive were standard equipment in most research laboratories... 

Commodity resins Common alum Common clay... 

It is likely that volumetric measures were used for quantity deterrnination when commodities were first bartered however, it has been established with certainty that weighing scales or balances have been in use for at least 7,000 years (1). Measuring by weight instead of by volume eliminates some very considerable inaccuracies from, for example, changes in specific gravity of liquids with temperature, or changes in density of solids owing to voids. 

Insulation Boa.rd. The panel products known as insulation board were the earliest commodity products made from fibers or particles in the composite panel area. These are fiber-base products with a density less than 500 kg/m. Early U.S. patents were obtained in 1915 and production began soon thereafter. The initial production used wood fiber as a raw material, but later products were made of recycled paper, bagasse (sugar cane residue), and straw. Schematics of the two major processes still ia use are shown ia Figure 4. 

Acetic anhydtide is a mature commodity chemical ia the United States and its growth rate in the 1970s and 1980s was negative until 1988 when foreign demand neatly doubled the exports of 1986. This increase in exports was almost certainly attributable to the decline in the value of the U.S. doUar. Over four-fifths of all anhydtide production is utilized in cellulose acetate [9004-35-7] manufacture (see Cellulose esters). Many anhydtide plants are integrated with cellulose acetate production and thus employ the acetic acid pyrolysis route. About 1.25 kg acetic acid is pyrolyzed to produce 1.0 kg anhydtide. 

About 85% of U.S. adipic acid production is used captively by the producer, almost totally ia the manufacture of nylon-6,6 (194). The remaining 15% is sold ia the merchant market for a large number of appHcations. These have been developed as a result of the large scale availabihty of this synthetic petrochemical commodity. Prices for 1960—1989 for standard resia-grade material have parahed raw material and energy costs (petroleum and natural gas)... 

Liquid adsorption processes hold a prominent position ia several appHcations for the production of high purity chemicals on a commodity scale. Many of these processes were attractive when they were first iatroduced to the iadustry and continue to iacrease ia value as improvements ia adsorbents, desorbents, and process designs are made. The UOP Parex process alone has seen three generations of adsorbent and four generations of desorbent. Similarly, Hquid adsorption processes can be applied to a much more diverse range of problems than those presented ia Table 3. 

The aerosol container has enjoyed commercial success ia a wide variety of product categories. Insecticide aerosols were iatroduced ia the late 1940s. Additional commodities, including shave foams, hair sprays, antiperspirants, deodorants, paints, spray starch, colognes, perfumes, whipped cream, and automotive products, followed ia the 1950s. Mediciaal metered-dose aerosol products have also been developed for use ia the treatment of asthma, migraine headaches, and angiaa. 

Since the early 1980s, the viscose-based staple fibers have, like the cuprammonium and viscose filament yams in the 1970s, ceased to be commodities. They have been repositioned from the low cost textile fibers that were used in a myriad of appUcations regardless of suitabUity, to premium priced fashion fibers dehvering comfort, texture, and attractive colors in ways hard to achieve with other synthetics. They are stiU widely used in blends with polyester and cotton to add value, where in the 1980s they would have been added to reduce costs. 

Product innovation absorbs considerable resources in the fine chemicals industry, in part because of the shorter life cycles of fine chemicals as compared to commodities. Consequently, research and development (R D) plays an important role. The main task of R D in fine chemicals is scaling-up lab processes, as described, eg, in the ORAC data bank or as provided by the customers, so that the processes can be transferred to pilot plants (see Pilot PLANTS AND microplants) and subsequently to industrial-scale production. Thus the R D department of a fine chemicals manufacturer typically is divided into a laboratory or process research section and a development section, the latter absorbing the Hon s share of the R D budget, which typically accounts for 5 to 10% of sales. Support functions include the analytical services, engineering, maintenance, and Hbrary. 

Cost Calculation. The main elements determining production cost are identical for fine chemicals and commodities (see Economic evaluation), a breakdown of production cost is given in Table 2. In multipurpose plants, where different fine chemicals occupying the equipment to different extents are produced during the year, a fair allocation of costs is a more difficult task. The allocation of the product-related costs, such as raw material and utiHties, is relatively easy. It is much more difficult to allocate for capital cost, labor, and maintenance. A simplistic approach is to define a daily rent by dividing the total yearly fixed cost of the plant by the number of production days. But that approach penalizes the simple products using only part of the equipment. 

Formic acid was a product of modest industrial importance until the 1960s when it became available as a by-product of the production of acetic acid by hquid-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons. Since then, first-intent processes have appeared, and world capacity has climbed to around 330,000 t/yr, making this a medium-volume commodity chemical. Formic acid has a variety of industrial uses, including silage preservation, textile finishing, and as a chemical intermediate. 

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