Development of the Chemical Industry

The oldest traces of a chemical industry were fovmd in the Middle Age and they were primarily based on the knowledge and skill in producing candles, soaps, paints, and medicaments. Manufacturing these products, at the very beginning, was a homemade affair that aimed to fulfill the needs of just one or more households. Chemical production came of age as an industry in the late 1700s but it remained small because many of the manufacturers did not have the capabilities for continual and larger production. The evolution of what we know as the modern chemical industry started more recently. Over the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, chemists played key roles in expanding the frontiers of 

The chemical industry is essentially a science-based industry. The technologies applied in the chemical industry have their well-established scientific roots, and industry growth has been closely linked to scientific discoveries. One of the main reasons for the enormous growth of the chemical industry in the developed world has been its great commitment to the investment in R D. This traditional investment in R D does much to explain the outstanding growth rate of the industry in the twentieth century and its superior record of increased productivity. The industry s organized application of science to industrial problems has 

The chemical and drug companies in the United States now spend about US18 billion annually on R D. The scientific and technical research by these industries significantly contributes in making human lives safer, longer, easier, and more productive [5]. 

According to an estimate by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are 15,000 chemicals manufactured in the United 

Rank Company Country Chemical sales ( millions) R D spending ( millions) 

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With the twentieth century, and now the twenty-first, came enormous progress in the development of the chemical industry. Chemistry transformed agriculture. 

Since its recognition and systematic exploration by Otto Diels and Kurt Alder in the 1920s, the Diels-Alder reaction motif (5.84b) has provided one of the most powerful tools of organic synthesis. The Diels-Alder reaction led directly to the dramatic pre-World War II development of the chemical industry for production of synthetic rubber and other polymeric materials. Today, the commercial impact of Diels-Alder methods extends to virtually all areas of agricultural, pharmaceutical, and natural-products chemistry. 

The development of the chemical industry did not, of course, spring wholly from the work of theoreticians such as Kekule. William Henry Perkin (1838-1907), working at the age of 18 in the laboratory of August Wilhelm von Hofmann at the Royal College of Science in London, had been put to work on the synthesis of the drug quinine from aniline, the latter a coal-tar product that had been isolated by Hofmann. Perkin failed to synthesize quinine, but as a result of his... 

To understand the issues involved in chemicals regulation one needs to have some understanding of the different types of chemicals and the development of the chemicals industry. The next section of this chapter therefore outlines the relevant background information. I then go on to describe European legislation on synthetic chemicals (from which UK legislation derives). Finally, I outline some of the relevant issues in the debates that preceded the introduction of REACH. 

Ail answers to process design questions cannot be put into a book. Even at this late date in the development of the chemical industry, it is common to hear authorities on most kinds of equipment say that their equipment can be properly fitted to a particular task only on the basis of some direct laboratory and pilot plant work. Nevertheless, much guidance and reassurance are obtainable from general experience and specific examples of successful applications, which this book attempts to provide. Much of the information is supplied in numerous tables and figures, which often deserve careful study quite apart from the text. 

With the twentieth century came enormous progress in the development of the chemical industry. Chemistry transformed agriculture. Artificial fertilizers provided the means of feeding the enormous, growing population of the world. Chemistry transformed communications and transportation. It provided advanced materials, like silicon for computers and glass for optical fibers it developed more efficient and renewable... 

Prior to the development of the chemical industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, only substances from natural sources were available for treating our diseases, dying our clothes, cleansing and perfuming our bodies, and so forth. Extracts of the opium poppy, for instance, have been used since the seventeenth century for the relief of pain. The prized purple dye called Tyrian purple, obtained from a Middle Eastern mollusk, has been known since antiquity. Oils distilled from bergamot, sweet bay, rose, and lavender, have been employed for centuries in making perfume. 

From the moment of Perkin s discovery until today the development of the chemical industry falls into six major eras, during which it has been transformed into the world s largest manufacturing industry, now indispensable to almost every manufacturing process (Fig. 1.8). 

In the early years of the shareholder value era, the current status and past development of the chemical industry are outlined ... 

Experience over the past few years shows that, after a period of stagnation in the seventies, new electrosyntheses are once again being adopted by industry, even if the capacities are fairly small. Whether this trend continues will depend not at last on the development of the chemical industry. The environmental compatibility of electrochemical processes is certainly an asset of the method which will become even more important in the future. 

Chapter 1 describes the development of the chemical industry and its role in welfare and employment around the world. This chapter shows how raw materials are procured and converted to consumer products. 

Among the major governmental research centers, particular mention should be made of the following. The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) at Poona is charged with the development of methods for the manufacture of a large number of chemicals, materials, and devices. Similarly, the Indian Institute of Petroleum at Dehra Dun, the Central Fuel Research Institute of Dhanbad, the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute at Bhatnagar, and the region research laboratories at Hyderabad, Jorhat, and Jamma provide support for development of the chemical industry. The emphasis is on research based on the immediate needs of the country. 

Another group that plays an important part in development of the chemical industry is the ICMA. The awards given by this group were discussed in the previous section. 

In 1905 a very strong candidate, the outstanding German organic chemist, Adolf von Baeyer, was rewarded for his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds, which had proved to be very important for the development of the chemical industry. But what of the prize for 1906, could that not have been given to Mendeleev In fact, he came very close to getting it the chemical Nobel... 

Since the rapid development of the chemical industry in the 1940s, the chemical industry has morphed from a commodity chemical market into a specialty chemical market where bio-related products and processes have become increasingly important. Enzymes are now commonly used as catalysts to produce products such as proteins, sugars, and lipids as well as processing tools to enhance more traditional products, such as paper pulp. In fact,... 

With the coming of independence in 1947, the government has played a major role in the development of the chemical industry. In 1948, the government announced a policy of planned development and regulation of industry. The objective was to arrive at a mixed economy, which overall would be beneficial to the nation. Since India is dedicated to a form of social control through democratic procedures, mixed economy refers to ownership of industrial units partly under public funds and partly under private funds. Modifications have been made from time to time in the policy and in the actual administrative structure, but the control remains with the government and its policies. 

The second epoch began perhaps in the l8th century and sought to understand nature. In the 19th century much of this work took place at universities. Towards the end of that period practical outcomes of such research became obvious and had a substantial effect on the development of the chemical industry. 

Anders Lundgren, The development of the chemical industry in Sweden and the contribution of academic chemistry after 1900, in this volume. 

Among the first attempts to synthesise quinine, though unsuccessful, is the one by William Henry Perkin (1838-1907), an 18-year-old student at the Royal College of Chemistry in London. While the constitution of quinine was stiU rmknown, Perkin thought it would be possible to produce this alkaloid by oxidising N-allyl toluidine. Instead, he prepared accidentally aniline purple, which became better known as mauveine, the first industrial dyestuff and a cornerstone for the development of the chemical industry. 

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