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Economics of the Chemical Industry

The primary lesson from this example is that no process is infinitely scalable. Sooner or later, additional scaleup becomes impossible, and further increases in production cannot be single-train but must add units in parallel. Fortunately for the economics of the chemical industry, the limit is seldom reached. [Pg.28]

Since there is a chemical industry that serves a major portion of all industrialized economies, providing in the end synthetic drugs, polymers and plastics, fertilizers, textiles, building materials, paints and coatings, colorants and pigments, elastomers, and so on, there is also a subject, chemical economics, and it is this subject, the economics of the chemical industry, that is the concern of this chapter. Of course, the chemical industry does not exist alone, rather it interacts with many aspects of the global economy. [Pg.63]

Jules Backman, The Economics of the Chemical Industry. Manufacturing Chemists Association, Washington, DC, 1970. Valuable for the historical perspective and analysis of the chemical business the statistics are out of date, however. [Pg.5]

What happens to fmx upon scaleup Mixing times in mechanically agitated vessels typically range from a few seconds in laboratory glassware to a few minutes in large industrial reactors. As the size of the vessel increases, will increase, and the increase will eventually limit the size at which the reactor is operable. No process is infinitely scaleable. Sooner or later, additional scaleup becomes impossible, and further increases in production cannot be achieved in single-train plants but must use units in parallel. Fortunately for the economics of the chemical industry, this size limit is often very large. [Pg.27]

Reuben, B.G and Burstall, M.L, (1973) The Chemical Economy A Guide to the Technology and Economics of the Chemical Industry, London Longman. [Pg.85]

Liquid Effluents. Recycling of acid, soda, and zinc have long been necessary economically, and the acid—soda reaction product, sodium sulfate, is extracted and sold into other sectors of the chemical industry. Acid recovery usually involves the degassing, filtering, and evaporative concentration of the spent acid leaving the spinning machines. Excess sodium sulfate is removed by crystallization and then dehydrated before sale. Traces of zinc that escape recovery are removable from the main Hquid effluent stream to the extent that practically all the zinc can now be retained in the process. [Pg.353]

Synthesis. Exploratory research has produced a wide variety of odorants based on natural stmctures, chemicals analogous to naturals, and synthetic materials derived from available raw materials and economical processing. As in most areas of the chemical industry, the search for new and useful substances is made difficult by the many materials that have been patented and successfully commercialized (4). In the search for new aroma chemicals, many new materials are prepared for screening each year. Chemists who perform this work are involved in a creative exercise that takes its direction from the commercial sector in terms of desirable odor types and specific performance needs. Because of economic limitations, considerations of raw material costs and available processing methods may play a role eady in the exploratory work. [Pg.84]

Sulfur [7704-34-9] S, a nonmetallic element, is the second element of Group 16 (VIA) of the Periodic Table, coming below oxygen and above selenium. In massive elemental form, sulfur is often referred to as brimstone. Sulfur is one of the most important taw materials of the chemical industry. It is of prime importance to the fertilizer industry (see Fertilizers) and its consumption is generally regarded as one of the best measures of a nation s industrial development and economic activity (see Sulfur compounds Sulfurremoval and recovery Sulfuric acid and sulfur trioxide). [Pg.115]

These chemicals have all been produced since the beginning of the chemical industry by various and sometimes changing processes. When process changes were made, it was almost always for economic reasons, that is, to make products at lower cost. It seems unlikely that still lower cost processes will be developed, but there may be future process changes for some of these chemicals because of environmental concerns. [Pg.16]

Plastics additives now constitute a highly successful and essential sector of the chemical industry. Polymer additives are a growing sector of the specialty chemical industry. Some materials that have been sold for over 20 years are regarded today as commodity chemicals, particularly when patents covering their use have expired. Others, however, have a shorter life or have even disappeared almost without trace, e.g. when the production process cannot be made suitably economic, when unforeseen toxicity problems occur or when a new generation of additive renders them technically obsolete. [Pg.2]

Fixed Bed Reactors. In its most basic form, a fixed bed reactor consists of a cylindrical tube filled with catalyst pellets. Reactants flow through the catalyst bed and are converted into products. Fixed bed reactors are often referred to as packed bed reactors. They may be regarded as the workhorse of the chemical industry with respect to the number of reactors employed and the economic value of the materials produced. Ammonia synthesis, sulfuric acid production (by oxidation of S02 to S03), and nitric acid production (by ammonia oxidation) are only a few of the extremely high tonnage processes that make extensive use of various forms of packed bed reactors. [Pg.425]

In view of the size of operation being contemplated, it is unlikely that homogeneous catalysts will play a primary role in the production of synthetic oil. However, from the standpoint of the chemical industry, the complex mixture of products obtained from the classical Fischer-Tropsch process is generally unattractive owing to the economic constraints imposed by costly separation/purification processes. What is needed is a catalyst system for the selective conversion of CO/H2 mixtures to added-... [Pg.65]

This chapter will consider some of the most interesting of current approaches to the evolution of enzyme mimics, in the context of continuing dramatic progress in protein and nucleotide engineering. There are excellent practical as well as intellectual reasons for the broad interest in this topic. Catalysis is a major preoccupation of the chemical industry if the application of the principles of biocatalysis can lead to robust and efficient catalysts tailor-made for reactions of economic importance the area will become even more a focus of intense activity and investment. [Pg.341]

Even individual segments of the chemical industry have a very large economic importance. As one example, an Arthur D. Little study has estimated that 23 percent of all business sales, 16 percent of all capital investment and 19 percent of total non-government related jobs are dependent on the production of petrochemicals ( 1). According to this study, 35 to 45 percent of United States business activity is directly or indirectly affected by the American petrochemical industry. [Pg.25]

With such exemptions, innovative chemicals can be produced to explore the commercial market and to test product viability. Knowledge of their economics and potential for different applications can be expanded. These exemptions will lessen the cost of market failures. Successful chemicals will not have to bear the additional PMN cost of unsuccessful market tests. As new substances demonstrate their value to society and find a secure place in the market, they can then begin to absorb some of the costs associated with the PMN requirements. There would indeed be a chance for regaining much of the strength of an innovative chemical industry with all of its attendant benefits to society within the context of TSCA and the intent of Congress expression of the will of the American public when it it was passed with the support of the chemical industry in 1976. [Pg.33]

It is impossible to clearly separate the effects of TSCA from a multitude of other factors which contribute to changes in innovation or the economic condition of the chemical industry. Changes in the tax structure or the inflation rate, for example, have much more impact on innovation and industry R D than does TSCA. But the effects of TSCA cannot be isolated from these other factors. [Pg.219]

Quill was founded in April 1999 as an industrial consortium, with members from all sectors of the chemical industry. It is based on the well-proven industry/uni-versity cooperative research center (lUCRC) concept developed by the U.S. National Science Foundation and is only the second lUCRC in Europe. There were 17 founding industrial members of the Quill consortium, and the current membership includes (listed alphabetically) bp. Chevron, Cytec, DuPont, Eastman Chemicals, ICI, Invista, Merck, Novartis, Procter and Gamble, SACHEM, SASOL, Shell, Strata, and UOP. Research carried out between QUB and individual companies, or by QUILL itself, has generated more than 20 patent applications, many of which have now been published, from as diverse a range of industries as BNFL, BP Chemicals, Cytec, ICI, Quest International, and Uni-chema Chemie BV. In a recent report in Nature, the need for collaboration between government, industry, and academic institutions to form sustainable chemistry centers was stressed as vital in order to rethink traditional chemistry processes to be not only beneficial to the environment but also to make economic sense for industry. Quill, under the codirection of Professors Kenneth R. Seddon and Jim Swindall OBE, is one of these chemistry centers, and is the first (and... [Pg.121]

When the question is raised today as to how the European production industry faces global competition, the answer is quality competition and knowledge-based product differentiation. At the same time it is noted that classic areas of the chemicals industry, such as the production of textile dyes, is practically nonexistent in Europe today. This poses the questions of how do the economic actors... [Pg.131]

In this review we will focus on their use as catalysts and promoters in the introduction of molecular oxygen into organic substrates. Oxidized hydrocarbons serve as important feedstocks for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Unfortunately, hydrocarbons are also infamous in their ability to resist oxidation under environmentally benign and easily controlled conditions. The large volume of these materials needed to satisfy the demand of the chemical industry economically precludes all stoichiometric oxidants, with the sole exception of molecular... [Pg.275]

Another general characteristic of the chemical industry is its importance in everyday life. It is both critical and pervasive. It is critical to the economy of a developed country. In the first half of this century a nation s industrial development was gauged by its production of sulfuric acid, the chemical with the largest amount of production. It has been called the grandfather of economic indicators. Lately ethylene, the largest volume organic chemical, is used to judge this development. The chemical industry cannot be replaced by any other industry. If a country does not have one, it... [Pg.14]

Fig. 8.5 shows the U.S. production of ethylene, propylene, and butadiene over the years. Ethylene has shown a good, steady increase for many years since the 1950s, as it has replaced ethanol as the major C2 raw material and is now used in nearly half of all organic polymers and chemicals produced by volume. Some would argue that it should be used in place of sulfuric acid as the main economic indicator of the chemical industry. Certainly for organic chemicals it has top billing. Propylene shows a similar but lower trend. Although the official production of propylene is usually about half that of ethylene, it is probably near ethylene if captive refmeiy-made... [Pg.128]

T he late W. L. Badger s 40 years experience with commercial evaporators in the chemical industry has provided the basis for the economic production of fresh water from sea water. Five years ago, those familiar with sea water evaporation practice could predict minimum possible water costs no lower than about 1.60 per 1000 gallons. In 1955, the Office of Saline Water, U. S. Department of the Interior, commissioned W. L. Badger and Associates to study the minimum cost of making fresh water from sea water by using evaporator techniques of the chemical industry. Because previous estimates of water cost had been several times above the Office of Saline Water s goal, several optimistic assumptions served as a basis for this study ... [Pg.118]

In the discussion about how we should set up our chemical process industry in the near future, the sustainability issue is of prime importance. Sustainability in the ecological sense means that we do not place an intolerable load on the ecosphere and that we maintain the natural basis for life. The complexity of the chemical industry with its numerous products has made us lose sight of the associated ecological impact of these products life cycles When you produce something, you also produce long-term effects. In economics, this concept is known as joint production [17], and we will discuss this in Section 13.6. [Pg.245]


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