Future raw materials

Future inventory planning approach to anticipate future inventory values in the value chain network based on future raw material price forecasts. 

Use of the system for future raw material decisions will improve refinery profitability and/ or indicate specific expansion/revamp areas to be evaluated. In general terms, the results are acceptable and believable and additional applications of the system will develop as it is put into extensive use at Toledo. 

Methanol also may be produced from wood gas so wood could be a future raw material for making methanol, especially for use as an additive to gasoline for internal combustion engines. Thus, reforming the gasification products obtained at high temperatures is a second method for the production of methanol from wood. This is in contrast to the older method (destructive distillation), which directly yields small quantities of methanol at lower temperatures as mentioned above. 

Green fibres like flax, jute, sisal, kenaf and fibres of allied plants, which have been used for more than 8000 years, are the present and will be the future raw materials not only for the textile industry but also for modern eco-friendly composites used in different areas of application like building materials, particle boards, insulation boards, food, fodder and nourishment, friendly cosmetics, medicine and source for other bio-polymers agro-fine chemicals and energy . Potentially, under optimum cultivation conditions, they cause little or no detrimental effect on the ecosystem, they can grow in different climatic zones and they recycle the carbon dioxide in the Earth s atmosphere. 

However, there are many other factors to be considered in the choice of reaction path. Some are commercial, such as uncertainties regarding future prices of raw materials and b3q)roducts. Others are technical, such as safety and energy consumption. 

After development of a new process scheme at laboratory scale, constmction and operation of pilot-plant faciUties to confirm scale-up information often require two or three years. An additional two to three years is commonly required for final design, fabrication of special equipment, and constmction of the plant. Thus, projections of raw material costs and availabiUty five to ten years into the future become important in adopting any new process significantly different from the current technology. 

L. E. Swabb, Jr., G. K. Vick, and T. Aczel, "The Liquefaction of SoHd Carbonaceous Matedals," paper presented at The World Conference on Future Sources of Organic Raw Materials, Toronto, Can., July 10, 1978. 

Aluminum prices have historically been more stable than other nonferrous metals. Beginning iu the 1970s, however, aluminum prices have fluctuated as shown iu Table 13 (30). These fluctuations reflect increased energy costs as well as increased costs of raw materials. Improvements in production processes as well as a rebalancing of demand and supply are expected to stabilize aluminum prices in the future. 

The future for amino resins and plastics seems secure because they can provide quaHties that are not easily obtained in other ways. New developments will probably be in the areas of more highly specialized materials for treating textiles, paper, etc, and for use with other resins in the formulation of surface coatings, where a small amount of an amino resin can significantly increase the value of a more basic material. Additionally, since amino resins contain a large proportion of nitrogen, a widely abundant element, they may be in a better position to compete with other plastics as raw materials based on carbon compounds become more costly. 

Table 6 shows the production of abrasive sihcon carbide in the United States and Canada (131). In 1988, four firms were producing cmde sihcon carbide under various trade names at six plants in the United States and Canada, The Exolon-ESK Co. General Abrasive/Dresser Co. Norton Co. and Superior Graphite Co. Most plants are located in areas where electrical power is, or at one time, was available at relatively low rates. Other considerations are availabihty of labor, reasonable air and water pollution standards, future expansion potential, and proximity of raw materials and markets. 

New raw materials will be the key to unlocking the opportunities above and to creating the possibility for new sets of adhesive properties. On the horizon are new types of moisture curable systems and a variety of novel block copolymers. The future may find entirely new mechanisms or morphologies for strength development on cooling. 

Benson and Ponton (1993) and Ponton (1996) have speculated on the ultimate results of continuing efforts for process minimization. They envision a twenty-first century chemical industry totally revolutionized by technological innovation, automation, and miniaturization. Small, distributed manufacturing facilities would produce materials on demand, at the location where they are needed. Raw materials would be nonhazardous, and the manufacturing processes would be waste free and inherently safe. While their vision of future technology is speculative, we are beginning to see progress in this direction. 

Two keys to the future use of composite materials are (1) achieving lower raw material cost and (2) developing innovative fabrication techniques that are uniquely suited to the characteristics of composite materials. This duality of approaches is leading to considerable success with composite structures right now, but they also hold the key to the even wider use of composite materials in the future. Let s address the two keys individually. 

The size of each raw material source must be determined in the light of e.xisling and estimated future requirements. An attempt must be made to estimate the life of the raw material source based on future requirements. Alternate sources or substitutes in the area should also be located and evaluated. The eost of delivering raw material to the plant site can then be determined for all sourees that meet the process quality and quantity specifications. 

Correlate future expansion plans to required utilities and raw materials as related to economics of required installation. 

Coal, oil shale, and tar sand are complex carbonaceous raw materials and possible future energy and chemical sources. However, they must undergo lengthy and extensive processing before they yield fuels and chemicals similar to those produced from crude oils (substitute natural gas (SNG) and synthetic crudes from coal, tar sand and oil shale). These materials are discussed briefly at the end of this chapter. 

As a starting point, the book reviews the general properties of the raw materials. This is followed by the different techniques used to convert these raw materials to the intermediates, which are further reacted to produce the petrochemicals. The first chapter deals with the composition and the treatment techniques of natural gas. It also reviews the properties, composition, and classification of various crude oils. Properties of some naturally occurring carbonaceous substances such as coal and tar sand are briefly noted at the end of the chapter. These materials are targeted as future energy and chemical sources when oil and natural gas are depleted. Chapter 2 summarizes the important properties of hydrocarbon intermediates and petroleum fractions obtained from natural gas and crude oils. 

An example of the way in which process competition works in the manufacture of plastics is the story of acrylonitrile. The first process for the production of this plastic was based upon the reaction between hydrogen cyanide and acetylene, both hard to handle, poisonous, and explosive chemicals. The raw material costs were relatively low as compared to materials for other monomers, but the plant investment and manufacturing costs were too high. As a result, originally acrylonitrile monomer (1950s) sold for about 30 cents per pound and the future of the material looked dim as other plastics such as polyethylene became available at much lower prices due to their lower production costs. 

For some time worldwide a systematic and large expansion of vegetable oil production has been occurring, especially in southeastern Asia in 1990 the consumption of fats amounted to about 80 million tons. Eighty percent was used as food, 6% as feed, but 14%—more than 14 million metric tons—was used for industrial purposes. By the year 2000 the world fat production will have risen to over 100 million tons [3]. Also, in the future the oleo chemistry will have a broad and reliable raw materials basis. Tables 3 and 4 give information on the present and future production of important fats and fatty oils and the composition of the fatty acid mixtures that can be derived from these fats. 

Hoechst AG, Hostapur SAS the raw material with a sure future, 1987. 

Ester sulfonates will become more and more interesting in the future because the raw materials for their preparation are fatty acid esters which can be prepared from oils and fats, and thus from renewable resources. They can be used as possible substitutes for surfactants based on petrochemicals. 

Even today renewable resources play a dominant role as raw materials for surfactants, but only because of the great contribution made by soaps to the production of surfactants. If the soaps are left out of consideration as native surfactants, petrochemistry holds 65-70% of the production of synthetic surfactants [2]. But for the future a further increase of renewable raw materials is expected in surfactant production [3]. The main reason for this development is the superior digestibility in the environment of products produced from natural materials. The future importance of the renewable raw materials becomes evident from the fact that even now new plants are cultivated or plants are modified to obtain an improved yield. A new type of sunflower has been cultivated to obtain a higher proportion of monounsaturated oleic acid compared with doubly unsaturated linoleic acid [4],... 

However, it could be expected that the share of the latter group will rise to the same extent as the rising importance of environmental digestibility. It is very possible that in the future the C16/C18 ester sulfonates will partly replace the alkylbenzenesulfonates produced from petrochemical raw material [6,7]. N. R. Smith [8] expects the a-sulfo methyl esters to be an alternative to ethylene-based surfactants. An increase in the production of surfactants based on ethylene is problematic, because in industrial countries ethylene production is occurring at 95% of capacity and more. 

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