Heavy inorganic chemicals

For some time, we have used the definition of successful marketing as the creation and satisfaction of a demand at a satisfactory profit. Measured against that definition, many of the heavy inorganic chemicals are not being successfully marketed. 

Next, let s look at some of the points made with respect to the heavy inorganic chemical industry at a similar meeting held in September,... 

Technical service and applied research, which had their beginnings in the early twenties, have come to the forefront since the end of World War II. In the competitive sixties, expansion of new products and processes will be even greater than in the past. Thus, successful marketing will depend more and more on improving application research and technical service, both of which will be more needed. There are at least two reasons for this. Overcapacity will continue for several heavy inorganic chemicals and foreign competition will be an important factor. 

The furnace acid and its salts account for about 85% of the use of white P. Heavy inorganic chemicals such as PCI3, P4O10 and P4S10 account for about another 12%, and all other industrial phosphorus compounds the remainder. The annual world production of white phosphorus declined considerably in the 1990s, but is still around 0.5 x 10 tons. 

It will be noted that the cumene process is based only on materials derived from petroleum in contrast to many other routes there is no substantial requirement of heavy inorganic chemicals. The economics of the process are bound up with the value of the co-product, acetone. The first cumene-phenol plant came on stream in 1952 and since this time the cumene process has become increasingly dominant. 

An important sector of heavy inorganic chemical manufacturing is the production of chlorine and sodium hydroxide — the chlor-alkali industry. The manufacture of these chemicals has a long history. Today they are produced simultaneously by the electrolysis of sodium chloride solutions, but this was not always the case. The two chemicals were originally manufactured by different routes. In the 19th century chlorine was made by the oxidation of hydrogen chloride (itself made by reaction of salt with sulfuric acid) using the Deacon process. Sodium hydroxide was prepared by the reaction of calcium hydroxide with sodium carbonate — the lime-soda process. 

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