Industrial capital intensity

Control of Crushers Lower-grade raw materials, higher energy costs, larger-scale operations, and more complex, capital-intensive plants make automatic control of size-reduction equipment more important (Suominen, 21st International Symposium—Applications of Computers and Operations Research in the Mineral Industry, 1011-1018). Benefits are increased productivity, process stability and safety, improved recoveiy of mineral values, and reduced costs [Horst and Enochs, Engineering Mining J., 181(6), 69-171 (1980)]. 

Condition monitoring is an established technique which has been used by capital-intensive or high-risk industries to protect their investment. The concept has developed radically in recent years largely due to advances in computerization, which offer greater scope for sophisticated techniques. These fall into three types of monitoring vibration, performance and wear debris. The last monitors particulate debris in a fluid such as lubricating oil, caused by the deterioration of a component. 

The chemical and petrochemical industries are highly capital intensive and this has two important implications for the plant designer. Before the expenditure for any plant is approved, a discounted cash flow (DCF) return on capital invested is projected (Section 9.1). The capital cost of the plant is a key factor in deciding whether the DCF return is above or below the cut-off value used by a company to judge the viability of projects. Thus, there is always strong pressure on the materials engineer not to overspecify the materials of construction. 

The enzyme systems responsible for fixing atmospheric N2 to form ammonia are known as the nitrogenases. These enzymes function at field temperatures and 0.8 atm N2 pressure, whereas the industrial Haber-Bosch process requires high temperatures (300-400°C) and high pressures (200-300 atm) in a capital-intensive process that relies on burning fossil fuel. Small wonder, then, that the chemistry of the nitrogenases has attracted considerable attention for many years. 

In the chemical industry processes are often capital intensive with consistent raw materials being converted into long-life products. If a process is capital intensive it pays to run the process 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, as far as technically possible. Labour costs are likely to be minimised by working continuously as well. 

The Hydrocarbon Processing Industry (HPI), has traditionally been reluctant to invest capital where an immediate direct return on the investment to the company is not obvious, as would any business enterprise. Additionally financial fire losses in the petroleum and related industries were relatively small up to about the 1950 s. This was due to the small size of facilities and the relatively low value of oil and gas to the volume of production. Until 1950, a fire or explosion loss of more than 5 million U. S. Dollars had not occurred in the refining industry in the USA. Also in this period, the capital intensive offshore oil exploration and production industry were only just beginning. The use of gas was also limited early in the century. Consequentially its value was also very low. Typically production gas was immediately flared or the well was capped and considered as an uneconomical reservoir. Since gas development was limited, large vapor explosions were relatively rare and catastrophic destruction from petroleum incidents was essentially unheard of. The outlays for petroleum industry safety features were traditionally the absolute minimum required by governmental regulations. The development of loss prevention philosophies and practices were therefore not effectively developed within the industry. 

While production and distribution are intensively investigated due to the complexity and cost-importance of capital-intensive production assets in the chemical industry, procurement and demand management in the chemical industry value chain is less investigated. 

More directly and in the shorter term there will be consequences for employment. As a capital-intensive industry, the chlor-alkali sector itself does not employ large numbers of people. However, the indirect employment consequences of closure are much greater. Industry estimates may be seen as being too well informed and therefore unreliable, and instead it might take governmental estimates. The European Commission (DG-III, nowDG-Enterprise) has estimated that there would be a loss of 10 000 jobs in the EU chemical industry by the year 2010 - ignoring secondary effects [6]. The... 

Chemical and hazardous materials industry infrastructure includes substantial facility and equipment investment it is highly capital intensive. Most chemical industry facilities contain very specialized process equipment that would be difficult to replace quickly. A good example is an oil refinery plant, where if the cracking facilities were destroyed they could not be replaced anytime soon. It is interesting to note that some chemical industry facilities (e.g., oil refineries) require large amounts of land (have a large footprint) but are typically staffed with few employees relative to on-site land requirements. 

The petroleum industry requires very large, capital-intensive process equipment. Expected lifetimes of process equipment are measured in decades. This limits economic incentives to make capital-intensive process modifications to reduce wastes generation. Reductions in waste generation can be accomplished by process modifications ... 

The pulp and paper industry is very capital-intensive with small profit margins. A paper mill can easily cost more than or 1 billion. It must meet increasing demands for pulp and paper and, at the same time, comply with increasingly stringent environmental regulations. Driven by market and environmental demands for fewer chlorinated products and by-products, the pulp and paper industry is one of the fastest-growing markets for industrial enzymes. 

A thorough understanding of the individual local markets is a prerequisite for minimizing investment risks due to the high capital intensity of the industry, any decision to invest in an emerging country will automatically have long-term consequences. 

Companies must continue cost reduction efforts in production and distribution and - given the high capital intensity of the industry - develop competitive investment strategies. 

In an industry as capital-intensive as chemicals, the focus on operational excellence of the last two decades is understandable. However, a significant additional source of value creation potential exists which is largely untapped creating a revenue advantage. Excellence in sales and marketing can lead to a tangible incremental improvement in ROS. In addition, a one percent improvement in price leads to significantly more value than a similar reduction in variable costs (Fig. 21.1). 

This direct, oxidative condensation of methane to acetic acid in one-pot could be competitive with the current three-step, capital intensive process for the production of acetic acid based on methane reforming to CO, methanol synthesis from CO, and generation of acetic acid by carbonylation of methanol. Key improvements required with the PdS04/H2S04 system, however, will be to develop more stable, faster, and more selective catalysts. Although it is possible sulfuric acid could be utilized industrially as a solvent and oxidant for this reaction, it would be desirable to replace sulfuric acid with a less corrosive material. This chemistry has recently been revisited, verified, and extended by Bell et al., who used Cu(II)/02 as the oxidizing system [22],... 

Pulp and paper refers to the processes employed to convert wood fiber into paper and allied products used in such applications as communications, packaging, and construction. Pulp and paper technologies or processes capitalize upon the anatomical, physical, and chemical properties of wood and, to a much lesser extent, other sources of biomass. The application of those technologies or processes has led to the development of a highly capital intensive industry with worldwide sales on the order of 100 billion per year. 

The production of millions of tons of paper annually requires a capital intensive industry. A modern pulp and paper facility such as the Leaf River Mill shown in Fig. 1 can cost in excess of 800 million to construct. Pulp and paper manufacturing throughout the world is a vast industry, with production levels approaching 300 million tonnes/year. The dominant pulp and paper producing countries include Canada, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Brazil, and Russia. The pulp and paper industry is typically located near convenient, low-cost sources of wood as the raw material. 

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