Industry sectors processing

Table 1 is an estimate of energy usage by United States industry for 1988 (1). The chemical industry used 21% of the energy consumed by the U.S. industrial sector, and the other three related process industries, paper (qv), petroleum (qv), and primary metals, combined for an additional 50% of the industrial consumption. 

The chemical industry represents a 455-billion-dollar-a-year business, with products ranging from cosmetics, to fuel products, to plastics, to pharmaceuticals, health care products, food additives, and many others. It is diverse and dynamic, with market sectors rapidly expanding, and in turmoil in many parts of the world. Across these varied industry sectors, basic unit operations and equipment are applied on a daily basis, and indeed although there have been major technological innovations to processes, many pieces of equipment are based upon a foundation of engineering principles developed more than 50 years ago. 

Much of the potential for improvement in technical energy efficiencies in industrial processes depends on how closely such processes have approached their thermodynamic limit. There are two types of energy efficiency measures (1) more efficient use in existing equipment through improved operation, maintenance or retrofit of equipment and (2) use of more efficient new equipment by introducing more efficient processes and systems at the point of capital turnover or expansion of production. More efficient practices and new technologies exist for all industrial sectors. Table 2 outlines some examples of energy efficiency improvement techniques and practices. 

Excluding tobacco and tobacco smoke (lf f3), the largest known human exposure to N-nitrosamines is in the industrial sector (4). The area or process air samples containing the largest amount of nitrosamines are in a tire factory, NMOR at the 250 yg/m level (5, a leather tannery, NDMA at the 47 ]xg/wr level (jy, and a rocket fuel factory, NDMA at the 36 yg/m level (7). 

It is also generally not the case that Industry is building new plants to accommodate each new process or product. This means that within any industrial sector of the chemical enterprise, the type of unit operations in use is generally fairly small and fixed. Within... 

Catalysis opens reaction pathways that are not accessible to uncatalysed reactions. It should be self-evident that thermodynamics predict whether a reaction can occur. So, catalysis influences reaction rates (and as a consequence selectivities), but the thermodynamic equilibrium still is the boundary. Catalysis plays a key role in chemical conversions, although it is fair to state that it is not applied to the same degree in all sectors of the chemical industry. While in bulk chemicals production catalytic processes constitute over 80 % of the industrially applied processes, in fine chemicals and specialty chemicals production catalysis plays a relatively modest role. In the pharmaceutical industry its role is even smaller. It is the opinion of the authors that catalysis has a large potential in these areas and that its role will increase drastically in the coming years. However, catalysis is a multidisciplinary subject that has a lot of aspects unfamiliar to synthetic chemists. Therefore, it was decided to treat catalysis in a separate chapter. 

FIGURE 1.8 Electrolytic process. (From Wang, L.K. et al. Case Studies of Cleaner Production and Site Remediation, Training Manual DTT-5-4-95, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Industrial Sectors and Environment Division, Vienna, Austria, April 1995.)... 

The production of goods and services requires technical information, that is, the necessary knowledge for the production process. Information is an economic good in its own right with characteristics that differentiate it from other goods, and also a differential factor for businesses in an industrial sector. 

Biocatalysts Ltd. is an independent company that since 1980 has been devoted to the manufacture and sales enzymes. Since it is not part of a larger chemical, food ingredients or pharmaceutical company, instead of producing large volumes of commodity enzymes, it produces enzymes tailored to customer needs. Their services include working together with customers to industrialize their processes or to produce specific required enzymes. Usually, these customer sectors do not require single enzyme entities, but enzyme complexes where the ratios of each of the components are crucial to the efficacy of the whole enzyme-biocatalyst product and to the customer s process. Fermentation requirements for the manufacture of enzyme products are sub-contracted out. 

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