Methanol industrial chemical

Although methanol from synthesis gas has been a large-scale industrial chemical for 70 years, the scientific basis of the manufacture apparently can stand some improvement, which was undertaken by Beenackers, Graaf, and Stamhiiis (in Gheremisinoff, ed., Handbook of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 3, Gulf, 1989, pp. 671—699). The process occurs at 50 to 100 atm with catalyst of oxides of Gii-Zn-Al and a feed stream of H2, GO, and GO2. Three reactions were taken for the process ... 

Methanol synthesis will be used many times as an example to explain some concepts, largely because the stoichiometry of methanol synthesis is simple. The physical properties of all compounds are well known, details of many competing technologies have been published and methanol is an important industrial chemical. In addition to its relative simplicity, methanol synthesis offers an opportunity to show how to handle reversible reactions, the change in mole numbers, removal of reaction heat, and other engineering problems. 

Many low-molecular-weight aldehydes and ketones are important industrial chemicals. Formaldehyde, a starting material for a number of plastics, is prepared by oxidation of methanol over a silver or non oxide/rnolybdenurn oxide catalyst at elevated temperature. 

Isopropanol (2-propanol) is an important alcohol of great synthetic utility. It is the second-largest volume alcohol after methanol (1998 U.S. production was approximately 1.5 billion pounds) and it was the 49th ranked chemical. Isopropanol under the name isopropyl alcohol was the first industrial chemical synthesized from a petroleum-derived olefin (1920). 

Petrochemicals and fossil fuels entail chemicals produced from hydrocarbon feedstocks, such as crude oil products and natural gas. They include such chemicals as hydrocarbons and industrial chemicals (e.g., alcohols, acrylates, acetates), aromatics (e.g., benzene, toluene, xylenes), and olefins (e.g., ethylene, propylene, butadiene, methanol). 

Sulfuric acid, methanol, and polystyrene are other industrially important chemicals that depend on equilibrium reactions for their production. Choose one of these chemicals, or another industrial chemical. Research methods that are used to produce it, as well as the products that are derived from it. To start your research, go to the web site above and click on Web Links. Prepare a report that outlines what you learned. 

The intent of the symposium upon which this book is based was to (1) identify the technical and economic forces that are crucial for the successful production of chemicals from synthesis gas and methanol within an ever-changing world economic climate, (2) delineate the present state of technical development for the chemicals most likely to be commercially produced from synthesis gas and methanol, and (3) provide useful new mechanistic insights into these and closely related processes that will speed development of the field. This volume contains chapters written by most of the speakers from that symposium. In addition, several complementary chapters have been added for subject balance. The result is a volume that covers technical and economic aspects of most of the new industrially interesting synthesis gas- or methanol-based chemical processes. 

At present, methanol is (besides methane) the only chemical that can be produced with 100% selectivity from syngas, and it therefore constitutes a unique starting material for purely syngas-based industrial chemicals. This new role for methanol is also assisted by the ease of transporting it from areas where it can be cheaply produced from low-cost natural gas, coal or renewable sources such as biomass. The rising ethylene cost has given impetus to research devoted to finding routes in which ethylene can be replaced by methanol. 

Reactions 19 and 20 demonstrate the possibility of replacing ethylene by methanol as a base chemical in routes to industrial chemicals. 

Syngas and methanol. Methanol is one of the top industrial chemicals today. It is produced on a very large scale from fossil-derived syngas by use of a Cu-Zn-Al-oxide catalyst, however, it can of course also be produced in a similar manner from bio-derived syngas. Methanol (and also syngas) can be used as a feedstock to produce dimethyl ether via catalytic dehydration. However, the chemistry involved in these processes is well-known, and will not be considered here, since it has been extensively dealt with in detail elsewhere. ... 

Dichloromethane was first prepared by Regnault in 1840 by the chlorination of methyl chloride in sunlight. It became an industrial chemical of importance during the Second World War. Two commercial processes are currently used for the production of dichloromethane—hydrochlorination of methanol and direct chlorination of methane (Rossberg etal., 1986 Holbrook, 1993). 

Oxidation of Methane. The direct selective transformation of methane to methanol and formaldehyde, two valuable industrial chemicals is a goal that is extremely... 

Whatever the source of synthesis gas, it is the starting point for many industrial chemicals. Some examples to be discussed are the hydroformylation process for converting alkenes to aldehydes and alcohols, the Monsanto process for the production of acetic acid from methanol, the synthesis of methanol from methane, and the preparation of gasoline by the Mobil and Fischer-Tropsch methods. 

Supported copper catalysts are widely used in industrial chemical processes far the hydrogenation of different compounds. Of great importance are the synthesis of methanol in the presence of CuO/ZnO/Al203 catalyst and hydrogenation of fat oxo-aldehydes to alcohols with mixed copper-chromium oxides. 

Methanol is distributed throughout the U.S. as an industrial chemical. Most suppliers can be found in the phone book under chemical or industrial supplies. The price of methanol in small quantities is much higher than if delivered in large bulk quantities (such as how petroleum fuels are delivered). 

At Sandia National Laboratories, experiments in an SCWO flow reactor provided data on a number of organics, including methanol, phenol, and other industrial chemicals, as well as military munitions (Rice, 1994). Commercial SCWO processes are designed to operate at temperatures typically less than 700°C. The development of SCWO technology depends on understanding the reaction kinetics of a wide variety of compounds at SCWO conditions. Predictive chemistry models, as they become available, will play an important role in finding answers to such design problems as ... 

Repeated Dose Dermal Tests. Twenty-one to 28-day dermal tests are particularly important when the expected route of human exposure is by contact with the skin, as is the case with many industrial chemicals or pesticides. Compounds to be tested are usually applied daily to clipped areas on the back of the animal, either undiluted or in a suitable vehicle. In the latter case, if a vehicle is used, it is also applied to the controls. Selection of a suitable solvent is difficult because many affect the skin, causing either drying or irritation, whereas others may markedly affect the rate of penetration of the test chemical. Com oil, methanol, or carboxymethyl cellulose are preferred to dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or acetone. It should also be considered that some of the test chemical may be ingested as a result of grooming by the animal, although this can be controlled to some extent by use of restraining collars and/or wrapping. 

Charcoal was a valued commodity in antiquity. The ancient Egyptians used the volatile product of hardwood distillation, pyroligneous acid, for embalming. Before synthetic organic chemistry became well established, destructive hardwood distillation provided several important industrial chemicals, among these were acetone, acetic acid, and methanol (still often referred to as wood alcohol). Charcoal is a fine, smokeless fuel, prized for its smokeless nature and used extensively for outdoor cooking. Acetone was originally made by the dry distillation of calcium acetate made from wood-derived acetic acid, but better, cheaper sources are also available. 

A 20-mL sample was preconcentrated on a 3-cm column containing Ct reverse-phase material and eluted and chromatographed with a mobile phase o/ 30 70 methanol.O.lM ammonium acetate, pH 6.2 on a 15 cm x 4.6 mm analytical column packed with Ct material electrochemical detector operated at +500 mV vs. Ag/AgCI—(A) standard aqueous solution (B) ground water sample collected near an industrial chemical dumping area. 

A major trend in industrial chemistry has been an emphasis on improved processes for the production of major chemicals such as ethylene, propylene, vinyl chloride, styrene, alkylene oxides, methanol, terephthalates, and so on. The necessity for higher efficiency, lower cost processes has been accentuated by the relatively slow growth rates of major industrial chemicals over the past two decades or so. The fertilizer portion of the agricultural chemicals market as described in Table 2.6 is an example of the slow growth. 

Alcohols occur widely in nature and have many industrial and pharmaceutical applications. Methanol, for instance, is one of the most important of all industrial chemicals. Historically, methanol was prepared by heating wood in the absence of air and thus came to be called wooil alcohol. Today, approximately... 

Because of its unique position as both a highly taxed beverage and an important industrial chemical, ethyl alcohol poses a special problem it must be made available to tfie chemical industry in a form that is unfit to drink. This problem is solved by addition of a denaturant a substance that makes it unpalatable or even poisonous. Two of the eighty-odd legal denaturants, for example, are methanol and high-test gasoline. When necessary, pure undenatured ethyl alcohol is available for chemical purposes, but its use is strictly controlled by the Federal Government. 

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