Organic chemical industry technology-based

Two-thirds of the chlorine produced in North America is consumed by the organic chemicals industry (25% goes to ethylene dichloride production alone). Pulp and paper mills account for another 15%, while 5% of the total is used in water treatment. All of these applications, however, have environmental implications that led to demands from activist groups that the production of chlorine derivatives be reduced (even, in the extreme view, phased out entirely). While these concerns are being taken seriously in all quarters, and some chlorinated products have already been banned, the fact is that chlorine-based technologies make, and will continue to make, important positive contributions to human health and prosperity. Indeed, at the time of writing in 1996, chlorine consumption continues to rise, al-... 

To determine the industries likely to use a chemical, the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, the Organic Chemical Producers Data Base, and the National Occupational Hazard Survey may be of help. This last source represents the only comprehensive industrial exposure survey. Under its mandate in the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, NIOSH conducted a two and a half year statistically structured survey of United States workplaces to determine the levels of chemicals, trademark products, or physical agents to which workers were being exposed by job title. The Inventory of Chemicals in Commerce recently assembled by EPA s Office of Toxic Substances also contains data on chemical production by site as well as a coded production volume. EPA can also use Section 8 of TSCA to collect chemical use data, but has not done so to date. 

Where no complete mathematical description of the process and no dimensionless-numbers equations are available, modeling based on individual ratios can be employed. This is the most characteristic case for a number of industrial processes, especially in the field of organic-chemicals technology. This method is referred to as scale-up modeling (Mukhyonov et al., 1979). In such cases, individual ratios for the model and the object, which should have a constant value, are employed. For instance, there should be a constant ratio between the space velocity of the reacting mixture in the model and the industrial object. Some of the dimensionless numbers mentioned in physical modeling are also employed in this case. 

The chemical industry is essentially a science-based industry. The technologies applied in the chemical industry have their well-established scientific roots, and industry growth has been closely linked to scientific discoveries. One of the main reasons for the enormous growth of the chemical industry in the developed world has been its great commitment to the investment in R D. This traditional investment in R D does much to explain the outstanding growth rate of the industry in the twentieth century and its superior record of increased productivity. The industry s organized application of science to industrial problems has... 

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