Other Specialty-Chemical Industries

Apart from life sciences, speciality chemicals—and therefore also their active ingredients, commodities, or fine chemicals—are used ubiquitously, in both 

Examples of applications in eight areas, ranging from adhesives to specialty polymers, are listed in Table 11.11. 

Catalysts and enzymes Chiral synthesis BINAP Novozym 388 2,2 -Bis (diphenylphosphino) l,l -binaphthyl 1,3-Specific lipase Rhodia, France Solvias, Switz. Novozymes, Denmark 

Dyestuffs and pigments Cellulosic vat dye Indanthren 6,15-Dihydro-5,14,18- anthrazinetetrone Dystar, Germany 

Electronic chemicals Liquid crystals Licristal Trifluoromethoxyphenyl derivatives (e.g.) Merck KGaA, Germany 

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Plastics additives now constitute a highly successful and essential sector of the chemical industry. Polymer additives are a growing sector of the specialty chemical industry. Some materials that have been sold for over 20 years are regarded today as commodity chemicals, particularly when patents covering their use have expired. Others, however, have a shorter life or have even disappeared almost without trace, e.g. when the production process cannot be made suitably economic, when unforeseen toxicity problems occur or when a new generation of additive renders them technically obsolete. 

Today s specialty chemicals industry consists of several companies with global operations and countless regional/niche competitors. To illustrate the complexity of specialty chemicals production networks, the network operated by American company Rohm and Haas is presented here. It is chosen because of the public availability of data14 but is representative of other specialty chemicals companies networks. 

No single identification procedure can be considered the best for all companies or all situations. Large refineries and large single train industrial chemical producers with limited products and large technical staffs will by nature approach their reviews differently than specialty batch operations for making limited campaigns of products which are herbicides, insecticides, and other specialty chemicals. 

In contrast with the widespread application of zeolites as solid acid catalysts (see earlier), their use as solid base catalysts received scant attention until fairly recently [121]. This is probably because acid-catalyzed processes are much more common in the oil refining and petrochemical industries. Nonetheless, basic zeolites and related mesoporous molecular sieves can catalyze a variety of reactions, such as Knoevenagel condensations and Michael additions, which are key steps in the manufacture of flavors and fragrances, pharmaceuticals and other specialty chemicals [121]. Indeed, the Knoevenagel reaction of benzaldehyde with ethyl cyanoacetate (Fig. 2.36) has become a standard test reaction for solid base catalysts [121]. 

Since the dryer is a batch-operating unit, it is commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry to maintain batch identification. In addition to pharmaceutical materials, the conical mixer dryer is used to dry polymers, additives, inorganic salts, and many other specialty chemicals. 

As the twenty-first century opened, only two of the nation s six multi-sectored companies that had created the U.S. chemical industry still existed—Du Pont and Dow. On the other hand, all but two of the smaller focused companies—Hercules and Witco—were now the leaders in a healthy American specialty chemical industry. 

Then, in 1989, the sell offs ensued. That year Ethyl disposed of its semiconductor, plastics, aluminum, and coal businesses to its stockholders under the name of Tredeghar Industries. In 1993 it spun off its insurance business to its stockholders as the First Colony Company. The next year, the managers did the same for its chemicals—olefins and their derivatives, bromides, and other specialty chemicals. This was accomplished by creating a new Fortune 500 enterprise named Albemarle. 

Thus, an array of bioactive compounds, often derived directly from the pharmaceutical and crop protection industries, are used antibacterials, anticoccidials, miticides, nematicides, parasiticides (for control of both internal and external parasites), and insecticides. In addition, other specialty chemicals, such as growth-regulating, estrous-synchronizing, and nutrient-repartitioning agents, are in use and are being considered for use in animal production. 

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT The Pentagon, Washington DC 20301-1000, (703) 695-5261, or (703) 545-6700. Not only does the Defense Department purchase a great deal of adhesives, sealants, coatings, tapes, composites, and other miscellaneous materials from the Adhesive and Specialty Chemicals industries, but they also fund a great deal of research and development on materials, both internally and externally, some of which is related to these same products. Listed below are a number of locations and groups with the Defense Department which have interfaced at some point with the Adhesive industry. 

The resolution of racemic mixtures, i.e., the separation of at least one of the enantiomers in pure form, is an important step in the manufacture of chiral products in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, flavour and perfumery industries and for other specialty chemicals. The necessity to resolve racemic mixtures is particularly strong in the pharmaceutical industry since the two component enantiomers (see section 1.9 for definition of terms) in the equimolar mixture can have very different pharmacological activities. Thalidomide is a frequently quoted example one stereoisomer was the beneficial agent for preventing morning sickness in pregnant women while the other caused serious birth defects. 

To illustrate another component of the forest products industry it may be instructive to take a brief look at the pine chemicals industry. The pine chemicals industry is not a new industry, but it is a very small portion of what is now known as the specialty chemicals industry, despite the fact that pine chemicals have been in active use for longer than the modern chemical industry era that arose in the early part of the 20th century. The pine chemicals industry has been extracting useful products such as turpentine and other simple materials for literally hundreds of years. With the rise of the pulp and paper industry, chemicals have in the majority been extracted from two waste streams crude tall oil and crude sulfate turpentine. Crude tall oil can be further separated into a fatty acid fraction, a tall oil fraction, a tail oil rosin fraction, and a tall oil pitch fraction. The crude sulfate fraction is separated into a variety of terpene monomers that can be further transformed into a variety of terpene resins. AH of these streams can be used as raw materials for coatings, various oil applications, surfactants, adhesives, inks, etc. [50]. 

Continuous reactors in the pharmaceutical and specialty chemical industries may not only be needed for high productivity as in other segments of the chemical industry, but additionally to solve specific reactor design problems caused by limitations in batch operation. These limitations include heat transfer, mass transfer, and mixing. Continuous reactors are also used to minimize the reacting volume of thermally potent and/or noxious reactions and to decrease the potential and exposure for catastrophic failure of a vessel. Chemical industry reactor standards such as packed bed, fluid bed, and trickle bed reactors And limited utility since this type of phase contacting can usually be achieved in a slurry reactor, where residence time distribution variations, which can lead to changes in product distributions, are eliminated. Continuous stirred tank reactor operation is used only... 

Almost all industrial catalysts are developed by researchers who are motivated to improve processes or create new ones. Thus the organization that first uses a new catalyst is usually the one that has discovered it. This organization, however, only rarely becomes the manufacturer of the catalyst used on a large scale. Catalysts are for the most part highly complex specialty chemicals, and catalyst manufacturers tend to be more efficient than others in producing them. Catalyst manufacturing is a competitive industry. Catalyst users often develop close relations with catalyst manufacturers, and the two may work together to develop and improve proprietary catalysts. 

Batchwise operating three-phase reactors are frequently used in the production of fine and specialty chemicals, such as ingredients in drags, perfumes and alimentary products. Large-scale chemical industry, on the other hand, is often used with continuous reactors. As we developed a parallel screening system for catalytic three-phase processes, the first decision concerned the operation mode batchwise or continuous. We decided for a continuous reactor system. Batchwise operated parallel sluny reactors are conunercially available, but it is in many cases difficult to reveal catalyst deactivation from batch experiments. In addition, investigation of the effect of catalyst particle size on the overall activity and product distribution is easier in a continuous device. 

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