Petrochemical manufacturing processes

Growth of the industrial gas industry has actually exceeded the unprecedented growth in primary petrochemicals over the past 40 years. This is due to the higher intensity of industrial gas use in petrochemical manufacturing processes, as well as a significant reduction in the cost of industrial gas production from introduction of technology innovations. This trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Gas usage will increase to meet environmental requirements and facilitate process efficiency improvements. 

Table 5.5.3 Heat of reaction for selected reactions of fuel and petrochemical manufacturing processes [data from Lange (2001)].

This process thus enables gasoline production to be increased if the propylene can not be used for petrochemical manufacture. It recovers ethylene economically from fuel-gas. 

Most higher alcohols of commercial importance are primary alcohols secondary alcohols have more limited specialty uses. Detergent range alcohols are apt to be straight chain materials and are made either from natural fats and oils or by petrochemical processes. The plasticizer range alcohols are more likely to be branched chain materials and are made primarily by petrochemical processes. Whereas alcohols made from natural fats and oils are always linear, some petrochemical processes produce linear alcohols and others do not. Industrial manufacturing processes are discussed in Synthetic processes. 

Chemical Processing. The use of oxygen in large-volume chemical and petrochemical manufacture is weU-estabHshed as a result of advantages 3) and 4). Most oxidation reactions are catalytic many begin with a feedstock initially made catalyticaHy from methane or natural gas. 

Gycloaliphatics and Aromatics. Cychc compounds (cyclohexane and benzene) are also important sources of petrochemical products (Fig. 14). Aromatics are ia high concentration ia the product streams from a catalytic reformer. When aromatics are needed for petrochemical manufacture, they are extracted from the reformer s product usiag solvents such as glycols (eg, the Udex process) and sulfolane. 

The production of petrochemicals from feedstocks has also been an area of wide application of two-dimensional GC. A detailed knowledge of the composition of feedstocks and intermediates in the manufacturing process is central to obtaining... 

Alcohols obtained from fats and oils contain an even number of carbon atoms and they are completely linear. Alcohols obtained from petrochemical sources can be linear or branched, depending on the manufacturing process, and can also have even or odd numbers of carbon atoms. In many practical applications the small differences observed in the behavior of sulfated alcohols or indeed sulfated alcohol ethoxylates from either source is of no significance and the choice is made on economic grounds. 

Integrated Includes topping, cracking, lube oil manufacturing processes, and petrochemical operations. 

Hydrogen is present in fossil fuels and water in sufficient quantities that it can be produced on a large scale by three different methods 1) Petrochemical Processes, 2) Coal-based Chemical Processes and 3) Electrochemical Processes (Electrolysis). In Table 5.7, the percentage of hydrogen production is broken down by type of manufacturing process for the years between 1974 and 198846. A similar distribution for 2002 is shown in Table 5.8162. 

Oil Gas Processing Refining Maritime Transportation Refined Products Distribution Chemicals Petrochemicals Manufacturing... 

In 1825, Faraday isolated benzene from a liquid condensed by compressing oil gas. Benzene was first synthesized by Mitscherlich in 1833 by distilling benzoic acid with lime. Benzene was first commercially recovered from light oil derived from coal tar in 1849 and from petroleum in 1941 (IARC 1982a). Several years after the end of World War II, the rapidly expanding chemical industry created an increased demand for benzene that the coal carbonization industry could not fulfill. To meet this demand, benzene was produced by the petroleum and petrochemical industries by recovery from reformat and liquid by-products of the ethylene manufacturing process (Purcell 1978). 

A full spectrum of licensed petrochemical technologies is featured. These include manufacturing processes for olefins, aromatics, polymers, acids/salts, aldehydes, ketones, nitrogen compounds, chlorides and cyclo-compounds. Over 30 licensing companies have submitted process flow diagrams and informative process descriptions that include economic data, operating conditions, number of commercial installations and more. 

PetroFCC [Petrochemicals Fluid Catalytic Cracking] A modified FCC process that increases the yields of propylene and butene for use in petrochemical manufacture. The modifications are mainly to the engineering and involve a dual reaction zone with a single regenerator. One feature is RxCat technology, which involves mixing some of the spent catalyst with regenerated catalyst in a separate chamber. Developed by UOP in 2000 and licensed for use in the Philippines in 2008. 

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