Petroleum chemicals Production

Sweeney, W. J., Petroleum and Its Products, 24th annual Priestly lectures, Pennsylvania State University, 1950. Production and refining of petroleum, chemical production from petroleum and utilization of petroleum products. 

TABLE 7.1. Petroleum Chemicals Production 1935-1965 (Million Tonnes)... 

Ethylene (as well as propylene) produced from carbon dioxide subsequently allows ready preparation of the whole array of hydrocarbons, as well as their derivatives and products that have become essential to our everyday life. Whereas the nineteenth century relied mostly on coal for energy as well as derived chemical products, the twentieth century greatly supplemented this with petroleum and nat-... 

Acrylics. Acetone is converted via the intermediate acetone cyanohydrin to the monomer methyl methacrylate (MMA) [80-62-6]. The MMA is polymerized to poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) to make the familiar clear acryUc sheet. PMMA is also used in mol ding and extmsion powders. Hydrolysis of acetone cyanohydrin gives methacrylic acid (MAA), a monomer which goes direcdy into acryUc latexes, carboxylated styrene—butadiene polymers, or ethylene—MAA ionomers. As part of the methacrylic stmcture, acetone is found in the following major end use products acryUc sheet mol ding resins, impact modifiers and processing aids, acryUc film, ABS and polyester resin modifiers, surface coatings, acryUc lacquers, emulsion polymers, petroleum chemicals, and various copolymers (see METHACRYLIC ACID AND DERIVATIVES METHACRYLIC POLYMERS). 

Coal is used ia industry both as a fuel and ia much lower volume as a source of chemicals. In this respect it is like petroleum and natural gas whose consumption also is heavily dominated by fuel use. Coal was once the principal feedstock for chemical production, but ia the 1950s it became more economical to obtain most industrial chemicals from petroleum and gas. Nevertheless, certain chemicals continue to be obtained from coal by traditional routes, and an interest in coal-based chemicals has been maintained in academic and industrial research laboratories. Much of the recent activity in coal conversion has been focused on production of synthetic fuels, but significant progress also has been made on use of coal as a chemical feedstock (see Coal CONVERSION processes). 

Boron trifluoride [7637-07-2] (trifluoroborane), BF, was first reported in 1809 by Gay-Lussac and Thenard (1) who prepared it by the reaction of boric acid and fluorspar at duU red heat. It is a colorless gas when dry, but fumes in the presence of moisture yielding a dense white smoke of irritating, pungent odor. It is widely used as an acid catalyst (2) for many types of organic reactions, especially for the production of polymer and petroleum (qv) products. The gas was first produced commercially in 1936 by the Harshaw Chemical Co. (see also Boron COMPOUNDS). 

Petroleum (qv) products dominate lubricant production with a 98% share of the market for lubricating oils and greases. While lower cost leads to first consideration of these petroleum lubricants, production of various synthetic lubricants covered later has been expanding to take advantage of special properties such as stability at extreme temperatures, chemical inertness, fire resistance, low toxicity, and environmental compatibility. 

Patty amines and chemical products derived from the amines are used in many industries. Uses for the nitrogen derivatives may be broken down as follows as a percentage of total market fabric softeners (46%), oil field chemicals (15%), asphalt emulsifiers (10%), petroleum additives (10%), mining (4%), and others (15%) (8). 

Acetone Cyanohydrin. This cyanohydrin, also known as a-hydroxyisobutyronitnle and 2-methyUactonitrile [75-86-5], is very soluble in water, diethyl ether, and alcohol, but only slightly soluble in carbon disulfide or petroleum ether. Acetone cyanohydrin is the most important commercial cyanohydrin as it offers the principal commercial route to methacrylic acid and its derivatives, mainly methyl methacrylate [80-62-6] (see Methacrylic acid AND derivatives). The principal U.S. manufacturers are Rohm and Haas Co., Du Pont, CyRo Industries, and BP Chemicals. Production of acetone cyanohydrin in 1989 was 582,000 metric tons (30). 

There are no available data to establish whether nonconductive, low viscosity chemical products such as ethyl ether similarly display hyperbolic relaxation below about 2 pS/m, or even whether this phenomenon is a practical reality for such liquids. Should Ohmic relaxation behavior continue to much less than 0.5 pS/m the risk of static accumulation would be enhanced compared with petroleum distillates. 

For many years the petroleum industry has defined nonconductive liquids as having conductivities less than 50 pS/m. A higher value of 100 pS/m is used here to address the higher dielectric constants of certain flammable chemicals in relation to petroleum products. For example the dielectric constant of ethyl ether is 4.6 versus 2.3 for benzene from Eq. (2-3.2), ethyl ether therefore has the same relaxation time at a conductivity of 100 pS/m as benzene at a conductivity of 50 pS/m. It is the relaxation time, not the conductivity alone, that determines the rate of loss of charge hence the same logic that makes 50 pS/m appropriate for identifying nonconductive hydrocarbons makes 100 pS/m appropriate for identifying nonconductive chemical products. 

In addition to supplying transportation fuels and chemicals, products from coal liquefaction and extraction have been used m the past as pitches for binders and feedstocks for cokes [12]. Indeed, the majority of organic chemicals and carbonaceous materials prior to World War II were based on coal technologies. Unfortunately, this technology was supplanted when inexpensive petroleum became available dunng the 1940s. Nevertheless, despite a steady decline of coal use for non-combustion purposes over the past several decades, coal tars still remain an important commodity in North America. 

Ammonia is shipped as a liquefied gas under its own vapour pressure of 114 psig (7.9 bar) at 21°C. Uses are to be found in refrigeration, fertilizer production, metal industries, the petroleum, chemical and rubber industries, domestic cleaning agents and water purification. Aqueous solutions of ammonia are common alkaline laboratory reagents ca 0.88 solution is the strongest available. Ammonia gas is expelled on warming. 

The chemical process industry is vast and varied. The value of chemicals and chemical products in 1993 was 0.5 trillion for the Ll.S," involving 67,000 chemical engineers, 98,000 chemists. There were 5.5 non-fatal occupational injuries per 100 employees in 1995 involving chemical and allied products, and 4.8 per 100 workers in petroleum and coal products, There were 101 fatalities due to exposure to caustic, noxious or allergenic substances and 208 deaths from fires and explosions in 1995. 

Many chemical products are produced from crude oil. Initially, little chemistry was involved therefore the petrochemicals were not considered part of the chemical process industry. Today, materials ranging from specialised fuels, plastics and synthetics makes it part of the chemical processing, The petroleum refinery is where the chemical processing of oil begins. 

This chapter discusses synthetic polymers based primarily on monomers produced from petroleum chemicals. The first section covers the synthesis of thermoplastics and engineering resins. The second part reviews thermosetting plastics and their uses. The third part discusses the chemistry of synthetic rubbers, including a brief review on thermoplastic elastomers, which are generally not used for tire production but to make other rubber products. The last section addresses synthetic fibers. 

Catalysts are vital in the chemical indushy. The market for catalysts in the United States exceeds 2.0 billion, including more than 600 million for petroleum refining and more than 750 million for chemical production. Although these are large sums of money, the products made available by catalysts are far more valuable than the catalysts themselves. The total value of fuels and chemicals produced by catalysts exceeds 900 billion. 

Bowlen GF, DS Kosson (1995) In situ processes for bioremediation of BTEX and petroleum fuel products. In Microbial transformation and Degradation of Toxic Organic Chemicals (Eds LY Young, CE Cerni-glia), pp. 515-545. Wiley-Liss, New York. 

Table 3-3 contains information regarding the chemical identity of principal components of hydraulic fluids. Trade names are included when the component constitutes 100% (or nearly 100%) of the product. Information has also been included for several representative types of mineral oil. It should be noted, however, that the term "mineral oil" encompasses a wide variety of petroleum-based products. Several phosphate esters used as hydraulic fluid additives are also included in Table 3-3. 

The plant began full-scale operation in 1962 and produced acetic, adipic, and propionic acids acetaldehyde butanol hexamethyldiamine vinyl acetate nylon and other chemical products from petroleum-base stocks. The effluent was collected at waste treatment facilities as two separate mixtures. Because mixing two wastestreams produced considerable precipitation, the wastestreams were processed and injected separately into two wells. 

Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in Pennsylvania in 1859 to use extracted oil as a substitute for whale oil—the main lighting source and feedstock for consumer and chemical products then. This resource was hazardous to get and dwindling due to heavy exploitation, as it happens currently with oil. Petroleum presented many advantages over whale oil and solved a great deal of ecological and resource security problems associated with the old resource. Nevertheless, after a century and a half of use, petroleum has created new problems related to environmental pollution and energy security [1]. 

Sulfa-scrub A process for removing low concentrations of hydrogen sulfide from gas streams by reaction with hexahydrotriazine. The product is water-soluble, non-corosive, and non-hazardous. Developed by the Quaker Petroleum Chemical Company in 1991. 

Yellow 96 Dye was produced by the mixing and reaction of two chemicals, orf/zo-nitrochlorobenzene (o-NCB) and 2-ethylhexylamine (2-EHA). The dye was used to tint petroleum fuel products. 

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