Petroleum hydrocarbons feedstock chemicals

Petroleum became the primary source of hydrocarbons for chemical feedstocks, beginning in about 1850 with the discovery of easily extracted cmde oil in eastern Pennsylvania and in the Ural mountains of Russia. The gases from the primary distillation of cmde oil and the light products from FCC, catalyticfreforming, and hydroprocessing are ideal mixtures of C2 to Cg alkanes that can be used to make many chemicals. Petroleum products are also cleaner than those from coal, producing no ash and less sulfur. 

The two-zone plume interception treatment technology is designed to treat chlorinated and nonchlorinated organic compounds in groundwater using a sequence of anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The in situ technology has been applied to aquifers contaminated with benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) petroleum products hydrocarbons coal tar wastes and industrial feedstock chemicals. The technology does not treat metals. 

Chemical companies that are part of integrated oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Shell, or BP have their own built-in hedges in the sense that the upstream business reaps profits from high feedstock costs. BASF s successful gas and petroleum business has similarly served as a hedge to its hydrocarbons-exposed chemical operations. 

In the United States and most industrialized countries, the practical value of the commercial production of an organic chemical from biomass depends strongly on the availability and price of the same chemical produced from petroleum or natural gas, and occasionally coal. As will be shown shortly, there is no technical barrier that precludes production of commodity chemicals from biomass feedstocks. And it will become evident that many of the more complex organic chemicals are best synthesized from biomass feedstocks or can be extracted from appropriate biomass species. These chemicals can also be synthesized from hydrocarbon feedstocks, but the costs are often prohibitive. In the midst of the fossil fuel era, the less complex, commodity organic chemicals are preferentially manufactured from petroleum or natural gas, whereas complex specialty chemicals are derived from biomass. But commodity organic chemicals are open to entry by biomass feedstocks if they can provide economic advantages. Note that many of the routes described here to commodity chemicals from biomass were in commercial use in the past, are still in commercial use, have recently been commercialized, or have been developed and are available for commercial use. 

The liquid hydrocarbon by-product has a high cyclic content and so is useful as a petroleum refinery feedstock or as a source of aromatic organic chemicals. This material has a relatively high nitrogen content compared with the corresponding petroleum fraction. Its use as a refinery feedstock would require additional nitrogen removal processing by the refinery. 

Despite the high tonnages of petrochemicals, the chemical industry as a whole consumes rather less than 10% of available petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons as feedstocks, with possibly a further 4-5% as fuel. For comparison, the current consumption of gasoline alone in Western Europe exceeds 120 Mt per annum, while the U.S. figure is over 300 Mt per annum. Hence, prices of individual hydrocarbon feedstocks are largely determined by other forces the most economic feedstock/route combination has frequently changed with time, and may differ in different parts of the world. Furthermore, while a specific route may be preferred for new plants, older plants for which the capital is largely written off may well remain economically viable. Finally, special situations may prompt individual solutions. For example, Rhone-Poulenc in France derive the carbon monoxide for a very modern acetic acid plant, based on Monsanto s methanol carbonylation process, from the partial... 

In the production of paper from recycled materials, this enzyme eliminates the need for using hydrocarbon solvents or similar chemicals that are more toxic, more flammable, and derived from non-renewable petroleum-based feedstocks. Paper mills adopting Optimyze have been able to greatly reduce the use of hazardous, flammable solvents. 

Although many polycyclic hydrocarbons have been identified, only a few are produced and used conunercially. These generally include the simpler compounds, such as naphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene, and phenan-threne. In the USA, commercial production of petroleum naphthalene was 4.9 X 10 metric tons in 1976, compared with 4.7 and 6.5 X 10 metric tons for 1980 and 1981, respectively (U.S. International Trade Commission, 1960-81). This represented 8-10% of total crude naphthalene production. In Canada, the corresponding consumption was 0.04-0.07 X 10 metric tons for the same time period (Statistics Canada, 1960-80). Naphthalene is used in the manufacture of chemicals such as solvents, lubricants, and dyes. It is also employed as a moth repellent, insecticide, vermicide, anthelmintic, and intestinal antiseptic, and as a feedstock chemical for the synthesis of phthalic anhydride. 

Many valuable chemicals can be recovered from the volatile fractions produced in coke ovens. Eor many years coal tar was the primary source for chemicals such as naphthalene [91-20-3] anthracene [120-12-7] and other aromatic and heterocycHc hydrocarbons. The routes to production of important coal-tar derivatives are shown in Eigure 1. Much of the production of these chemicals, especially tar bases such as the pyridines and picolines, is based on synthesis from petroleum feedstocks. Nevertheless, a number of important materials continue to be derived from coal tar. 

Higher molecular weight hydrocarbons present in natural gases are important fuels as well as chemical feedstocks and are normally recovered as natural gas liquids. For example, ethane may be separated for use as a feedstock for steam cracking for the production of ethylene. Propane and butane are recovered from natural gas and sold as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Before natural gas is used it must be processed or treated to remove the impurities and to recover the heavier hydrocarbons (heavier than methane). The 1998 U.S. gas consumption was approximately 22.5 trillion ft. ... 

Saturated hydrocarbons are the main constituents of petroleum and natural gas. Mainly used as fuels for energy production they also provide a favorable, inexpensive feedstock for chemical industry [74]. Unfortunately, the inertness of alkanes renders their chemical conversion challenging with respect to selectivity. Clearly, the development of new and improved methods for the selective transformation of alkanes belongs to the central goals of catalysis. Iron-catalyzed processes might be a smart tool for such transformations (for reviews see [75-77]). 

The catalytic activation of carbon monoxide is a research area currently receiving major attention from academic, industrial, and government laboratories. There has been a long standing interest in this area however, the new attention obviously is stimulated by concerns with the present and future costs and availability of petroleum as a feedstock for the production of hydrocarbon fuels and of organic chemicals. One logical alternative source to be considered is synthesis gas, mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen that can be produced from coal and other carbonaceous materials. 

Hexachloroethane is not currently produced for commercial distribution in the United States. It is a by-product in the industrial chlorination of saturated and unsaturated C2 hydrocarbons by several U.S. companies, including Dow Chemical, PPG Industries, and Occidental Petroleum Corporation. The product may be used captively in-house or recycled in feedstock to produce tetrachloroethylene or carbon tetrachloride. Estimates of current production volumes were not located (Gordon et al. 1991 Santodonato et al. 1985 TRI93 1995). 

Methane, also referred to as marsh gas, is a gas composed of carbon and hydrogen with a chemical formula of CH4. It is the first member of the paraffin or alkane series of hydrocarbons. It is lighter than air, colorless, odorless, tasteless and is flammable. It occurs in natural gas and as a by-product of petroleum refining. In atmospheric burning no smoke production normally occurs. In air methane bums with a pale, faintly luminous flame. With excess air carbon dioxide and water vapor is formed during combustion, with an air deficiency carbon monoxide and water is formed. It forms an explosive mixture with air over a moderate range. Its primary uses are as a fuel and raw feedstock for petrochemical products. 

Since desalting is a closed process, there is little potential for exposure to the feedstock unless a leak or release occurs. However, whenever elevated temperatures are used when desalting sour (sulfur-containing) petroleum, hydrogen sulfide will be present. Depending on the crude feedstock and the treatment chemicals used, the wastewater will contain varying amounts of chlorides, sulfides, bicarbonates, ammonia, hydrocarbons, phenol, and suspended solids. If diatoma-ceous earth is used in filtration, exposures should be minimized or controlled. 

Propylene is manufactured by steam cracking of hydrocarbons as discussed under ethylene. The best feedstocks are propane, naphtha, or gas oil, depending on price and availability. About 50-75% of the propylene is consumed by the petroleum refining industry for alkylation and polymerization of propylene to oligomers that are added to gasoline. A smaller amount is made by steam cracking to give pure propylene for chemical manufacture. 

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