Capacity, production

In high permeability reservoirs, wells may produce dry oil for a limited time following a shut-in period, during which gravity forces have segregated oil and water near the wellbore. In fields with more production potential than production capacity, wells can be alternately produced and shut in (intermittentproduction) to reduce the field water cut. This may still be an attractive option at reduced rates very late in field life, if redundant facilities can be decommissioned to reduce operating costs. 

Production and Shipment. Estimated adiponitrile production capacities in the U.S. in 1992 were about 625 thousand metric tons and worldwide capacity was in excess of lO metric tons. The DOT/IMO classification for adiponitrile is class 6.1 hazard, UN No. 2205. It requires a POISON label on all containers and is in packing group III. Approved materials of constmction for shipping, storage, and associated transportation equipment are carbon steel and type 316 stainless steel. Either centrifugal or positive displacement pumps may be used. Carbon dioxide or chemical-foam fire extinguishers should be used. There are no specifications for commercial adiponitrile. The typical composition is 99.5 wt % adiponitrile. Impurities that may be present depend on the method of manufacture, and thus, vary depending on the source. 

Some of the physical properties of fatty acid nitriles are Hsted in Table 14 (see also Carboxylic acids). Eatty acid nitriles are produced as intermediates for a large variety of amines and amides. Estimated U.S. production capacity (1980) was >140, 000 t/yr. Eatty acid nitriles are produced from the corresponding acids by a catalytic reaction with ammonia in the Hquid phase. They have Httie use other than as intermediates but could have some utility as surfactants (qv), mst inhibitors, and plastici2ers (qv). 

Acetic anhydtide [108-24-7] (CH2C0)20, is a mobile, colorless liquid that has an acrid odor and is a more pierciag lacrimator than acetic acid [64-19-7]. It is the largest commercially produced carboxyUc acid anhydride U.S. production capacity is over 900,000 t yearly. Its chief iadustrial appHcation is for acetylation reactions it is also used ia many other appHcations ia organic synthesis, and it has some utility as a solvent ia chemical analysis. 

Estimated production capacity for the Japanese producers is 77,000 t/yr for the American producers, about 70,000 t/yr and for the European producers about 50,000 t/yr (104). The Hst prices for the monomer have increased dramatically over the past 15 years, according to the ChemicalM.arketing Reporter (105). In 1975 the price for 50% solution was 0.903/kg, compared to 1.68/kg in December 1990 (100% basis, FOB plant). The sohd crystalline monomer always demands a premium price because of the added cost of production, and sold in December 1990 for 2.27/kg compared to 1.09/kg in 1975. There are at least 35 supphers of acrylamide monomer most of them obviously are repackagers. 

Capacity. Estimated ABS capacity worldwide in 1989 is given in Table 3. Accurate ABS capacity figures are difficult to obtain because significant production capabiHty is considered "swing" and can be used to manufacture polystyrene or SAN as weU as ABS. The United States has the largest ABS nameplate production capacity of any country at 867 x 10 tons accounting for approximately 25% of the world s capacity. Three producers... 

The typical electrode active areas are 1.8 and 2.7 m and annual electroly2er production capacity can be up to 16000 tons of NaOH. In 1989 Uhde had 17 plants in operation or under constmction having an annual capacity of 800,000 tons of NaOH. 

Ammonia from coal gasification has been used for fertilizer production at Sasol since the beginning of operations in 1955. In 1964 a dedicated coal-based ammonia synthesis plant was brought on stream. This plant has now been deactivated, and is being replaced with a new faciUty with three times the production capacity. Nitric acid is produced by oxidation and is converted with additional ammonia into ammonium nitrate fertilizers. The products are marketed either as a Hquid or in a soHd form known as Limestone Ammonium Nitrate. Also, two types of explosives are produced from ammonium nitrate. The first is a mixture of fuel oil and porous ammonium nitrate granules. The second type is produced by emulsifying small droplets of ammonium nitrate solution in oil. 

In 1984, the Ube Ammonia Industry Co. began operating the largest Texaco coal gasification complex to date. This faciUty is located in Ube City, Japan, and has a rated gasification capacity of 1500 t/day of coal, and production capacity of 1000 t/day of ammonia. The plant has successfully gasified coals from Canada, AustraUa, South Africa, and China. At the present time the plant uses a mixture of petroleum coke and coal (43). 

A broad comparison of the main types of processes, the strength and quaUty of phosphoric acid, and the form and quaUty of by-product calcium sulfate are summarized in Table 7. Because the dihydrate process is the most widely used, the quaUty of its acid and calcium sulfate and its P2O3 recovery are taken as reference for performance comparisons. Illustrative flow diagrams of the principal variations in process types have been pubUshed (39). Numerous other variations in process details ar also used (40—42). The majority of plants use a dihydrate process and some of these have production capacity up to 2100 of P2O3 per day. 

Gut Rubber and Extruded Latex. The manufacturing technology for cut and extmded mbber thread is much older and more widely known than that for spandex fibers. Because production faciUties can be installed with relatively modest capital investment, manufacture of mbber thread is fragmented and more widely distributed with a few major and many minor producers. On a worldwide basis, Fikattice of Italy is the largest mbber thread producer with modem extmded latex plants in Italy, Spain, Malaysia, and the United States. Second in production capacity is the Globe Manufacturing Co., Fall River, Massachusettes with production operations in the United States and the UK. These firms also produce spandex fibers. 

Woddwide, the production capacity for polyester fiber is approximately 11 million tons about 55% of the capacity is staple. Annual production capacity iu the United States is approximately 1.2 million tons of staple and 0.4 million tons of filament. Capacity utilization values of about 85% for staple and about 93% for filament show a good balance of domestic production vs capacity (105). However, polyester has become a woddwide market with over half of the production capacity located iu the Asia/Pacific region (106). The top ranked PET fiber-produciug countries are as follows Taiwan, 16% United States, 15% People s RepubHc of China, 11% Korea, 9% and Japan, 7% (107—109). Woddwide, the top produciug companies of PET fibers are shown iu Table 3 (107-109). 

The People s RepubHc of China introduced Kuraray technology and started production of PVA fiber by a wet spinning process in 1965. Its annual capacity reached 165,000 tons in 1986 (9). The Democratic People s RepubHc of Korea produce PVA and reportedly have an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons (9). 

The acquisition of the rights to the viscose process became one of the most profitable investments of aU time. Interest in the new fiber was intense, and growth of production capacity was exponential. By 1907, the Courtauld company was selling aU the artificial sHk it could produce and proceeded to expand into the U.S. market. In 1910 they formed the American Viscose Co. and in 1911 started the first U.S. viscose factory at Marcus Hook. By 1939, Courtaulds had six factories in the United States, seven in the United Kingdom, one in Erance, one in Canada, and joint ventures in Germany and Italy. 

Approximately 2.5 million t of viscose process regenerated ceUulose fibers were produced in 1990 (Table 1). Measured by production capacity in 1990, the leading producers of filament yams in 1990 were the Soviet Union state-owned factories (255,000 t capacity) and Akzo Fibres in Europe (100,000 t). The leading producers of staple fiber and tow were Courtaulds with 180,000 t capacity spUt between the UK and North America Formosa Chemicals and Fibres Co. with 150,000 t in Taiwan Tenzing with 125,000 t in Austria, and a 40% stake in South Pacific Viscose s 37,000 t Indonesian plant and Grasim Industries in India (125,000 t). BASF s U.S. capacity of 50,000 t was acquired by Tenzing in 1992. 

The same moisture content of the produced cake can be obtained in shorter dewatering times if higher pressures are used. If a path of constant dewatering time is taken, moisture content is reduced at higher pressures with a parallel increase in cake production capacity. This is an advantage of pressure filtration of reasonably incompressible soHds like coal and other minerals. 

The fundamental case for pressure filters may be made using equation 10 for dry cake production capacity Y (kg/m s) derived from Darcy s law when the filter medium resistance is neglected. Eor the same cycle time (same speed), if the pressure drop is increased by a factor of four, production capacity is doubled. In other words, filtration area can be halved for the same capacity but only if is constant. If increases with pressure drop, and depending how fast it increases, the increased pressure drop may not give much more capacity and may actually cause capacity reductions. 

The test results reported show the advantages of pressure filtration quite clearly, ie, the dry cake production capacity obtained with the test soHds (coal suspensions) was raised 60 or 70% and the final moisture content of the cake reduced by as much as 5 to 7% by increasing the pressure drop from 60 to 200 kPa. Further increases in the operating pressure bring about less and less return in terms of capacity and moisture content. 

In module II (Fig. lb) a crystallization vessel, jacketed and coimected to cooling water, is added. Thus the salt formation step, which may require heating, is separated from the crystallization (qv), which is completed upon cooling. Using module II a substantially iacreased production capacity can be achieved at only a minor additional capital investment. 

Manufacturers. Besides manufacturers in the United States, commercial fluorine plants are operating in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom (see Table 5). Fluorine is also produced in the Commonwealth of Independent States (former Soviet Union) however, details regarding its manufacture, production volumes, etc, are regarded as secret information. The total commercial production capacity of fluorine in the United States and Canada is estimated at over 5000 t/yr, of which 70—80% is devoted to uranium hexafluoride production. Most of the gas is used in captive uranium-processing operations. 

Production. Global hydrogen fluoride production capacity in 1992 was estimated to be 875,000 metric tons. An additional 204,000 metric tons was used captively for production of aluminum fluoride. Worldwide capacity is tabulated in Table 5 (38). Pricing for hydrogen fluoride in 1990 was about 1.52/kg (39). 

North American HF production capacity has declined since the early 1980s and several smaller producers, such as Harshaw and Essex, have closed plants. Production is expected to continue to decline in the short term because of chlorofluorocarbon (CPC) cutbacks, but is expected to rebound later in the 1990s as replacement hydrochlorofluorocarbons are introduced to the marketplace. 

In Western Europe, the CPC producers are equally varied. The following is a partial Hst of the larger companies with total CPC production capacity (10 t) at all sites shown in parentheses Atochem SA (148.5, Prance and Spain), Hoescht AG (102.0, Germany), KaH-Chemie AG (66.0, Germany and Spain), Montefluos SpA (100.0, Italy), and ICI Chemicals and Polymers Ltd. (>113.6, United Kingdom). These producers account for over 80% of the Western European CPC production. 

Fomialdehyde [50-00-0] H2C=0, is the first of the series of aUphatic aldehydes. It was discovered by Buderov ia 1859 and has been manufactured siace the beginning of the twentieth century. Annual woddwide production capacity now exceeds 15 x 10 t (calculated as 37% solution). Because of its relatively low cost, high purity, and variety of chemical reactions, formaldehyde has become one of the wodd s most important iadustrial and research chemicals (1). 

Worldwide production capacity in 1989 was estimated to be over 15.5 x 10 t as 37 wt % formaldehyde (98). The United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan account for nearly 70% of the total capacity (98). Worldwide demand for formaldehyde in 1989 was estimated to be about 85—90% of capacity (98). 

U.S. capacity for producing biofuels manufactured by biological or thermal conversion of biomass must be dramatically increased to approach the potential contributions based on biomass availabiUty. For example, an incremental EJ per year of methane requires about 210 times the biological methane production capacity that now exists, and an incremental EJ per year of fuel ethanol requires about 14 times existing ethanol fermentation plant capacity. 

Table 34. Biomass-Fueled Cogeneration and Small Power Production Capacities and Facilities, kW ...

About 60 metric tons of galHum were used throughout the world in 1992. Total worldwide galHum production capacity excluding the CIS, for which data are not available, is estimated to be at 250 t/yr. 

Larch Gum. Larch gum [37320-79-9] (larch arabinogalactan) is obtained by water extraction of the western larch tree, iLarix occidentalism the heartwood of which contains 5—35% on a dry wood basis. In the early 1960s, a countercurrent hot water extraction system was developed, and the gum was produced commercially by the St. Regis Paper Co. under the trade name Stractan. The potential production capacity of this gum is 10,000 t/yr based on the wood residues from the lumber industry. However, the product could not compete with gum arabic, and commercial production is now limited to small batches for a specific medical appHcation. 

The estimated world production capacity for hydrazine solutions is 44,100 t on a N2H4 basis (Table 6). About 60% is made by the hypochlorite—ketazine process, 25% by the peroxide—ketazine route, and the remainder by the Raschig and urea processes. In addition there is anhydrous hydrazine capacity for propellant appHcations. In the United States, one plant dedicated to fuels production (Olin Corp., Raschig process), has a nominal capacity of 3200 t. This facihty also produces the two other hydrazine fuels, monomethyUiydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethyUiydrazine. Other hydrazine fuels capacity includes AH in the PRC, Japan, and Russia MMH in France and Japan and UDMH in France, Russia, and the PRC. 

Table 6. 1992 Hydrazine Solutions Production Capacity, N2H4, t...

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