Raw Material Sources

Fig. 1. An amplified outline scheme of the making of various wiaes, alternative products, by-products, and associated wastes (23). Ovals = raw materials, sources rectangles = wines hexagon = alternative products (decreasing wine yield) diamond = wastes. To avoid some complexities, eg, all the wine vinegar and all carbonic maceration are indicated as red. This is usual, but not necessarily tme. Similarly, malolactic fermentation is desired in some white wines. FW = finished wine and always involves clarification and stabilization, as in 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 33, 34, followed by 39, 41, 42. It may or may not include maturation (38) or botde age (40), as indicated for usual styles. Stillage and lees may be treated to recover potassium bitartrate as a by-product. Pomace may also yield red pigment, seed oil, seed tannin, and wine spidts as by-products. Sweet wines are the result of either arresting fermentation at an incomplete stage (by fortification, refrigeration, or other means of yeast inactivation) or addition of juice or concentrate.

Alternative Processes. Because of the large quantity of phosphate rock reserves available worldwide, recovery of the fluoride values from this raw material source has frequently been studied. Strategies involve recovering the fluoride from wet-process phosphoric acid plants as fluosiUcic acid [16961-83-4] H2SiFg, and then processing this acid to form hydrogen fluoride. 

W. L. RoUer and co-workers. Grown Organic Matter as a Fuel Raw Material Source, NASA Report CR-2608, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Washington, D.C., Oct. 1975. 

Applications. These materials are stiU in developmental infancy. Current production is limited to one commercial process in Europe and a demonstration-scale process in North America. The lignins produced in these processes have potential appHcation in wood adhesives, as flame retardants (qv), as slow-release agents for agricultural and pharmaceutical products, as surfactants (qv), as antioxidants (qv), as asphalt extenders, and as a raw material source for lignin-derived chemicals. 

PVC Resin Price. PVC resin prices tend to be more stable than other plastics prices, pardy because only about half the molecule is based on hydrocarbon raw material sources. Figure 13 compares PVC prices to other plastics prices Figure 14 illustrates PVC prices over several years. 

Ethylene. Where ethylene is ia short supply and fermentation ethanol is made economically feasible, such as ia India and Bra2il, ethylene is manufactured by the vapor-phase dehydration of ethanol. The production of ethylene [74-85-1] from ethanol usiag naturally renewable resources is an active and useful alternative to the pyrolysis process based on nonrenewable petroleum. This route may make ethanol a significant raw material source for produciag other chemicals. 

Proximity to raw-material sources State of marketing and distribution system... 

Until the mid-1950s the main raw material source for the European plastics industry was coal. On destructive distillation coal yields four products coal tar, coke, coal gas and ammonia. Coal tar was an important source of aromatic chemicals such as benzene, toluene, phenol, naphthalene and related products. From these materials other chemicals such as adipic acid, hexamethylenedia-mine, caprolactam and phthalic anhydride could be produced, leading to such important plastics as the phenolic resins, polystyrene and the nylons. 

The proper location of a plant is as important to its success as the selection of a process. Not only must many tangible factors such as labor supply and raw material sources be carefully considered, but also a number of intangible factors, w hich are more difficult to evaluate. The selection of a plant site must be based on a very detailed study in which all factors are weighed as carefully as possible. Such a study often requires a substantial outlay of capital. 

The size of each raw material source must be determined in the light of e.xisling and estimated future requirements. An attempt must be made to estimate the life of the raw material source based on future requirements. Alternate sources or substitutes in the area should also be located and evaluated. The eost of delivering raw material to the plant site can then be determined for all sourees that meet the process quality and quantity specifications. 

The effort required to specify the materials schedule for a new plant or to check a design very much depends on how much experience there is of similar or identical units in operation. Factors such as process conditions and raw material sources are taken into consideration before extrapolating the experience of another unit. 

This input to design refers to the long-term stability of the raw material sources for the plant. It is only of importance where the raw materials can or do contain impurities which can have profound effects on the corrosivity of the process. Just as the design should cater not only for the norm of operation but for the extremes, so it is pertinent to question the assumptions made about raw material purity. Crude oil (where HjS, mercaptan sulphur and napthenic acid contents determine the corrosivity of the distillation process) and phosphate rock (chloride, silica and fluoride determine the corrosivity of phosphoric acid) are very pertinent examples. Thus, crude-oil units intended to process low-sulphur crudes , and therefore designed on a basis of carbon-steel equipment, experience serious corrosion problems when only higher sulphur crudes are economically available and must be processed. 

Petroleum is currently the major source of raw materials for most high volume polymers. Also used are gas and substitute resources such as coal that are supposedly in limited supply (although our government reports we have enough coal for the next 250 years that includes its growth expansion in use during that period), and it may well be that another approach to the problem is required. An example is different raw material sources to produce plastics that involve biotechnology (186). 

If the assumption that the contaminant mass in the wastewater is relaxed, then the additional raw material in the form of the contaminant mass has to be accounted for. The wastewater in this case not only supplements the water in the raw material, but also any other raw materials used in product formulation. The raw material balance given in constraint (8.1) is reformulated to account for the additional raw material source. Constraint (8.1) is split into a water balance and a raw material balance for the other components required in product formulation. The water balance is given in constraint (8.52). The balance for the other components used in the product formulation is given in constraint (8.53). Due to the fixed ratio of water and other components in product formulation and the fixed batch size, the amount of water and the amount of other components are fixed. Therefore, in constraints (8.52) and (8.53) the amount of water and amount of other raw material is fixed. The water balance, in constraint (8.52), states that the amount of water used in product is comprised of freshwater, water from storage and directly recycle/reused water. Constraint (8.53), the mass balance for the other components, states that the mass of other components used for product is the mass from bulk storage, the mass in directly recycled/reused water and the mass in water from storage. 

Biopharmaceutical products are also subjected to screening for the presence of viral particles prior to final product release. Although viruses could be introduced, for example, via infected personnel during downstream processing, proper implementation of GMP minimizes such risk. Any viral particles found in the finished product are most likely derived from raw material sources. Examples could include HIV or hepatitis viruses present in blood used in the manufacture of blood products. Such raw materials must be screened before processing for the presence of likely viral contaminants. 

Starch is isolated from plant sources by various methods (Ratnayake and Jackson, 2003 Zobel, 1992). The method of starch isolation depends on the nature and composition of the raw material source. Most food starches are isolated and purified on a commercial scale and then used as ingredients by food manufacturers. Commercial food starches are generally classified based on both botanical origin and functionality. With the increasing availability of modified starches prepared for specific food applications, starch manufacturers tend to emphasize and market starch with a secondary focus on botanical source. In fact, for food... 

The move to petroleum as a raw materials source for the organic chemical industry began during the 1940s. Petrochemicals, as they are called, are now used to create thousands of useful industrial chemicals. The rate of commercial introduction of new chemicals shot up rapidly after World War II. 

The biodegradable polymer available in the market today in largest amounts is PEA. PEA is a melt-processible thermoplastic polymer based completely on renewable resources. The manufacture of PEA includes one fermentation step followed by several chemical transformations. The typical annually renewable raw material source is com starch, which is broken down to unrefined dextrose. This sugar is then subjected to a fermentative transformation to lactic acid (LA). Direct polycondensation of LA is possible, but usually LA is first chemically converted to lactide, a cyclic dimer of LA, via a PLA prepolymer. Finally, after purification, lactide is subjected to a ring-opening polymerization to yield PLA [13-17]. 

Fig. 3 Vision of the vinyl acetate circle wholly based on ethanol as a raw material source...

The hydroxymethyl-substituted methyl esters can then be transesterified with any number of different initiator types to tailor the structure of the polyol to the end-use application, and all from a single raw material source. The stoichiometry of the polyol is adjustable, to produce polyols of any molecular weight. This synthetic strategy was developed by The Dow Chemical Company as the Renuva polyols. 

The total control of the whole supply chain, from discovery research and raw-material sourcing all the way to postlaunch monitoring of patients, has been a key element of the conventional business model for the pharmaceutical industry, particularly big pharma. In view of the challenges facing the industry, the question arises as to whether this business model is sustainable in the long run. 

Vegetable oil based fuels were used as diesel fuel in some Asian and African countries during World War II. Raw materials appropriate for use in producing oils suitable for combustion in a diesel engine include soybeans, cottonseed, rape seed, peanuts, safflower, canola, sunflower, and com. Processed cooling oil and beef tallow have also been used as raw material sources. 

It is an economic truism, but one which bears repetition, that an abundant supply of raw materials provides a sure foundation for development of a large scale market in any commodity. This has been demonstrated most decisively by the expansion in the field of aliphatic chemicals during the past 25 years, roughly corresponding to the period in which petroleum and natural gas have become important as raw material sources. To be sure, brilliant chemical research, bold engineering strides, and vigorous market development have been necessary but with all these, the widespread use of end-products based on the simple aliphatics would probably not have flourished but for the ready availability of the relatively inexpensive hydrocarbons which the oil industry provides. 

Ethyl alcohol has been made by the hydration of ethylene (9) since 1930. Like isopropyl alcohol, part of the output is used as a solvent, but most is converted to other oxygenated chemicals. Its most important raw material use is conversion to acetaldehyde by catalytic air oxidation. Acetaldehyde, in turn, is the raw material source of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, pentaerythritol, synthetic n-butyl alcohol (via aldol condensation), butyraldehyde, and other products. Butyraldehyde is the source of butyric acid, polyvinyl butyral resin, and 2-ethylhexanol (octyl alcohol). The last-named eight-carbon alcohol is based on the aldol condensation of butyraldehyde and is used to make the important plasticizer di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate. A few examples of the important reactions of acetaldehyde are as follows ... 

An example of the first situation is methafiol, which is made today from the three main chemical raw material sources plant matter (by wood distillation) coal (via carbon monoxide and hydrogen in water gas) and natural gas hydrocarbons (both by direct oxidation and through CO-H2 synthesis, where the synthesis gas is made from methane). 

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