United States hydrogen

High temperature steam reforming of natural gas accounts for 97% of the hydrogen used for ammonia synthesis in the United States. Hydrogen requirement for ammonia synthesis is about 336 m /t of ammonia produced for a typical 1000 t/d ammonia plant. The near-term demand for ammonia remains stagnant. Methanol production requires 560 m of hydrogen for each ton produced, based on a 2500-t/d methanol plant. Methanol demand is expected to increase in response to an increased use of the fuel—oxygenate methyl /-butyl ether (MTBE). 

Using atomic units, the Schroedinger equation for ground-state hydrogen is... 

The fusion of hydrogen into helium provides the energy of the hydrogen bomb. The helium content of the atmosphere is about 1 part in 200,000. While it is present in various radioactive minerals as a decay product, the bulk of the Free World s supply is obtained from wells in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The only known helium extraction plants, outside the United States, in 1984 were in Eastern Europe (Poland), the USSR, and a few in India. 

Some molybdenum contain from 0.002% to 0.2% rhenium. More than 150,000 troy ounces of rhenium are now being produced yearly in the United States. The total estimated Free World reserve of rhenium metal is 3500 tons. Rhenium metal is prepared by reducing ammonium perrhentate with hydrogen at elevated temperatures. 

Ethylene is the cornerstone of the world s mam moth petrochemical industry and is produced in vast quantities In a typical year the amount of ethylene produced in the United States (5 x 10 ° lb) exceeds the combined weight of all of its people In one process ethane from natural gas is heated to bring about its dissociation into ethylene and hydrogen... 

The combination of sulfuric acid addition to propene followed by hydrolysis of the resulting isopropyl hydrogen sulfate is the major method by which over 10 lb of isopropyl alcohol is prepared each year m the United States... 

Until the 1920s the major source of methanol was as a byproduct m the production of charcoal from wood—hence the name wood alcohol Now most of the more than 10 billion lb of methanol used annually m the United States is synthetic prepared by reduc tion of carbon monoxide with hydrogen... 

Excess hydrogen brings about the hydrogenation of the aldehyde and allows the process to be adapted to the preparation of primary alcohols Over 2 X 10 Ib/year of a variety of aldehydes and alcohols is prepared in the United States by hydroformylation... 

Trichloroacetic acid is manufactured in the United States by the exhaustive chlorination of acetic acid (38). The patent Hterature suggests two alternative methods of synthesis hydrogen peroxide oxidation of chloral (39) and hydrolytic oxidation of tetrachloroethene (40). 

Since 1960, about 95% of the synthetic ammonia made in the United States has been made from natural gas worldwide the proportion is about 85%. Most of the balance is made from naphtha and other petroleum Hquids. Relatively small amounts of ammonia are made from hydrogen recovered from coke oven and refinery gases, from electrolysis of salt solutions, eg, caustic chlorine production, and by electrolysis of water. In addition there are about 20 ammonia plants worldwide that use coal as a hydrogen source. 

Economic Aspects. Pertinent statistics on the U.S. production and consumption of fluorspar are given in Table 4. For many years the United States has rehed on imports for more than 80% of fluorspar needs. The principal sources are Mexico, China, and the Repubflc of South Africa. Imports from Mexico have declined in part because Mexican export regulations favor domestic conversion of fluorspar to hydrogen fluoride for export to the United States. 

North America accounts for about 38% of the worldwide hydrogen fluoride production and 52% of the captive aluminum fluoride production. Table 6 (38) summarizes North American capacity for hydrogen fluoride as weU as this captive capacity for aluminum fluoride production. In North America, HF is produced in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, but represents a single market, as weU over 90% of the consumption is in the United States. 

Upon the United States entry into World War 1 in 1917, helium became a war material of first priority. Helium was sought to replace hydrogen as the lifting gas in lighter-than-air craft for military use. As a war material, helium became a government monopoly, was given a code name, and was shrouded in secrecy. By the war s end, quantities of helium had been produced, but none had reached combat. 

Hydrogen-storage alloys (18,19) are commercially available from several companies in the United States, Japan, and Europe. A commercial use has been developed in rechargeable nickel—metal hydride batteries which are superior to nickel—cadmium batteries by virtue of improved capacity and elimination of the toxic metal cadmium (see BATTERIES, SECONDARYCELLS-ALKALINe). Other uses are expected to develop in nonpolluting internal combustion engines and fuel cells (qv), heat pumps and refrigerators, and electric utility peak-load shaving. 

Immobile hydrocarbon sources requite refining processes involving hydrogenation. Additional hydrogen is also requited to eliminate sources of sulfur and nitrogen oxides that would be emitted to the environment. Resources can be classified as mostiy consumed, proven but stiU in the ground, and yet to be discovered. A reasonable estimate for the proven reserves for cmde oil is estimated at 140 x 10 t (1.0 x 10 bbl) (4). In 1950 the United States proven reserves were 32% of the world s reserve. In 1975 this percentage had decreased to 5%, and by 1993 it was down to 2.5%. Since 1950 the dominance of... 

Lubricants. Petroleum lubricants continue to be the mainstay for automotive, industrial, and process lubricants. Synthetic oils are used extensively in industry and for jet engines they, of course, are made from hydrocarbons. Since the viscosity index (a measure of the viscosity behavior of a lubricant with change in temperature) of lube oil fractions from different cmdes may vary from +140 to as low as —300, additional refining steps are needed. To improve the viscosity index (VI), lube oil fractions are subjected to solvent extraction, solvent dewaxing, solvent deasphalting, and hydrogenation. Furthermore, automotive lube oils typically contain about 12—14% additives. These additives maybe oxidation inhibitors to prevent formation of gum and varnish, corrosion inhibitors, or detergent dispersants, and viscosity index improvers. The United States consumption of lubricants is shown in Table 7. 

At one time, the only commercial route to 2-chloro-1,3-butadiene (chloroprene), the monomer for neoprene, was from acetylene (see Elastomers, synthetic). In the United States, Du Pont operated two plants in which acetylene was dimeri2ed to vinylacetylene with a cuprous chloride catalyst and the vinyl-acetylene reacted with hydrogen chloride to give 2-chloro-1,3-butadiene. This process was replaced in 1970 with a butadiene-based process in which butadiene is chlorinated and dehydrochlorinated to yield the desired product (see Chlorocarbonsandchlorohydrocarbons). 

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