Worldwide plants

The cumene oxidation route is the lea ding commercial process of synthetic phenol production, accounting for more than 95% of phenol produced in the world. The remainder of synthetic phenol is produced by the toluene oxidation route via benzoic acid. Other processes including benzene via cyclohexane, benzene sulfonation, benzene chlorination, and benzene oxychl orin ation have also been used in the manufacture of phenol. A Hst of U.S. phenol production plants and their estimated capacities in 1994 are shown in Table 2, and worldwide plants and capacities are shown in Table 3. 

Titanium dioxide [13463-67-7] is by far the most often used inorganic pigment (14). In 1993 the estimated worldwide plant capacity was around 3.7 X 10 t. Plant utilization in that year was only about 78%, thus the world demand for Ti02 pigment in 1993 can be estimated to have been about 2.9 X 10 t. Growth in worldwide production of this pigment has been phenomenal since it was first produced in 1918. 

GM also believes that it could eventually close down engine and transmission factories around the world and have a single plant making fuel cells for all of its vehicles. There are 29 types of engines made in 28 GM plants worldwide and 20 transmissions made in 20 worldwide plants. 

Because of their increasing use worldwide, plant materials used in over-the-counter preparations, home remedies, or as raw materials for pharmaceutical preparations are receiving more and more attention. In 1998, WHO published a book. Quality Control Methods for Medicinal Plant Materials to fulfill the needs of quality control laboratories and to provide a basis for the development of national standards. ... 

Worldwide, plant-parasitic nematodes cause an estimated agricultural loss of 60 billion U.S. dollars per annum [48]. Crops particularly threatened by nematodes are potatoes, beets, peanuts, soybeans, tomatoes, bananas, tobacco, berries, citrus fruits, and cotton. 

The poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) is a very common and worldwide plant species. It is one of the most toxic plants known [12, 18, 34, 38, 70, 85]. Poison hemlock is native to Europe and western Asia and has been brought in America and Oceania as an ornamental plant [12-14,18,43,51,53], although in other countries the plant has been introduced through the transport of seeds [14]. 

Worldwide furfuryl alcohol capacity in 1993 was estimated to be 110,000 metric tons (38). As with furfural, new capacity in developing countries is replacing older capacity in developed countries. China and South Africa have become significant producers of furfuryl alcohol. New plants have been built in Asia and Indonesia as well. Consumption of furfuryl alcohol is spread over the globe the largest use is in the foundry industry which is increasingly moving away from heavily industrialized countries. 

PX—toluene splitter where high purity PX is taken as a bottoms product. Eight plants have been built worldwide. 

The abrasive industry is highly competitive and many small companies worldwide successfully compete by specializing in a particular segment of the business, eg, disk wheels, mounted points, and mbber wheels. Costs in the fused abrasive industry are primarily in materials and electric power. Thus manufacturers seek out plant sites having the lowest power costs. Costs for coated abrasive manufacturers are capital and labor intensive and they seek out sources of low cost labor. 

Of these producers, Atochem, Degussa, and Daicel are reported to be in the merchant acrolein business. Union Carbide suppHes only the acrolein derivative markets. Rhc ne-Poulenc also produces acrolein, primarily as a nonisolated intermediate to make methionine. A number of other small scale plants are located worldwide which also produce acrolein as an intermediate to make methionine. 

Because of projected nylon-6,6 growth of 4—10% (167) per year in the Far East, several companies have announced plans for that area. A Rhc ne-Poulenc/Oriental Chemical Industry joint venture (Kofran) announced a 1991 startup for a 50,000-t/yr plant in Onsan, South Korea (168,169). Asahi announced plans for a 15,000-t/yr expansion of adipic acid capacity at their Nobeoka complex in late 1989, accompanied by a 60,000-t/yr cyclohexanol plant at Mizushima based on their new cyclohexene hydration technology (170). In early 1990 the Du Pont Company announced plans for a major nylon-6,6 complex for Singapore, including a 90,000-t/yr adipic acid plant due to start up in 1993 (167). Plans or negotiations for other adipic acid capacity in the area include Formosa Plastics (Taiwan) (171) and BASF-Hyundai Petrochemical (South Korea) (167). Adipic acid is a truly worldwide... 

The world s largest producers are Perstorp AB (Sweden, United States, Italy), Hoechst Celanese Corporation (United States, Canada), Degussa (Germany), and Hercules (United States) with estimated 1989 plant capacities of 65,000, 59,000, 30,000, and 22,000 t/yr, respectively. Worldwide capacity for pentaerythritol production was 316,000 t in 1989, about half of which was from the big four companies. Most of the remainder was produced in Asia (Japan, China, India, Korea, and Taiwan), Europe (Italy, Spain), or South America (Brazil, Chile). The estimated rate of production for 1989 was about 253,000 t or about 80% of nameplate capacity. 

In 1990, U.S. coke plants consumed 3.61 x 10 t of coal, or 4.4% of the total U.S. consumption of 8.12 x ICf t (6). Worldwide, roughly 400 coke oven batteries were in operation in 1988, consuming about 4.5 x 10 t of coal and producing 3.5 x 10 t metallurgical coke. Coke production is in a period of decline because of reduced demand for steel and increa sing use of technology for direct injection of coal into blast furnaces (7). The decline in coke production and trend away from recovery of coproducts is reflected in a 70—80% decline in volume of coal-tar chemicals since the 1970s. 

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. 

Because of the rapid capital investment in acryUcs that occurred in the early 1970s, there is a large excess capacity. In 1981 worldwide demand was 2.1 X 10 kg whereas worldwide capacity was 2.6 X 10 kg. Prices have consequendy been soft since 1977. Since that time there has been only rninimal investment in plants or equipment and a curtailment ia research and development work. 

A worldwide Hst of spandex fiber and related elastomer producers is shown in Table 2. Most process developments have occurred in the United States, Germany, Japan, and Korea. A large proportion of worldwide capacity is controlled by Du Pont, either directly or through subsidiaries and joint ventures. These include three plants in North America, two in South America, two in Europe, and two in Asia. 

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. 

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. 

The most extensive worldwide program on methanol blend gasoline was in Italy where from 1982 to 1987 a 1.9 x lO" m /yr (5 x 10 gal/yr) plant produced a mixture containing 69% methanol. The balance contained higher alcohols. This mixture was blended into gasoline at the 4.3% level and marketed successfully as a premium gasoline known as Super E (82). 

Total hafnium available worldwide from nuclear zirconium production is estimated to be 130 metric tons annually. The annual usage, in all forms, is about 85 t. The balance is held in inventory in stable intermediate form such as oxide by the producers Teledyne Wah. Chang (Albany, Oregon) and Western Zirconium in the United States Ce2us in France Prinieprovsky Chemical Plant in Ukraine and Chepetsky Mechanical Plant in Russia (crystal bar). 

The dominant role of petroleum in the chemical industry worldwide is reflected in the landscapes of, for example, the Ruhr Valley in Germany and the U.S. Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast, where petrochemical plants coimected by extensive and complex pipeline systems dot the countryside. Any movement to a different feedstock would require replacement not only of the chemical plants themselves, but of the expensive infrastmcture which has been built over the last half of the twentieth century. Moreover, because petroleum is a Hquid which can easily be pumped, change to any of the soHd potential feedstocks (like coal and biomass) would require drastic changes in feedstock handling systems. 

Worldwide, approximately 180, 000 t/yr acetylene product is recovered as a by-product within olefin plants. This source of acetylene is expected to increase as plant capacity and furnace temperature increase. The recovery may include compression and transfer of the acetylene product via pipelines directly to the downstream consumer. 

Other DR Processes. The other DR processes, eg, the CODIR, DRC, ACCAR, and Dav Steel processes, make up 4.4% of worldwide production and mosdy consist of coal-based, rotary-kiln processes. Ah of these are similar to the SL/RN process. In addition, one small coal-based, shaft-furnace plant based on the Kinglor-Metor process is operating. 

In the multistep production of IPDI, isophorone is first converted to 3-cyano-3,5,5-trknethylcyclohexanone (231—235), then hydrogenated and ammoniated to 3-aminomethyl-3,5,5-trknethyl-l-aminocyclohexane (1) (236,237), also known as isophorone diamine (IPDA). In the final step IPDA is phosgenated to yield IPDI (2) (238). Commercial production of IPDI began in the United States in 1992 with the startup of Olin s 7000 t/yr plant at Lake Charles, Louisiana (239), and the startup of Hbls integrated isophorone derivatives plant in Theodore, Alabama (240). Hbls has a worldwide capacity for IPDA of 40,000 t/yr. 

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