The chemical industry touches upon all aspects of our lives.

The chemical industry is one of the largest manufacturing industries in all developed and emerging countries.

A measure of how developed a country is determined by the amount of chemicals that is consumes.

The size of the chemical industry in USA is 5 trillion usd and expected to double by 2030

The business of chemistry provides close 600000 good paying jobs

The business of chemistry supports over 25 % of us gdp

More than 96 % of goods manufactured are directly touched by the business of chemistry

While many of the products from the industry, such as detergents, soaps and perfumes, are purchased directly by the consumer others are used as intermediates to make other products, The industry uses a wide range of raw materials, from air and minerals to oil.

The chemical industry has realized tremendous amount of changes in the last decade.

With increasing competition worldwide, innovation remains crucial in finding new ways for the industry to satisfy its increasingly sophisticated, demanding and environmentally-conscious consumers.

The objective of this article is to provide the user with an overview of the chemical industry

Broadly the chemical industry can be classified as follows

The products of the chemical industry can be divided into three categories:

Basic chemicals

• Specialty chemicals
• Consumer chemicals

Outputs range widely, with basic chemicals produced in huge quantities (millions of tons) and some specialty chemicals produced in modest kilograms quantities but with very high value.

Basic chemicals

Basic chemicals are divided into • chemicals derived from oil, coal and gas known as petrochemicals, polymers and basic inorganics

An example is methanol, commonly produced from oil and natural gas in the US and Europe but from coal in China. Another is ethylene, derived from oil and gas in the US and Europe but increasingly from biomass in Brazil.

Basic chemicals, produced in large quantities, are mainly sold within the chemical industry and to other industries before becoming products for the general consumer.

These are then sold on to manufacturers of plastic components before being bought by the actual consumer.

Many companies use some of their chemical products as intermediates in their own manufacturing processes. There are often clusters of processes which use the output of one as the input to another. Petrochemicals and polymers

The production of chemicals from petroleum (and increasingly from coal and biomass) has seen many technological changes and the development of very large production sites throughout the world. The hydrocarbons in crude oil and gas, which are mainly straight chain alkanes, are first separated using their differences in boiling point, as is described in the unit Distillation. They are then converted to hydrocarbons that are more useful to the chemical industry, such as branched chain alkanes, alkenes and aromatic hydrocarbons. These processes are described in the unit, Cracking and related refinery processes.

In turn, these hydrocarbons are converted into a very wide range of basic chemicals which are immediately useful (petrol, ethanol, ethane-1,2-diol) or are subjected to further reactions to produce a useful end product (for example, phenol to make resins and ammonia to make fertilizers).

The main use for petrochemicals is in the manufacture of a wide range of polymers. Due to their importance of these they are given their own section of units, Polymers.

Basic in-organics

These are relatively low cost chemicals used throughout manufacturing and agriculture. They are produced in very large amounts, some in millions of tons a year, and include chlorine, sodium hydroxide, sulfuric and nitric acids and chemicals for fertilizers. As with petrochemicals, many emerging countries are now able to produce them more cheaply than companies based in the US and Europe. This has led to tough competition and producers of these chemicals worldwide work continuously to reduce costs while meeting ever more stringent environmental and safety standards.

The units on basic inorganics can be found within the Basic chemicals section of the site.

Specialty chemicals

This category covers a wide variety of chemicals for crop protection, paints and inks, colorants (dyes and pigments). It also includes chemicals used by industries as diverse as textiles, paper and engineering. There has been a tendency in the US and Europe to focus on this sector rather than the basic chemicals discussed above because it is thought that, with active research and development (R & D), specialty chemicals deliver better and more stable profitability. New products are being created to meet both customer needs and new environmental regulations. An everyday example is household paints which have evolved from being organic solvent-based to being water-based. Another is the latest ink developed for ink-jet printers.

Consumer chemicals

Consumer chemicals are sold directly to the public. They include, for example, detergents, soaps and other toiletries. The search for more effective and environmentally safe detergents has increased over the last 20 years, particularly in finding surfactants that are capable of cleaning anything from sensitive skin to large industrial plants. Parallel to this, much work has been done in producing a wider range of synthetic chemicals for toiletries, cosmetics and fragrances.

How does the chemical industry contribute to an economy?

The chemical industry is a very important contributor to the wealth of a country. For example it contributes over 1% to the Gross National Product (GNP) of European countries, which is over 6% of the total GNP produced by all manufacturing industries. Generally personnel in the industry are among the most well rewarded of all manufacturing industries because the industry has the largest proportion of highly qualified people and generally it is the most productive.

What is the value of the industry geographically?

In 2011, worldwide, it was estimated that world sales of chemicals amounted to over $3500 billion (Table 2). This means every man, woman and child in the world, on average, uses $500 worth of chemicals a year. Of course the main users of the chemicals are in the developed countries with each person using approximately $1200 worth of chemicals annually.

Where are chemical sites located - and why?

Range of factors that influenced locations in the nineteenth century are active today, for example:

• access to raw materials,

• plentiful water supplies,

• good communications (road, rail and port facilities),

• closeness to the customer for the products,

• reliable energy supplies,

• the availability of skilled labour.



Access to the sea for transport remains a huge influence. Refineries and chemical companies have been built on the coast of many countries, whether they have their own indigenous oil and gas or whether they import it.

There are many examples along the US coastline of the Gulf of Mexico and in the UK (for example at Fawley near Southampton, Teesside on the east coast of England, at Mossmorran and Grangemouth in Scotland). Similarly, there are refineries on the coast of mainland Europe, for example near Antwerp (Belgium) and Rotterdam (Netherlands).

Another major factor determining location has always been a profitable market for the end products. Since the chemical industry is its own biggest customer, it makes good sense to group together companies that use chemical products as intermediates in their own manufacturing process. This has led to clusters of plants (Figure 3) which successively use the output of one process as the input to another. For example, the manufacture of fertilizers, such as ammonium nitrate and carbamide (urea), can be found adjacent to ammonia plants which are themselves close to plants with a ready source of raw materials, either methane or naphtha, used to make ammonia.

More recently, close proximity to other high technology industries, as well as easy airport access, have been influential factors particularly for plants producing specialty chemicals.

Capital Investment

Capital investment—the investment in new developments is made up of two main components:

• structures (e.g., buildings), and

• equipment.

Investment in structures is mostly for industrial buildings and related structures (loading docks, terminals, etc.). The investment in equipment includes process equipment such as pressure vessels, storage tanks, heat exchangers, pumps, compressors and electrical equipment. These are discussed in the unit Chemical reactors.

High priority is given to instrumentation, computers, and related automation or information processing technologies. New investment needs include expanding production capacity for both new and existing products, replacing worn-out or obsolete plant and equipment, and improving operating efficiencies (saving energy, increasing protection for the environment.

Research and development (R&D)

Although expensive and time-consuming, research and development is crucial to the industry’s evolution. To keep competitive the industry must:

• find new products which enhance the quality of life

• adapt rapidly to changes in consumer demand around the world produce and sell chemicals in quantities that achieve economies of scale

• select locations for bulk chemical companies so that they can access the cheapest raw materials and energy

• improve existing processes for making chemicals in order to use less capital expenditure and save raw materials

• find methods of manufacturing that use and dispose of chemicals which do not harm the environment

• locate specialty chemical companies near good centers of R&D within both the commercial and university sectors.

The R & D cycle - deciding to carry out research on a particular topic, to spend money on development and then to manufacture - involves not only chemists and chemical engineers but other experts; financial (for borrowing the large sums of money needed), marketing (for ensuring that their new or improved product can be sold), legal (to ensure that the patents are secure) and many others.

Discoveries

Sometimes discoveries have been made by accident, for example, the discoveries of both low density and high density polyethylene. However, neither would have been discovered had chemists not already been doing fundamental research on the reactions of ethylene. Other discoveries are the direct results of the clever ideas of chemists with specific aims in mind, for example the discoveries of polyamides, polyesters and, much later, linear low density polyethylene.

Research into new catalysts is still very fruitful. In recent years, a new catalyst for the manufacture of methanol has meant that the plant can operate at lower temperatures and lower pressures than hitherto, thus saving much energy to the benefit of the environment.

Other research areas that are now being commercialized include nanotechnology, biotechnology and the development of biofuels to supplement oil supplies. Significant benefits to the environment have come from research to develop processes which lead to improved octane rating of petrol, water-based paints, replacements for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and the development of Green Chemistry as an active research area.

From research to production

Research carried out in the laboratories of industry and universities is only the first step. These discoveries have to be converted into realistic industrial processes. This is the job of the chemical engineer who is responsible for translating the laboratory chemistry to a larger scale. Scaling up production from grams under laboratory conditions to thousands of tons in a full scale industrial plant is very painstaking work for chemists and chemical engineers. The intermediate stages between laboratory and full scale production involve equipment that is able to mimic the large scale process and enable the most favorable conditions to be found for a high yield of product obtained at a suitable rate.

Designing a plant is a team project and chemists, plant designers and chemical engineers select suitable materials for the construction of the plant. Although the common image is of chemical plants made from gleaming steel, many other materials are used in their construction including a wide variety of metals, plastics, glass and rubber. As construction materials are themselves chemicals, choosing materials which do not react with the chemicals involved in the process is essential to avoid hazardous interactions, the breakdown of the plant, or the contamination of the product.

Construction materials must be

• inert to reactants, intermediates and products

• capable of withstanding very high pressures and temperatures when necessary

• durable.

The chemical industry: how safe and how environmentally regulated?

Safety must be at the top of the chemical industry’s agenda and for good reason. Many of its products are potentially hazardous at some stage during their manufacture and transport. These chemicals may be solids, liquids or gases, flammable, explosive, corrosive and/or toxic. Manufacturing processes frequently involve high temperatures, high pressures, and reactions which can be dangerous unless carefully controlled. Because of this the industry operates within the safety limits demanded by national and international legislation.

Risks and injuries

In spite of dealing with hazardous operations, the chemical industry actually has a lower number of accidents than industry as a whole. Between 1995 and 2005, across the whole of European manufacture of all types, there were over 4 injuries for every 1000 employees, twice that sustained in the chemical industry. US data, recorded as days lost due to accidents, show an even starker difference; the number of days lost in major companies in the chemical industry through accidents is 4 times less than in manufacturing generally.

Environmental regulations

There are serious concerns about the potential impact of certain manufactured chemicals on living organisms, including ourselves, and on the natural environment. These concerns include air, land and sea pollution, global warming and climate change, ozone depletion of the upper atmosphere and acid rain.

The chemical industry has a world-wide initiative entitled Responsible Care. It began in Canada in 1984 and is practiced now in over 60 countries. It commits national chemical industry associations and companies to:

• Continuously improve the environmental, health, safety and security knowledge and performance of our technologies, processes and products over their life cycles so as to avoid harm to people and the environment.

• Use resources efficiently and minimise waste.

• Report openly on performance, achievements and shortcomings.

• Listen, engage and work with people to understand and address their concerns and expectations.

• Cooperate with governments and organisations in the development and implementation of effective regulations and standards, and to meet or go beyond them.

• Provide help and advice to foster the responsible management of chemicals by all those who manage and use them along the product chain.

In the US, chemical companies spend over $12 billion a year on environmental, health and safety programs. This, for example, has led to the reduction of hazardous releases to the air, land and water by 80 percent over the last 25 years. Another environmental measure concerns the use of energy. In the 20 years from 1994, the chemical industry in the US saved about 20% energy per unit of production and in the same period energy saved per unit of production in the EU fell by 55%. Greenhouse gas emission per unit of production (the greenhouse gas intensity) decreased by 58% and 75% in the US and EU, respectively between 1990 and 2014. Regulations are in force in every major country. In Europe, they are enforced through REACH (Registration, Evaluation Authorization and restriction of Chemicals). They are fundamentally changing the way chemicals are made, sold and used, by providing a single standardized framework for the safe management of chemicals. REACH places the responsibility on both manufacturers and importers to ensure that all chemicals produced in quantities greater than one ton a year do not adversely affect human health or the environment. The industry provides comprehensive documented information for all qualifying chemicals and related substances, enabling users of the chemicals to ensure that adequate controls are in place. Chemicals which are produced in amounts of 1000 tons or more per year must have been registered by December 2010 and those greater than 1 ton must be registered by June 2018. Only a small proportion of chemical wastes are toxic or hazardous. Most of these, together with materials which resist natural breakdown, are incinerated at high temperature. Whenever possible, the waste itself provides the fuel for this process. The gases produced are thoroughly cleaned and ‘scrubbed’ before release into the atmosphere, leaving only ash for disposal. Examples of how by-products are dealt with are seen throughout the units on this web site. What are the challenges for the chemical industry today? The chemical industry is undergoing huge changes worldwide. As we have seen above, one concerns the emergence of Middle Eastern countries and China, India and Brazil as manufacturers of chemicals on a mammoth scale, for their own consumption and also for export worldwide. Companies in these countries are also investing in plant in the US and Europe whilst US and European companies are investing in plant in these large emerging countries, making the industry as a whole totally international in the way it conducts business. The challenge for companies in the US and Europe is to cut their costs while ensuring that they conform to the best practice in protecting the environment. This concern about the environment is discussed in the separate units on individual chemicals. A new revolution beckons. As oil and natural gas become ever scarcer and more expensive, chemists are searching for new feedstock to supplement or even replace oil and natural gas. And they are rediscovering the virtues of coal (still in huge supply, even though it is a fossil fuel that cannot be replaced) and biomass. Thus we are coming full circle. In the late 19th and the first part of the 20th centuries, the organic chemical industry was based largely on coal and biomass. Coal was heated strongly in the absence of air to form coal gas (a mixture of hydrogen, methane and carbon monoxide). A liquid (coal tar) was formed as a by-product which contained many useful organic chemicals, including benzene, and the solid residue was coke, an impure form of carbon. Coke was the source of what we now call synthesis gas. Steam was passed over it at high temperatures to yield carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Another source of organic chemicals was biomass. For example, the source of many C2 chemicals was ethanol, produced by fermentation of biomass. C3 and C4 chemicals such as propanone and butanol were also produced on a large scale by fermentation of biomass. Since then, from the 1940s onwards, the industry has found better and better ways of using the products from the refining of oil to produce not only all the chemicals mentioned above but many more. An example is the growth of the petrochemical industry, with the array of new polymers, detergents, and myriad of sophisticated chemicals produced at low cost. Perhaps therefore the greatest challenge lies in finding ways to reduce our dependence on non-renewable resources. Thus, as oil and natural gas supplies dwindle, we must find ways to use the older technologies based on biomass to produce chemicals in as an environmentally acceptable way as possible, in terms of energy expended and effluents produced. For example, some ethene and a range of polymers, as well as very large quantities of ethanol, are now being produced from biomass. Another challenge is to reduce our dependence on non-renewable resources to produce energy. The easiest way to do this is to find ways to run our chemical plants at lower temperatures with the aid of catalysts or by using alternative routes. This has already begun in earnest as noted in the last section. The consumption of energy per unit of production has fallen by about 55% in the EU since 1994 and about 22% in the US since 1990. In consequence, the emission of carbon dioxide has fallen by approximately the same over the same time scales. The new technologies based on nonmaterial's will also be to the forefront in future advances in the chemical industry and it will be important to ensure that the production of these revolutionary materials is safe and of economic benefit. The chemical industry has many challenges in the 21st century which must be overcome in order to remain at the heart of every major country. It is only through this that the industry can help society to maintain and improve its standard of living and do so in a sustainable way.

ref: https://www.essentialchemicalindustry.org/the-chemical-industry/the-chemical-industry.html