Fundamentals of Industrial Chemistry

Pharmaceuticals, Polymers, and Business

John A. Tyrell

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781118708668
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences physiques
• Subtopic: Chimie industrielle et technique

This book discusses the connectivity between major chemicals, showing how a chemical is made along with why and some of the business considerations. The book helps smooth a student's transition to industry and assists current professionals who need to understand the larger picture of industrial chemistry principles and practices. The book: Addresses a wide scope of content, emphasizing the business and polymer / pharmaceutical / agricultural aspects of industrial chemistry Covers patenting, experimental design, and systematic optimization of experiments Written by an author with extensive industrial experience but who is now a university professor, making him uniquely positioned to present this material Has problems at the end of chapters and a separate solution manual available for adopting professors Puts chemical industry topics in context and ties together many of the principles chemistry majors learn across more specific courses

Chapter 1
Introduction

The chemical industry is one of America's largest; a $750 billion dollar enterprise, it represents more than 13% of U.S. manufacturing exports, and directly employs more than 780,000 [1]. About 54% of all chemists work in manufacturing, 37% in academia, and the remainder are self-employed or in the government. Bachelor's degree chemists represent the group most employed in industry at 83% [2]. If you are a chemist, there is a likelihood that you work in industry (either in manufacturing, analytical services, or research services). If you don't work in industry, knowledge of industrial chemistry is still important. If you are in academics, you might be collaborating with industrial colleagues or preparing students for industrial careers. Many government chemists have jobs associated with the chemical industry and work closely with industrial colleagues. Even if you are not a chemist, you are surrounded by chemicals and chemical products and knowledge of the chemical industry is useful.

There is a misconception among some that research occurs in academia and little goes on in industry. This is not true at all. Chemical companies expend major time and money on research and employ many chemists in that endeavor. For example, BASF ($2.0B), Bayer ($1.3B), Dow ($1.7B), and Dupont ($1.7B) each year spend much more than $1 billion on research [3].

This text discusses how and why major chemicals are manufactured. Intertwined in these discussions are concepts such as separation techniques, cost, conversion, transport, byproduct formation, and other items critical to industrial chemistry. Many of the major chemicals are discussed. Also discussed are several different industries. Most of the largest volume organic chemicals that are produced are made as feedstocks for polymers. For this reason, polymer chemistry is given special attention. The text discusses many of the major industrial polymers including their synthesis and properties. A background in polymer science is also presented so that the reader becomes familiar with some important concepts such as glass transition, molecular weight, and additives. Many chemists work in the pharmaceutical industry and there is a discussion on this industry including some of the requirements such as GMP. Patent protection is critical for many industries. The importance of patents and patentability requirements are explained.

Some important inorganic chemicals, in approximate order of quantity produced, are: sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄), lime which is also known as calcium oxide (CaO), phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄), sodium hydroxide which is also known as caustic or caustic soda (NaOH), sodium chloride or salt (NaCl), sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃), nitric acid (HNO₃), ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂). Some important gases include nitrogen (N₂), oxygen (O₂), ammonia (NH₃), hydrogen (H₂), chlorine (Cl₂), and hydrochloric acid (HCl).

Some major organic compounds are:

Many of these chemicals are intertwined with each other. For example, chlorine is coproduced with sodium hydroxide and is reacted with ethylene to make ethylene dichloride, which in turn is used to make vinyl chloride. Many of the organic chemicals are produced to make polymers. For example, vinyl chloride is used to make polyvinyl chloride. The upcoming chapters will discuss these relationships and also the larger volume polymers.

The text is written for the student that would like to give their chemistry classes some perspective and perhaps learn something about chemical applications. The typical student will be a chemistry or chemical engineering student with at least a couple of years of classes. It is written for the upper-level undergraduate student or the first year graduate student. First or second year employees in the chemical industry will also benefit from the text.

The text assumes the reader has taken general and organic chemistry. Complete retention of everything from those courses is not assumed and when a concept is introduced, the background is given. The purpose of the text is to give the reader a general knowledge of several different aspects of industrial chemistry. It is not intended to make the reader an instant expert in a specific area. For example, reading the chapter on patents will give an appreciation of the major requirements for patentability, some key concepts and the importance of patents. It will also explain how to search patents and what can be learned from the patent literature. It will not make the reader ready to practice patent law nor be able to head the legal department. However, the reader will be better able to interact with patent attorneys and patent agents. Having a broad knowledge of several areas is also useful because over a career, the reader's work is likely to evolve and include increasing and broadened responsibilities.

References

1. 1. Melody Bomgardner, et al. Chemical and Engineering News 2013; 91(26):25–48.
2. 2. Sophie Rovner. Chemical and Engineering News 2013; 91(38):10.
3. 3. Alexander Tullo. Chemical and Engineering News 2011; 89(30):14.

Chapter 2
Inorganic Chemicals

2.1 Sulfuric acid

Sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) is a large volume chemical made from sulfur dioxide, which in turn can be made from elemental sulfur. Because sulfuric acid is of prime importance to the world's fertilizer and manufacturing industries, consumption of sulfuric acid has been regarded as one of the indexes of a nation's industrial development [1]. Sulfuric acid is the largest volume chemical produced in the world. Sulfur is oxidized to sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is then further oxidized to sulfur trioxide. Temperatures of 400 °C to 450 °C are typical and a vanadium catalyst such as vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) is commonly used [2, 3]. At a lower temperature, sulfur trioxide combines with water to form sulfuric acid. The following reactions give a synopsis of the chemistry.

There are several sources of sulfur. Elemental sulfur is naturally occurring and can be mined by a process invented in the late 19^th century by Herman Frasch. The Frasch process takes advantage of the relatively low melting point of sulfur at 115 °C. Superheated water at 168 °C is pumped through pipes inserted into a well and molten sulfur is pumped from the well [4].

Another source is pyrite. Pyrite is iron sulfide (FeS₂). Pyrite is also known as fool's gold because of its visual resemblance to the precious metal. With water and oxygen, pyrite can be converted to sulfuric acid. China is a leading miner of pyrite and extraction of sulfuric acid from pyrite is an important process in China. The pyrite is roasted to form sulfur dioxide which is then purified and converted to sulfuric acid [5].

A major source of sulfur is refinery and natural gas streams. This is done by the Claus process which was discovered more than 100 years ago and has been used by the natural gas and refinery industries for 50 years. In the Claus process, hydrogen sulfide from the gas stream is converted to elemental sulfur. Air is introduced into a furnace to oxidize about one-third of the hydrogen sulfide to sulfur dioxide. In the next stage, the reaction furnace, unconverted hydrogen sulfide reacts with the sulfur dioxide to form elemental sulfur. The Claus process generally produces an overall recovery of sulfur of 95–97%, but several modifications have been invented and sulfur recoveries of 99.9% are now achievable [6]. The chemistry is represented by the following reactions; the equilibrium to form elemental sulfur is favored at lower temperatures.

The leading U.S. producers are the refining companies such as Valero Energy Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco Phillips Co., Chevron Oil Co., and Shell Oil Co. In 2011, elemental sulfur and byproduct sulfuric acid were produced in the United States at 109 operations in 29 states and St. Croix with total shipments being valued at $1.6 billion [7]. The production took ...