Chimica industriale - produzione dell'industria chimica

Regulation of Chemicals: REACH

In October 2003, the European Commission adopted a draft regulation under the acronym REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals), to expand regulation from the current 3000 chemicals tested to the 70,000, produced or imported at a total level of more than 1 tonne/year. The degree of testing required varies depending on whether the total production plus imports in Europe is greater than 1, 10, 100, or 1000 tonnes/year, and there are substances of high concern—carcinogens, mutagens, and reprotoxins (CMRs); persistent, bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs); very persistent bioaccumulative toxic chemicals (vPvBs); and endocrine disruptors. The burden of proof of safety is shifted from the regulators to the industry.

Authorization will involve about 12 million animal tests, and has set the "green" supporters of chemicals testing at the throats of the equally "green" animal rights activists.

The chemical industry is research intensive.

It hires many graduates, peaking at one time at 13.3% of all scientists and engineers in the United States. In the late 1990s, the figure was reduced to 9%, 5% in the pharmaceutical industry, and 4% in the remaining sectors. That still amounted to 91,000 scientists and engineers, and most of them work in research and development laboratories.

Actually, 3–4% of sales is considered normal for companies that do not have a pharmaceutical arm and are only marginally involved in specialty chemicals. Research-based pharmaceutical companies with few other interests spend 10–25% of sales on research. True specialty chemical companies have budgets about one third of those of the pharmaceutical companies.

An important concept in today’s chemical industry is the ever-present possibility for dislocations. This is particularly important for planners who, all too often, find their scenarios askew because of a dislocation. Dislocations are defined as

events over which a given company has no control but which markedly affect that company's business.

Struttura Ind. chimica (p2)

Sulfuric acid heads the list by a large margin as befits its position as an economic indicator, although its maturity means that its growth has been slow. Though it has many applications, about 45% is used for phosphate and ammonium sulfate fertilizers.

Of the first 15 chemicals, only five - ethylene, methyl tert-butyl ether, propylene, benzene, and ethylene dichloride - are organic. Four are associated with the fertilizer industry - sulfuric acid, nitrogen, ammonia, and phosphoric acid. Oxygen is used by the steel industry and for welding. Sodium carbonate is important in the glass industry.

sulphuric acid ethylene propylene methyl tert-butyl ether benzene

H₂SO₄ CH₂=CH₂

Na-carbonate ethylene chloride MTBE Na CO CH₂=CHCl₂

Struttura Ind. chimica (p2)

Most of these chemicals are

also used to make organic chemicals, but their main markets lie elsewhere. Chlorine (Cl ) has a number of uses including the bleaching of paper, as a disinfectant, and as a component of organic compounds, most important of which is vinyl chloride whose precursor is ethylene dichloride. Many chlorine compounds, however, are now considered ecologically undesirable.

The three most important organic chemical building blocks, ethylene, propylene, and benzene, occupy positions 4, 7, and 13. The majority of remaining chemicals in the top 50 are organic, and these form the backbone of the so-called heavy organic chemical industry. Heavy organics are defined as large volume commodity chemicals such as ethylene and propylene as opposed to specialty chemicals such as dyes and pharmaceuticals.

Some of the chemicals have only one very large use. For example, the major use for ethylene dichloride (No. 12) is to make vinyl chloride (No. 15). The major use for ethylbenzene (No. 79) is...

1. 20) is to make styrene(No. 22).
2. p-Xylene (No. 27) is converted primarily into terephthalicacid (No. 25).
3. Cumene (No. 30) is converted to phenol (No. 33) andacetone (No. 41).
4. Cyclohexane (No. 42) is used primarily to makeadipic acid (No. 46) and caprolactam (No. 49).

terephthalic acidp-xyleneethylene dichloride styreneethylbenzeneCl O OHClvinyl chlorideCl HO Ocaprolactamacetone cyclohexane adipic acidcumene phenol OOH O OH HNO O OH 80

Struttura Ind. chimica (p2)

Many of the top 50 chemicals are monomers for polymers, including ethylene, propylene, vinyl chloride, styrene, terephthalic acid, formaldehyde, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, phenol, butadiene, propylene oxide, acrylonitrile, vinyl acetate, adipic acid, and caprolactam.

formaldehyde ethylen glycolethylene oxideOCH O HO2 OHbutadiene propylene oxide vinyl acetateOO O 81

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Raw materials Base chemicals IntermediateInorganicInorganic Intermediates(NH , H , H SO , HCl, H PO , Cl ,(H O, air, minerals, 3 2 2 4 3

decomposition of biomasses contains variable amounts of H S, N2, CO (+ water 2 2 deriving often from extraction processes) 85

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The main process employed is amine absorption The sour gas enters at the bottom of an amine contactor and contacts the lean amine solution which enters the contactor at the top

The amine solution removes the acid gas components and sweet gas flows from the top of the contactor

The rich amine (amine containing acid gas) flows from the bottom of the contactor where is is regenerated

The acid gas will either be injected, flared or sent to a sulfur recovery facility to recover the sulfur 91

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The gas to be treated is fed to the bottom of the absorber and flows 2R NH + CO + H O2 2 2 countercurrent to the absorbing (R NH ) CO2 2 2 3 liquid supplied at the

Glycol injection combined with Refrigeration (Glycol is injected into the inlet gas stream. The glycol mixes with the water that is condensed as the gas is cooled. The glycol prevents freezing the glycol-water mixture).

Struttura Ind. chimica (p2) Air Products

Water is a common impurity in natural gas that must be removed to meet pipeline specifications and prevent hydrate formation. Separation based on the kinetics of diffusion.

Struttura Ind. chimica (p2) The hydrocarbon mix needs to be separated into each component. This process is called fractionation. The fundamental principle for fractionation is that each component has a different boiling point. The usual order is to remove the lighter product first. i.e. start with ethane, then propane, then butane (iso then normal) and finally condensate. Fractionator towers are usually named for the overhead product. A deethanizer implies that the top product is ethane. A depropanizer indicates the top product is propane. With C2+

Deethanizer - the first step in the fractionating sequence is to separate the ethane from the rest of the propane and heavier hydrocarbons.

Depropanizer - The next step is to separate the propane from the rest of the butane and heavier hydrocarbons.

Debutanizer - the final step is to separate the butane from the condensate.

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GTL (Gas to Liquid)

Notevoli studi e progetti di sviluppo in questo settore gasolio medio

Fischer-Tropschs

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DME, fuels & olefins, Methanol chemical synthesis LPG, Air Syngas Fischer Product Synthetic CO Air Naphtha crude H separation production Tropsch Upgrading 2 Diesel Gas CH4 processing CO Coal 2 Purification Gasification removal 98

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light crude oil (°API 44) heavier crude oil (°API = 31)