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.
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 feedstocks 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.
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 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 using alternative
routes. This has already begun in earnest and over the last 20 years, as noted
in the last section, the consumption of energy per unit of product has been
falling at an average of about 6% in the EU and about 2.5% in the US per year.
In consequence, the emission of carbon dioxide has fallen per unit of product
by 68% and 40% over the same time scale.
The new technologies based on nanomaterials 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.
Much of the data used in
this unit is derived from published work by CEFIC (Conseil Européen des Fédérations de l'Industrie
Chimique, The European Chemical Industry Council) and the American Chemical Council.
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