The Right Chemistry
Nothing has changed the way we live and work so profoundly as the chemical industry. From food, fuel and medicine to clothes, cars and cleaning fluids, chemicals rule the world.
Glittering, lustrous and virtually indestructible, gold is one of the most valuable commodities on earth. its seductive glow has kept people under its spell for centuries.
Its long association with great wealth has made gold synonymous with high achievement and aspiration. The term ‘gold standard’ – coined when gold was used as the basis of currency – is often a benchmark for excellence. A prolonged period of prosperity and productivity is known as a ‘golden age’ and an exceptional person is ‘worth their weight in gold’.
The beauty of gold is matched by its versatility. originally used for coinage, ornaments, jewelry and gilding, the metal’s uses have increased as industries have developed. Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity. It doesn’t tarnish or corrode – the radiation-control coating on spacecraft is made from gold flake. you can even eat it:
gold leaf is used as a decoration on cakes and specialist dishes.
What you can’t do is manufacture it. Alchemists, the forerunners of chemists, spent hundreds of years attempting to transmute base metals into gold. Those early scientists held true to Aristotle’s belief that the earth comprised just four elements: earth, air, fire and water.
Later discoveries would reveal gold to be one of 92 pure elements that are, collectively, the building blocks of the universe and cannot be made artificially. The opposite is true of the radioactive elements on the Periodic Table. By bombarding them with neutrons, scientists have continued to discover new elements, although some of these are unstable.
Alchemists may have failed in their quest but the chemistry pioneers did strike gold of a kind. In their attempt to unlock the earth’s secrets, they mixed elements together in laboratories, often making breakthroughs accidentally, eventually leading to a global chemicals industry without which the modern world would probably not exist.
Chemical reactions and processes are responsible for producing a seemingly endless variety of solids, liquids and gases. And many of these provide raw materials for other industries. From food, medicine and fuels to clothing, paints and CDs, almost all the manufactured and extracted products we all take for granted are connected to chemistry.
Chemical revolution
The international year of chemistry in 2011 coincided with the 100th anniversary of Marie Curie receiving the Nobel Prize for chemistry for discovering radium and polonium. She is just one of many scientists who have earned their place in the chemistry hall of fame.
Another key figure is Antoine Lavoisier whose experiments with chemical reactions in the late 18th century helped launch a chemical revolution and earned him the title of ‘the father of chemistry’. Joseph Priestley may have identified oxygen but lavoisier gave it the name. lavoisier’s ‘Law of Conservation of Matter’, which states that matter cannot be created or destroyed, was an inspiration to others, particularly John Dalton, who in 1803 introduced the first atomic theory. Dalton was the first to calculate the relative weights of atoms and compounds and also proved that compounds were combinations of elements.
The findings of Lavoisier, Dalton and others sparked the commercial exploitation of chemicals for a range of useful products. in 1856, William Perkin, an 18-year-old student at the Royal College of Chemistry in London, was trying to synthesize quinine to treat malaria. His experiments produced the first synthetic dye, which he named mauveine after its purple color. It proved to be a relative goldmine. as well as being a huge commercial success, it laid the foundations for the organic chemical industry.
Initially Britain led the way in the chemical industry but was later overtaken by Germany which had invested heavily in research and manufacturing. During the First World War the US, unable to receive dye stocks from Germany, started its own chemical industry, particularly petroleum refining.
The US, Europe and Japan have dominated chemical production during its rapid rise over the last 50 years. Companies from this triad, such as BASF, Bayer, Mitsubishi and Shell, are huge multi-national enterprises. And the colossal ExxonMobil is not only the largest in the oil and gas sector but also the biggest company in the world.
Now the dynamics are shifting. The recent economic crisis hit the industry badly in the US and Europe resulting in many plants closing. At the same time, there’s a growing demand for chemicals in China, India, Korea, South East Asia, Brazil and the Middle East. The predictions are that, by 2015, 50 per cent of world demand for chemicals will come from Asia. And China alone will account for 25 per cent.
Meanwhile, the middle east is expanding its petrochemical capacity with new refineries and plants. In 2010, Borouge, the joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Austrian chemical and plastics firm Borealis tripled its annual production capacity of polyolefins to two million tons. Polyolefins provide a range of plastics for making pipes, cables and packaging. Further increases are planned that will transform the Abu Dhabi site into the world’s largest integrated polyolefins plant by 2014.
From the early beginnings in makeshift laboratories, chemistry is now a gigantic field. It embraces inorganic and organic chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, electrochemistry, analytical and physical chemistry. many of these disciplines overlap. Chemistry is involved in all parts of life – and death. Whether it’s about developing new drugs and fibers or substances to aid forensic examination, everything relies on chemical reactions. Or as Professor John T. Moore, in his book ‘Chemistry for Dummies’, neatly sums up: “If you cook, clean, or simply exist, you’re part of the chemical world”.
Black gold
Organic chemistry, which revolves around carbon, is by far the largest area of the chemical sciences. With more known compounds than any other elements, carbon is king. And chemists have found – and continue to find – a wealth of opportunities for converting carbon into cash.
Because of the riches it provides oil is often called ‘black gold’. Along with other fossil fuels, such as coal and gas, oil is a primary source of energy in the industrialized world. It also provides vital raw materials for most of the chemical industry’s processes. Oil, also called petroleum, is the result of a chemical reaction caused by the decomposition of organisms over hundreds of millions of years.
The first important modern use of petroleum was as a replacement for whale oil in lamps. Then, with the development of machinery, oil proved its value as a lubricant – keeping the wheels of industry turning. The car industry dramatically increased demand for oil and improvements in refining processes have led to a wealth of products, such as solvents, plastics, textiles and fertilizers.
Oil is a complex series of hydrocarbon compounds which can be separated by distillation into gasoline, kerosene, gas oil, lubricating oil, residual fuel oil, asphalt and paraffin.
However, one of the most important breakthroughs of the 20th century was engineering the hydrocarbons in oil, coal and natural gas to produce polymers which could then be molded into plastics, fibers and rubbers.
Fantastic plastic
Chemists got the idea of polymerization from nature. Proteins, cotton, wool and cellulose are all examples of naturally occurring polymers. These substances comprise very large molecules (macromolecules) which contain units called monomers that link together to form a chain. Chemists successfully applied the principle of linking small units together to hydrocarbons.
This synthetic polymerization process is used to create the many plastics and other materials that are used to manufacture everyday products such as bottles, foam pillows, non-stick pans, toys and computer casings. The development of chemical engineering over the last 50 years has enabled plastics to be produced cheaply and in large quantities.
It’s believed that plastics and polymers now account for 80 per cent of the chemical industry’s global output. These include polyethylene, PVc, polypropylene and polystyrene. But perhaps the golden child of the plastics family is polycarbonate. Its durability and heat resistance make it ideal for a growing range of applications, including construction materials, car and aircraft components and spectacle lenses. Polycarbonate rose to fame on the back of compact discs and its success as a data storage tool continues in the DVD and Blu Ray market.
Electrochemistry – the study of electrochemical reactions – is another branch of the chemical sciences that has made an impact on industry, technology and medicine. The batteries which power everything from flashlights and watches to cars and cell phones, work by producing an electrochemical reaction. Electrochemistry is also used to extract aluminum and to add metal plating to objects.
Engineering for the chemical world
The chemical industry makes many thousands of products from the earth’s raw materials. But this can only be achieved with precision engineering. Whether it’s providing complete processing lines, separation, drying, heat transfer and cooling technology – or simply keeping cows clean – GEA companies offer the chemical industry world class engineering technology.
One of the most sought-after materials is polysilicon. Also known as Polycrystalline silicon it is vital for the IT industry and also the growing solar energy sector. In recent years China has boosted its capacity for producing this coveted material and GEA Refrigeration Technologies has helped to supply the refrigeration technology that the polysilicon production process demands. Polysilicon is made from chlorosilane, some of which is emitted as exhaust. The chlorosilane can be recovered from the exhaust through refrigeration. The GEA Refrigeration Technologies portfolio has the edge, offering an output that ensures optimum recovery.
Processing of chemicals, petrochemicals and gas usually creates heat – and refrigeration is essential for reducing the temperature. GEA Refrigeration Technologies manufactures a range of compressor packages, chillers and custom-engineered industrial refrigeration systems for the chemical industry. For example its compressors are being used in gas liquefaction plants in Australia and Malaysia.
Another major project is the Borouge petrochemical complex in Abu Dhabi where GEA Refrigeration Technologies is supplying a propylene refrigeration compressor package.
GEA Heat Exchangers has a long history in the field of industrial air cooling and heat transfer for the world’s power and chemical industries. Its extensive, market-leading portfolio includes a range of heat exchangers for every conceivable application, Heller systems, air cooled condensers, wet cooling towers, fully welded and gasketed plate heat exchangers and HVAC systems. Cooling equipment from GEA Heat Exchangers helps cooling chemical and petrochemical processes to use less water.
As a pioneer in industrial air cooling – the first elliptical fin tube was invented in 1920 by GEA founder, Dr. Otto Happel – GEA Heat Exchangers is a leading global supplier of air fin coolers and air cooled condensers for power stations, chemical plants, refineries and petrochemical facilities, as well as LNG terminals and gas pipelines. GEA Heat Exchangers was the first company to build an air cooler factory in Qatar. With manufacturing sites in Europe, China, the Middle East and South Africa, as well as North and South America, it is close to customers in emerging markets. Its air fin coolers offer an ideal solution in areas where water is scarce, such as parts of China and the Middle East.
Renzmann double tube safety heat exchangers play an important role in processing chlorosilanes for polysilicon production, improving safety and quality.
In Brazil and South Africa, GEA Heat Exchangers operates engineering and manufacturing facilities for shell & tube heat exchangers that are used in petrochemical installations.
GEA Luftkühler PSA switch condensers, GasKat coolers and liquid condensers play a key role in producing phithalic acid, a catalyst used in manufacturing softeners for plastics. Without phithalic acid modern plastics would not have progressed beyond the brittle bakelite of the 1920s.
GEA Process Engineering supplies a wide range of technologies for the chemical industry. GEA Niro spray and fluid bed dryers are used during production of everything from advanced chemical compounds to bulk chemicals. This includes Li-ion battery materials, advanced ceramics and other products for electronic equipment. Examples of bulk products are soda ash, HDPE and PVC.
GEA Barr-Rosin flash dryers, fluid bed dryers, ring and rotary dryers remove moisture from bulk chemical products such as industrial minerals, PET chips and agrochemicals.
Manufacturing the synthetic fiber polymide 6 creates large amounts of effluent which can be cleaned in GEA Wiegand evaporation plants, keeping waste to a minimum.
Another important manufacturing step in the chemical industry is membrane filtration. GEA Filtration technology has a number of applications in this sector, including recovery of titanium oxide, removin0g sodium acetate from printer dye, polymer and pigment production and processing waste water.
GEA Kestner evaporation and crystallization plants can be found world-wide, covering a range of markets from acids and alumina to paper and textiles, while GEA Messo PT evaporators and crystallizers are a key part of the production of a range of inorganic products and organic compounds, such as potassium chloride and sodium carbonate.
The chemical industry relies on high quality engineering components to make product processes run smoothly and safely. GEA Mechanical Equipment's portfolio of homogenizers, valves, pumps, separators and decanters are manufactured and operate to the highest standards.
GEA Tuchenhagen valves, pumps and cleaning equipment are all designed to enable plants to achieve optimum quality and productivity. For example, the VESTA® sterile valve series has been finely tuned to improve effectiveness and reliability.
In the chemical and petrochemical industry GEA homogenizers and high pressure pumps can blend products effectively and control viscosity, obtaining the desired particle sizes for different processed products. The use of high pressure improves extraction processes and can intensify the color in many pigments and paints. GEA homogenizing equipment is applied to the manufacture of a wide variety of products, including adhesives, paints, detergents, fuel oil, wax, silicon, latex, paraffin and polymer emulsions.
GEA Mechanical Equipment's separators and decanters have supported the chemical industry for decades. Its high-speed centrifuges make a valuable contribution to the exploration, delivery and treatment of crude oil and natural gas. GEA Mechanical Equipment's separators, decanters and membrane filtration installations have been developed to meet the chemical industry’s safety, hygiene and product quality standards. They are used for processing petrochemicals and minerals, biotechnology products, polycarbonate and alkaloids – to name but a few.
Finally, GEA Farm Technologies is also active in the chemical industry. Hygiene is paramount both for the animals and the milking parlors. GEA Farm Technologies has a full range of alkaline and acid cleaners for cleaning and descaling milking machines and tanks as well as agents for udder hygiene.
The company also provides special detergents for cleaning hooves and bedding conditioner for the stalls that absorbs moisture and reduces bacterial growth. What’s more these cleaning products are made at GEA Farm Technologies’ purpose-built facility in Plainfeld, Austria, using an environmentally-friendly process. Very little water is used and all the exhaust air is filtered.
More information:
- Biotechnology boom