Changes of Chemical Industry

Introduction
The chemical industry creates an immense variety of products which impinge on virtually every aspect of our lives.

The chemical industry is one of the largest manufacturing industries in all developed and emerging countries. This is a view of the largest site in the world devoted to the industry, at Ludwigshaven in Germany. While many of the products from the industry, such as detergents, soaps and perfumes, are purchased directly by the consumer, 70% of chemicals manufactured are used to ma e products by other industries including other branches of the chemical industry itself. The industry uses a wide range of raw materials, from air and minerals to oil. Chemical industry, comple! of processes, operations, and organi"ations engaged in the manufacture of chemicals and their derivatives. #lthough the chemical industry may be described simply as the industry that uses chemistry and manufactures chemicals, this definition is not altogether satisfactory because it leaves open the $uestion of what is a chemical. %efinitions adopted for statistical economic purposes vary from country to country. #lso the &tandard 'nternational Trade (lassification, published by the )nited *ations, includes e!plosives and pyrotechnic products as part of its chemicals section. +ut the classification does not include the man,made fibres, although the preparation of the raw materials for such fibres is as chemical as any branch of manufacture could be.

-igure .. There have been breath,ta ing changes in the chemical industry over the last /0 years or so, not only in 0urope and in the )& but particularly in (hina, 'ndia, the rest of #sia and +ra"il. This is a view of the chemical industry plant at %aya +ay in the south,east of (hina. With increasing competition worldwide, innovation remains crucial in finding new ways for the industry to satisfy its increasingly sophisticated, demanding and environmentally, conscious consumers.

What does the chemical industry produce?

The products of the chemical industry can be divided into three categories1

+asic chemicals &peciality chemicals (onsumer chemicals

&everal other categorisations are used but this one is simple and helpful in the conte!t of this web site. 2utputs range widely, with basic chemicals produced in huge $uantities 3millions of tonnes4 and some speciality chemicals produced in modest ilogramme $uantities but with very high value. #s e!plained in the unit on (hemical 5eactors, the choice of reactor is often goverened by the amount of chemical that is to be produced. The value of sales per category for both 0urope and the )& are broadly similar, as shown in

Europe +asic chemicals 7olymers 7etrochemicals +asic 'norganics &peciality chemicals (onsumer chemicals .: /; 6. .8 .8 /8 .8 /8 6/

US /9 .: /9

Table /1 7roducts from the chemical industry in .0// by category 3%4.

The complicated characteristics of the chemical industry

The scope of the chemical industry is in part shaped by custom rather than by logic. The petroleum industry is usually thought of as separate from the chemical industry, for in the early days of the petroleum industry in the /<th century crude oil was merely sub=ected to a simple distillation treatment. >odern petroleum industrial processes, however, bring about chemical changes, and some of the products of a modern refinery comple! are chemicals by any definition. The term petrochemical is used to describe these chemical operations, but, because they are often carried out at the same plant as the primary distillation, the distinction between petroleum industry and chemical industry is difficult to maintain. >etals in a sense are chemicals because they are produced by chemical means, the ores sometimes re$uiring chemical methods of dressing before refining? the refining process also involves chemical reactions. &uch metals as steel, lead, copper, and "inc are produced in reasonably pure form and are later fabricated into useful shapes. @et the steel industry, for e!ample, is not considered a part of the chemical industry. 'n modern metallurgy, such metals as titanium, tantalum, and tungsten are produced by processes involving great chemical s ill, yet they are still classified as primary metals. The boundaries of the chemical industry, then, are somewhat confused. 'ts main raw materials are the fossil fuels 3coal, natural gas, and petroleum4, air, water, salt, limestone, sulfur or an e$uivalent, and some speciali"ed raw materials for special products, such as phosphates and the mineral fluorspar. The chemical industry converts these raw materials into primary, secondary, and tertiary products, a distinction based on the remoteness of the product from the consumer, the primary being remotest. The products are most often end products only as regards the chemical industry itself? a chief characteristic of the chemical industry is that its products nearly always re$uire further processing before reaching the ultimate consumer.