Process technologies

Abstract

The chemical industry transforms the earth's raw materials into many important basic materials in use every day. More than one quarter of the petroleum pumped worldwide ends up in films, fibres, paints, coatings, flavourings, fertilisers and crop protection agents, as well as body-care products and medicines. Annual production volumes cover a vast range: from 150 g of a haemophilia drug to more than 48 mio. t of the commodity plastic polyethylene. For each new product, the chemical synthesis must be developed in a laboratory, the process created on a small scale and finally brought up to production scale - including the preparation, isolation and often formulation or design of the product. Process technology provides the necessary plant and equipment for each process step. There is a continuous need to modify existing plants or to design new, tailored facilities. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.