Chemical Industry

Background This book provides an introduction to the main sectors of the chemical industry, and complements An Introduction to Industrial Chemistry (sub- sequently referred to as Volume I) which covers the physico-chemical principles of the subject, as well as introductory technical economics and chemical engineering. Processes considered include the large-scale production of polymers (up to 1000 tonnes per day for a single plant); the chlor-alkali, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus industries; and the production, on a smaller scale, of dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. The rapidly developing area of biotech- nology is dealt with under biological catalysis. The consequences of scale of operation are also highlighted in Chapter 7. Each chapter includes common themes, such as brief history, present position, major products and the future. The final chapter links together the predictions made for the future of each sector, to give an overall projection for the whole chemical industry; the quadrupling of oil prices in 1974 and the widespread recession at the beginning of the 1980s provide a salutary lesson about the difficulty of such projections.