Page 136 - Analysis, Synthesis and Design of Chemical Processes, Third Edition

Chapter 4 Chemical Product Design

The subject of most of this book is chemical process design, the traditional capstone experience in
chemical engineering curricula. For most of the history of chemical engineering, graduates have gone to
work in chemical plants that manufacture commodity chemicals. Commodity chemicals are those

manufactured by many companies in large quantities, usually in continuous processes like those illustrated
in this textbook. There is little or no difference between a commodity chemical produced by different
companies. The price for which a commodity chemical can be sold is essentially the same for all
producers, and, because most raw materials are also commodity chemicals, the price of raw materials is
also the same for all producers. For the most part, innovations regarding manufacture of commodity
chemicals have occurred a long time in the past. Therefore, the only real way to be more profitable than a
competitor is to have lower ancillary costs, such as a favorable union contract, a better deal on the costs
of different sources of energy, superior automation, a better catalyst, and so on.

Before a chemical became a commodity, it was probably a specialty. A specialty chemical is one made
in smaller quantities, often in batch processes, usually by the company that invented the chemical. Perhaps
the best examples of specialty chemicals evolving into commodity chemicals are polymers. Polymers
such as nylon, Teflon, and polyethylene were specialties when they were invented in the first half of the
twentieth century, and they were seen only in selected applications. Now, they are ubiquitous
commodities.

The chemical industry has also become more global. At one time, chemicals and products from chemicals
for the entire world were manufactured in the centers of the chemical industry: the United States and
Western Europe. This meant that a large, rapidly growing chemical industry in the United States and
Western Europe was needed to serve the needs of developing countries. Now chemicals are manufactured
all over the world, closer to where they are used, as are the raw materials for these chemicals. Therefore,

the traditional commodity chemical industry is not in a growth phase in places such as the United States
and Western Europe. Existing chemical processes continue to operate, and chemical engineers trained to
understand and work with continuous, commodity chemical processes are still needed.

It has been suggested that the future of chemical engineering—that is, the place where chemical engineers
can innovate—is in chemical product design [1,2]. This is also the place where more and more chemical
engineers are being employed [2]. It could be argued that the future is identical to the past. Since the
1970s, most large, commodity chemical companies have trimmed their long-range research, focusing
instead on support for the global growth of commodity chemical production. They believed this to be a
necessary shift of emphasis as chemicals that were once specialties evolved into commodities.

What is a chemical product? One possibility is a new specialty chemical. A new drug is a chemical
product. A new catalyst or solvent for use in the commodity chemical industry is a chemical product.
Post-it Notes are a chemical product. A fuel cell is a chemical product. A device for indoor air
purification is a chemical product. Technologies employing chemical engineering principles could be
considered to be chemical products. Even the ChemE Cars that many students build as part of the AIChE
competition could be considered chemical products.