Page 138 - Chemical and process design handbook

Speight_Part II_B 11/7/01 3:11 PM Page 2.79

BENZENE 2.79
ates, in turn, supply numerous sectors of the chemical industry producing
pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, plastics, resins, dyes, and pesticides.
In the past, benzene has been used in the shoe and garment industry as a
solvent for natural rubber. Benzene has also found limited application in
medicine for the treatment of certain blood disorders and in veterinary
medicine as a disinfectant.
Benzene, along with other light high-octane aromatic hydrocarbons such
as toluene and xylene, is used as a component of motor gasoline. Benzene is
used in the manufacture of styrene, ethylbenzene, cumene, phenol, cyclo-
hexane, nitrobenzene, and aniline. It is no longer used in appreciable quantity
as a solvent because of the health hazards associated with it.
Ethylbenzene is made from ethylene and benzene and then dehydro-
genated to styrene, which is polymerized for various plastics applications.
Cumene is manufactured from propylene and benzene and then made into
phenol and acetone. Cyclohexane, a starting material for some nylon, is
made by hydrogenation of benzene. Nitration of benzene followed by
reduction gives aniline, important in the manufacture of polyurethanes.