Economania

The chemicals sector is renowned for quietly moving forward at its own pace as opposed to hitting the headlines all over the place. Chemical products go into household products such as polishes that we all use on a daily basis. The sector also manufactures specialized compounds that might find application elsewhere for example in a production run of electronics goods.

Huntsman Corporation has announced that it is expanding its manufacturing plant in Conroe, Texas against a future demand for AI related products and semi-conductors. This plant manufactures high quality metal amines and amine oxides that go into the manufacture of electronic chips. The firm is determined to attain manufacturing excellence in this product range and the new investment could also create new jobs as well.

BAE Systems has also committed new investment worth £8.5 million into its Glascoed plant in south Wales. This has led to new breakthroughs in the manufacture of explosives and propellants going into munitions such as 155mm artillery shells. The demand for these has shot up since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This allows the company to manufacture at greater capacity and also remove the need for nitroglycerine which is also in huge demand. This production process could also be applied to manufacture of ammunition for small arms such as automatic rifles or machine guns.

The Airedale Group in north Yorkshire still remains a major manufacturer of nitric acid that goes into several applications. Nitric acid can be produced in an oxidation reaction by passing ammonia over a platinum-rhodium catalyst at high temperatures. This creates a nitric oxide that could react with oxygen at a temperature of 250 degrees C to form nitrogen dioxide. This in turn can be absorbed in water which delivers the final product nitric acid as well as more nitric oxide. The nitric oxide can be recycled back into the production process.

Nitric acid can also be combined with ammonia to produce ammonium nitrate, one of the most dangerous compounds ever devised by man and totally deadly if it is not handled properly. This goes into the manufacture of fertilisers and explosives. Fuming nitric acid also goes into the manufacture of rocket propellants which is an almost pure concentrate. This can be manufactured by adding sulphuric acid as a dehydrating agent or applying what is known as vacuum distillation.

Nitric acid also finds application in metal treatment and electronics. It can refine metals and also remove any oxides or scale from stainless steel. This could also be applied in etching and surface finishing. The same process would also go into the manufacture of semiconductor components as these have to be assembled in a totally sterile environment to function properly.

Nitric acid can also be used as a catalytic compound to manufacture drugs, dyes and other organic compounds. It always retains an oxidising capacity that can be used in conjunction with other intermediate chemicals to produce a final product. In this context, it is also used in analytical chemistry such as trace metal analysis. It can also be combined with hydrochloric acid in water treatment.

INEOS has also invested £30 million into its manufacturing plant at Hull to convert it to run on hydrogen as opposed to natural gas. This cuts carbon emissions by 75%. This plant manufactures acetic acid, ethyl acetate and acetate anhydride. These products go into medicines and even clean water treatment. The plant is part of INEOS Acetyls, one division within INEOS plc. Hydrogen is produced as a by-product from other manufacturing processes and this can be put back in as a fuel. This same process can be replicated at other sites. De-carbonisation efforts are also ongoing at other plants owned by INEOS such as Koeln in Germany.

Dow has announced a restructuring plan that will cut jobs including 220 roles at its plant in Barry, south Wales. This plant has been manufacturing chemicals since the 1940s but the company has been forced to face hard reality in terms of costs and declining demand. This plant manufactures siloxanes from silicon and oxygen that go into industrial sealants and adhesives. Jobs will also be lost in Germany. This comes back to the fact that the European chemicals sector is struggling in a tepid business environment.

(see bbc.co.uk/business and www.huntsman.com)

Mark Sandford - Permission granted to freely distribute this article for non-commercial purposes if attributed to Mark Sandford, unedited and copied in full, including this notice.

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