History of chemical industry

At that time there was another pillar of organic chemical production, the acetylene chemical industry. In 1895, the first factory was established using coal and limestone as raw materials to produce calcium carbide (i.e.) by electric heating. Calcium carbide was then hydrolyzed to produce acetylene, which was used as a starting point to produce a series of basic organic raw materials such as acetaldehyde and acetic acid. After the development of the middle of the 20th century, calcium carbide energy consumption was too high, and most of the original acetylene series products were converted to raw materials for production.

Polymer material

In 1839, the United States used sulfur and heated natural rubber, so that it cross-linked into elastomers, used in tires and other rubber products, widely used, this is the germination of polymer chemical industry. In 1869, the United States with camphor plasticizer cellulose nitrate made of plastic, very valuable.1891 in Besancon, France built the first artificial silk factory.1 In 909, the United States made phenolic resin, commonly known as bakelite powder, widely used in electrical insulation materials.

These budding products, in variety, yield, quality and other aspects are far from meeting the requirements of society. Therefore, the production of the above basic organic chemicals and the production of polymer materials have been greatly developed after the establishment of petrochemical industry.

Great development period:

From the beginning of the 20th century to the 1960s and 1970s after the war, this was the main stage in which the chemical industry really became large-scale production, and some major fields were formed during this period. And petrochemical industry has been developed, developed, and gradually rise. At the beginning of this period, concepts developed by people such as the United Kingdom and the United States laid the foundation for chemical engineering. It has promoted the development of production technology, whether it is the size of the device, or the output of the product has grown rapidly.

Synthetic ammonia industry

In the early 20th century, with the physicochemical reaction equilibrium theory, the catalytic method of direct synthesis of ammonia by nitrogen and hydrogen was proposed, and the idea of supplementary recycling after the separation of raw gas and product was further solved. Thus, Germany was able to build the first ammonia production plant in World War I to meet the needs of the war. Synthetic ammonia originally used coke as raw material, and changed to oil or natural gas after the 1940s, so that the chemical industry and the two major sectors of the petroleum industry are more closely linked, and the rational use of raw materials and energy.

Petrochemical industry

In the United States in 1920, it was the beginning of large-scale development of petrochemical industry. In 1939, the United States Standard Oil Company developed a catalytic reforming process for hydrogen, which became an important source of aromatics. In 1941, the first unit was built in the United States to produce ethylene as a raw material. After the Second World War, due to the continuous expansion of the chemical product market, petroleum can provide a large number of cheap organic chemical raw materials, and due to the development of chemical production technology, petrochemical industry has gradually formed. Even regions that do not produce oil, such as Western Europe and Japan, also use crude oil as raw materials to develop petrochemicals. The same raw material or the same product, each chemical enterprise has different process routes or different catalysts.

Since the basic organic raw materials and polymer monomers are based on petrochemical as raw materials, people use ethylene production as a sign to measure organic chemical industry. In the 1980s, more than 90% of organic chemical products came from petrochemical industry. For example, etc., in the past, calcium carbide acetylene was used as raw material, then it was changed to oxygen chlorination to produce vinyl chloride, and propylene ammoxidation (see) to produce acrylonitrile. In 1951, carbon monoxide and hydrogen were obtained by steam conversion from natural gas as raw material, which was paid attention to and used for production, and individual areas were used for production.

Polymer chemical industry

Polymer materials were used in the military during the war, converted to civilian use after the war, and achieved great development as a new material industry. As a strategic material, natural rubber is produced in the tropics, blocked by shipping, all countries are studied. In 1937, the German Farben company successfully developed. Later, various countries have successively developed a variety of synthetic rubber such as butyl, butyl, chloroprene, nitrile, isoamyl, ethylene and propylene, each with different characteristics and uses. In 1937, the United States successfully synthesized nylon 66(see), spun by melt method, because of its good strength, used as parachutes and tires. Since then, polyester, Vinylon, acrylic and other products have been put into production, and because of the petrochemical industry as its raw materials, it has gradually occupied most of the natural fiber and man-made fiber market. In terms of plastics, after phenolic resin, thermosetting resins such as alkyd resins were produced. After the 1930s, varieties continued to appear, such as the large varieties of plastics so far, for the excellent insulation materials at that time, in 1939, high pressure for submarine cables and radar, low pressure polyethylene, isotropic polypropylene was successfully developed, opening up a wide range of uses for civil plastics, which is Ziegler - Nata Catalysts make a great contribution to polymer chemistry. This period also saw the emergence of high-temperature and corrosion-resistant materials, such as polytetrafluoroethylene, which is known as the king of plastics. After the Second World War, some are also used in the automotive industry, but also as building materials, packaging materials, etc., and gradually become a large variety of plastics.