The Chemistry of Bourbon: The "spirit" of molecules

Petrochemical plants and refineries both process hydrocarbon derived materials. Refineries focus on fuels production. Refinery products include LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), gasoline (petrol), kerosene and jet fuel, diesel, fuel oils, and coke. Petrochemicals focus on creating intermediates used to produce industrial and consumer products. Major petrochemical processes include steam cracking to produce ethylene (ethane), propylene (propene), and butadiene and aromatics plants producing benzene, toluene, xylene and other aromatics.

Traditionally, wastewater has been viewed as a source of pollution that can damage ecosystems. However, wastewater collection can be a win-win for the environment and businesses, because it contains several valuable elements like nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus that can be converted and purified into high-purity products like fertilizers

As chemical reactions are scaled from lab to manufacturing, potential safety issues of non-scalable conditions need to be identified early in development. Reaction calorimetry provides crucial information quickly, which can be applied to quantify the risks and criticality associated with a chemical process.

Before marketing a new chemical, the manufacturer/importer, in order to meet the various national and international legal requirements, has to submit information in the form of a notification or registration (e.g. phys-chem, toxicological, ecotoxicological data) to support each Government’s risk assessment to determine whether the substance poses an unreasonable risk to the environment and/or human health. Some countries require pre-manufacture/import notification while for many jurisdictions, the chemical notification process is a tiered system requiring subsequent notifications as the annual amount of the imported or manufactured substance increases. Further, there are expanding global initiatives to assess chemicals already in the marketplace and subsequently take action on any chemicals found to be harmful to human health and/or the environment. Government risk management initiatives are investigating the incorporation of informed substitution and alternatives assessment to identify candidates to replace existing toxics.