Chemical intermediate

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This article is about industrial chemicals primarily used to produce other chemicals. For short-lived molecules, see reaction intermediate.

In the chemical industry, a chemical intermediate (collectively "intermediate chemicals"[1]) is the (stable) product of a chemical reaction process, valued as a reagent for subsequent industrial chemical processes, as distinguished from a product valuable to the end consumer.[2] For example, ethanol has application as a solvent, a fuel, and in artificial liquors; but when it is sold to manufacture ethyl esters, it is a chemical intermediate.[3]

Some chemicals derive value entirely from their role as chemical intermediates. Cumene is made from benzene and propylene and used to make acetone and phenol in the cumene process. The cumene itself is of relatively little value in and of itself, and is typically only bought and sold by chemical companies.[4] Likewise the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe has summarized adiponitrile as "an intermediate compound in the manufacture of Nylon".[5] Chloroform and carbon tetrachloride have historical uses as (respectively) an anesthetic and a solvent, but now are primarily chemical intermediates for fluorocarbon production.[6] Pure chemical intermediates constitute the majority of chemical products by type; in 1936, Williams Haynes estimated that they constituted 70% of all chemicals manufactured in the United States.[7]

References

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  1. ^ The Chemical Industry in 1996. Economic Commission for Europe (Report). New York: United Nations Publication Section. p. 34. ISBN 92-1-116676-4. The main trends in the industry are the stagnation of inorganic and intermediate chemicals and decreasing world polymer prices.
  2. ^ The Petrochemical Industry. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Report). Perspectives for Industrial Development in the Second United Nations Development Decade. New York: United Nations. 1973. p. 5. Attention has already been drawn to the great diversity of products derived from petroleum and natural gas....They can be divided into three main categories according to their respective position in the chain that starts from the petrochemical feedstock and ends in the final product, namely the conventional categories of primary, intermediate and end products.
  3. ^ Reuben, B. G.; Burstall, M. L. (1973). The Chemical Economy. London: Longman. p. 202. ISBN 0-582-46307-6. LCCN 73-85210. Apart from being a source of acetaldehyde, ethyl alcohol is widely used as a solvent....It also has a number of outlets as a chemical intermediate, e.g. for ethyl acetate. See also Seddon, Duncan. Gas Usage & Value. Tulsa: PennWell. p. 228. ISBN 1-59370-073-3. It is true that the use of the [Fischer-Tropf] synthesis for the production of chemicals is not a primary aim. However, the process does produce a range of intermediates that could be separated and used in a variety of downstream applications.
  4. ^ Some Chemicals Present in Industrial and Consumer Products, Food and Drinking-Water. Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2013. ISBN 978-9283213246.
  5. ^ Membrane Technology in the Chemical Industry. Economic Commission for Europe (Report). New York: United Nations. p. 23. ISBN 92-1-116465-6.
  6. ^ Reuben & Burstall 1973, p. 430.
  7. ^ Haynes, Williams (1936). Men, Money, and Molecules. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. 144.
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