Chemical Manufacturing and Refining Industry Legitimacy: Reflective Management, Trust, Precrisis Communication to Achieve Community Efficacy

With stringent environmental regulations and a new drive for sustainable manufacturing, there is an unprecedented opportunity to incorporate novel manufacturing techniques. Recent political and pandemic events have shown the vulnerability to supply chains, highlighting the need for localised manufacturing capabilities to better respond flexibly to national demand. In this paper, we have used the spinning mesh disc reactor (SMDR) as a case study to demonstrate the path forward for manufacturing in the post-Covid world. The SMDR uses centrifugal force to allow the spread of thin film across the spinning disc which has a cloth with immobilised catalyst. The modularity of the design combined with the flexibility to perform a range of chemical reactions in a single equipment is an opportunity towards sustainable manufacturing. A global approach to market research allowed us to identify sectors within the chemical industry interested in novel reactor designs. The drivers for implementing change were identified as low capital cost, flexible operation and consistent product quality. Barriers include cost of change (regulatory and capital costs), limited technical awareness, safety concerns and lack of motivation towards change. Finally, applying the key features of a Sustainable Business Model (SBM) to SMDR, we show the strengths and opportunities for SMDR to align with an SBM allowing for a low-cost, sustainable and regenerative system of chemical manufacturing.

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Sampling and analysis in flow: the keys to smarter, more controllable and sustainable fine‐chemical manufacturing

Angewandte Chemie International Edition ◽

10.1002/anie.202102009 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Michael G Organ ◽

Mathieu A. Morin ◽

Wenyao (Peter) Zhang ◽

Debasis Mallik

Keyword(s):

Fine Chemical ◽

Chemical Manufacturing

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Research on Hazardous Waste Removal Management: Identification of the Hazardous Characteristics of Fluid Catalytic Cracking Spent Catalysts

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules26082289 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (8) ◽

pp. 2289

Author(s):

Haihui Fu ◽

Yan Chen ◽

Tingting Liu ◽

Xuemei Zhu ◽

Yufei Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Water ◽

Hazardous Waste ◽

Environmental Quality ◽

Catalytic Cracking ◽

Petroleum Refining ◽

Fluid Catalytic Cracking ◽

Refining Industry ◽

Spent Catalyst ◽

Spent Catalysts ◽

Petroleum Refining Industry

Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) spent catalysts are the most common catalysts produced by the petroleum refining industry in China. The National Hazardous Waste List (2016 edition) lists FCC spent catalysts as hazardous waste, but this listing is very controversial in the petroleum refining industry. This study collects samples of waste catalysts from seven domestic catalytic cracking units without antimony-based passivation agents and identifies their hazardous characteristics. FCC spent catalysts do not have the characteristics of flammability, corrosiveness, reactivity, or infectivity. Based on our analysis of the components and production process of the FCC spent catalysts, we focused on the hazardous characteristic of toxicity. Our results show that the leaching toxicity of the heavy metal pollutants nickel, copper, lead, and zinc in the FCC spent catalyst samples did not exceed the hazardous waste identification standards. Assuming that the standards for antimony and vanadium leachate are 100 times higher than that of the surface water and groundwater environmental quality standards, the leaching concentration of antimony and vanadium in the FCC spent catalyst of the G set of installations exceeds the standard, which may affect the environmental quality of surface water or groundwater. The quantities of toxic substances in all spent FCC catalysts, except those from G2, does not exceed the standard. The acute toxicity of FCC spent catalysts in all installations does not exceed the standard. Therefore, we exclude “waste catalysts from catalytic cracking units without antimony-based passivating agent passivation nickel agent” from the “National Hazardous Waste List.”

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Electrochemical reduction of acetonitrile to ethylamine

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-021-22291-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Rong Xia ◽

Dong Tian ◽

Shyam Kattel ◽

Bjorn Hasa ◽

Haeun Shin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Computational Study ◽

Building Blocks ◽

Primary Amines ◽

Hydrogen Electrode ◽

Faradaic Efficiency ◽

Fossil Energy ◽

Chemical Manufacturing ◽

Stable Performance ◽

Temperature And Pressure ◽

Partial Current

AbstractElectrifying chemical manufacturing using renewable energy is an attractive approach to reduce the dependence on fossil energy sources in chemical industries. Primary amines are important organic building blocks; however, the synthesis is often hindered by the poor selectivity because of the formation of secondary and tertiary amine byproducts. Herein, we report an electrocatalytic route to produce ethylamine selectively through an electroreduction of acetonitrile at ambient temperature and pressure. Among all the electrocatalysts, Cu nanoparticles exhibit the highest ethylamine Faradaic efficiency (~96%) at −0.29 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Under optimal conditions, we achieve an ethylamine partial current density of 846 mA cm−2. A 20-hour stable performance is demonstrated on Cu at 100 mA cm−2 with an 86% ethylamine Faradaic efficiency. Moreover, the reaction mechanism is investigated by computational study, which suggests the high ethylamine selectivity on Cu is due to the moderate binding affinity for the reaction intermediates.

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