Industrial manufacturers must understand the common chemicals used in their fields. Manufacturing processes use various types of chemicals for cleaning, sanitizing, and creating new products. Let's take a look at five of the most common industrial chemicals and their uses.
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Also known as caustic soda, sodium hydroxide is a highly versatile and commonly used industrial chemical. It's a strong base that can dissolve in water and is widely used in the production of paper, textiles, and various cleaning products. Sodium hydroxide also has applications in food processing, such as regulating pH levels in certain foods.
Sulfuric acid is an incredibly strong and corrosive chemical that has a wide range of industrial uses. It's commonly used in the production of fertilizers, as well as in the manufacturing of various chemicals, such as detergents, dyes, and pigments
Ethylene is primarily used in the production of plastics. Natural gas or petroleum produces this colorless gas, which acts as a building block for various types of plastic products. Ethylene is also used in the manufacturing of antifreeze, detergents, and even pharmaceuticals.
Nitrogen may be the most abundant element in our atmosphere, but it's an essential industrial chemical for many processes. Manufacturers use it as an inert gas to prevent oxidation. It also has applications in the production of ammonia, fertilizers, and explosives. Nitrogen is also used extensively in the food industry to preserve foods and in the production of electronic components.
Zinc chloride is a versatile chemical used in various industrial applications. It appears as a white crystalline powder and is excellent at dissolving in water. Many different industries use zinc chloride in their manufacturing processes, especially in galvanizing iron and steel. It's also common in the production of batteries, textiles, and as a flux in soldering.
Understanding the common industrial chemicals and their uses is crucial for manufacturers to ensure safe and efficient production processes. These five chemicals are just a small sample of the many essential chemicals used across various industries. As technology advances, we're sure to discover more innovative uses for these and other chemicals in the future.
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The thick liquid used to be called "oil of vitriol," since it was originally made by the distillation of "green vitriol," or iron sulfate as we know it today. It was so corrosive and nasty that the term "vitriolic" entered our vocabulary to describe language that was particularly disagreeable.
Sulfuric acid is the substance that, in movies at least, sizzles through metal, burns skin and dissolves corpses. Although in real life it is not quite as deadly as in works of fiction, it is bad enough. We sometimes use it as a drain cleaner to dissolve all the accumulated guck which includes items ranging from hair to toothpaste tube caps. There is an important point worth noting about using concentrated sulfuric acid as a drain cleaner. It must never be mixed with any of the other commonly available drain cleaners which are based on lye (sodium hydroxide). Combining these two generates a tremendous amount of heat, enough to melt plastic pipes, as well as toxic acid vapors!
So if sulfuric acid is so dangerous, why are their tankers and trains criss-crossing the continent loaded with this liquid? The reason is actually simple. Sulfuric acid is the world's most important industrial chemical! In North America we produce about 50 million tons a year, mostly by burning sulfur to form sulfur dioxide which is then reacted with water. Why do we need all that sulfuric acid? Primarily to produce fertilizer. Sulfuric acid converts insoluble phosphate ore into a valuable fertilizer known as "superphosphate." Without this we could not even contemplate feeding the world. Then there are the detergents, the dyes, the drugs, the explosives, the paints, the metals and the car batteries, all of which require sulfuric acid for production.
Sulfuric acid also occurs in nature. Oil, coal and gasoline all contain small amounts of naturally occurring sulfur compounds. When these burn, their sulfur content is released as sulfur dioxide, a gas that eventually combines with moisture to form sulfuric acid. Presto, we have acid rain! In some areas the rain can be acidic enough to corrode limestone used in building construction. Limestone is calcium carbonate and reacts with sulfuric acid to form carbon dioxide and calcium sulfate that is washed away.
Many years ago during a lecture on acid rain I decided to demonstrate its effects by opening a bottle of the acid and hanging a nylon stocking nearby. The acid vapours soon formed large holes in the stocking. The students were impressed and undoubtedly learned something about acid rain. But I learned something too. I learned about the popularity of nylon underwear! The next day I was confronted by a couple of students who had gone home at night and discovered holes in their finery. Apparently the sulfuric acid vapours had a more wide ranging effect than I had expected. There was some explaining to do in the face of some pretty vitriolic language.
@JoeSchwarcz
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