Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes, Third Edition

Chapter 4 Chemical Product Design

The subject of most of this book is chemical process design, the traditional capstone experience in chemical engineering curricula. For most of the history of chemical engineering, graduates have gone to work in chemical plants that manufacture commodity chemicals. Commodity chemicals are those manufactured by many companies in large quantities, usually in continuous processes like those illustrated in this textbook. There is little or no difference between a commodity chemical produced by different companies. The price for which a commodity chemical can be sold is essentially the same for all producers, and, because most raw materials are also commodity chemicals, the price of raw materials is also the ...