Page 174 - CW E-Magazine (26-3-2024)

Special Report Special Report

The pine tree gives alpha-pinene, Soda ash, by the way, was the fi rst of the wonders of catalysis. It didn’t But India’s fi rst ammonia plant (in start high value speciality chemicals Polymers and modern living
beta-pinene, carene, etc., and the rub- detergent. Even today, it is part of a start in academia, but was very quickly Belagola, near Mysore) was actually production through the electrochemical Packaging has undergone dramatic
ber tree gives rubber latex – a polymer detergent mix. That is why it is called taken up by the academic community based on electrolytic hydrogen, using route in a distributed manner. changes with the availability of poly-
with extraordinary properties, made at washing soda, while soda bicarb is and three scientists got Nobel Prize in hydropower. When it was built, the mers even though we keep criticizing
room temperature. We make synthetic called baking soda. this area. Metathesis started when there Nangal dam did not have an outlet for Innovations in membranes plastics. In fact, here the technology
rubber going through a fairly involved was a large surplus of propylene. So, electricity, so a plant for electrolytic Today, a galaxy of polymers are has become its villain. The technology
process, even as Nature produces natu- Wonders of catalysis propylene was split – two moles of pro- hydrogen was set up and all ammonia used to make membranes, which can allowed polyethylene fi lms to become
ral rubber in such a facile way. Syngas or synthesis gas is a mixture pylene underwent metathesis to give in Nangal was based on this electrolytic withstand even polar solvents like thinner and yet stronger. If you go back
of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and ethylene and 2-butene, and the techno- hydrogen. dimethylformamide. Nanofiltration 20 years ago, the polyethylene fi lm
Shellac – an excretion from an can be made to react in various ways logy was commercially practiced. Now membranes can sieve out molecules that was used for packaging was much
insect – fi nds mention in the Maha- using different catalysts. With the use the reverse is practiced on a grand scale – With distributed energy available, with molecular weight more than 250, thicker. The thinner fi lm, that you can’t
bharata. During the British regime in of one catalyst by which oxygen is you want to produce more propylene, you will see, in coming years, a renais- and attempts are being made to go pierce easily, has become the villain
India, because there was no other plastic retained in the product, one makes so you react ethylene and 2-butene by sance of chemistry done with electro- down below 200. Charge membranes of the piece because it fl oats around.
which could be processed, they created methanol. With yet another catalyst, we metathesis. chemical process. can separate monovalent ions from A municipal problem is being blamed
the Indian Lac Research Institute at can get higher alcohols, and with yet divalent ions at room temperature. on the polymers.
Namkum, near Ranchi, and Indian another the oxygen can be removed and The automobile revolution is all Since water is not conducting, some
Forest Research Institute in Dehradun. we can get methane or higher hydro- about chemistry. If there is a slump potassium hydroxide (KOH) is added Optically active chemistry Paint industry
carbons (such as ethane). One can also in automobile industry, the chemical in the electrolyser, to produce hydrogen Nature is an outstanding chemist The paint industry is chemistry
Chemistry in daily life engineer the catalyst and get olefi ns. industry is affected. Every part of an and oxygen very neatly. If one can fi nd and produces many chemicals that are based. At home, everybody knows emul-
Chemistry plays a role in everything automobile, by and large, is a product of good uses for oxygen, the economy of optically active. One example is opti- sion paint. How is an emulsion made?
you see in daily life. You hold a tooth- The most classic catalytic process chemistry – the tyre, dashboard, bumper hydrogen production will improve. cally active menthol, of which India is If the chemistry didn’t work, you won’t
brush fi rst thing in the morning – the is the one that makes ammonia. One of and, most importantly, the exhaust. Today, one can run electrochemical cells the largest producer. If you put a small get an emulsion. If you didn’t have the
bristles are a product of chemistry; so the greatest achievements in the history Without a catalytic converter in the for hydrogen production, at pressures crystal of optically active menthol on acrylate monomer, you won’t get acrylic
is the handle and the toothpaste. White of chemistry was the Haber-Bosch pro- exhaust, the emissions of CO and NOx up to 30 bar, compared to just one bar in your tongue, the cooling effect you get emulsions. The dust-repellent paint is
toothpaste contains calcium carbonate. cess (for which both scientists got the would be much higher, causing great the early stages. is radically different from same sized again a product of chemistry.
This is made by converting limestone Nobel Prize), in which inert nitrogen harm to human health. piece, which was racemic.
to lime and then recarbonating it to and hydrogen combine to give ammonia. Similarly, by the electrolysis of an Take more sophisticated applica-
get precipitated calcium carbonate, The original objective of ammonia Sometimes when you buy a bottle aqueous solution of sodium chloride, Today, asymmetric synthesis is tions – paints on aircraft are supposed
which has the desirable properties for synthesis was to make nitric acid, to of a medicine, you will fi nd a small bag one can get caustic soda, chlorine, and carried out to produce optically active to last for 14-years, as you don’t repaint
incorporation in toothpaste. Transpa- make explosives and fi ght the First containing silica. It is meant to pick hydrogen, in membrane cells. The chemicals. The fi rst example was L-dopa, aircraft. The effi cacy of the paint is also
rent toothpaste, on the other hand, con- World War. At that time the only source up (adsorb) moisture. During COVID Nafi on membranes used are made from a a drug to treat Parkinson’s disease. But evident in all glass cables, but the var-
tains precipitated silica. But if you take for making nitric acid was Chilean times, everyone came to know about fl ouropolymer, originally developed for today a number of hydrogenations are nish applied is still not made in India.
quartz, which is a very pure form of saltpetre. Fertilisers came later. What PSA or Pressure Swing Adsorption – a the space programme. It allows sodium done in industrial scale to directly give
silica, grind it to exceptionally low par- would have been the situation in the gift of chemical engineers, based on the ion to pass through but rejects the optically active products. The pigment most paints use is
ticle size and put in the toothpaste, you world if fertilisers had not come about? science of adsorption. chloride ion. The membrane can stand up titanium dioxide. Iron oxide pigments are
will throw it away. You have to convert What fraction of the global population to 38% caustic soda, such is its effi cacy. Biocatalysis – the linkage of chemis- available from yellow to red to black
this silica to sodium silicate, reprecipi- would have gone hungry is for you to Electrolysis and renewable energy Chlorine has many uses, of which the try with biology colours and even as transparent
tate and then only use the precipitated ponder! China today produces about Electrolysis is now seeing a renais- most important is for making the poly- Wonderful things are going to hap- micaceous iron oxide. These are very
silica. 45-mtpa of ammonia, and India about sance because of the availability of dis- mer polyvinyl chloride (PVC). pen in coming years in biocatalysis – sophisticated products, that are the same
12-mtpa. tributed power. One cannot split water the orchestration of chemistry and bio- molecule, but in different forms.
Chemistry does wonders two most into hydrogen and oxygen by any normal Today, electrochemical oxidation logy. Thanks to the work of Nobel Prize
inert molecules – calcium carbonate Today, ammonia is also seen as a chemo-catalytic reaction, even if you and reduction are being done in the winner Dr. Francis Arnold, Professor Material science
and sodium chloride. If you were to hydrogen carrier, as there is a global go to 2,500°C, as thermodynamics does same cell commercially. BASF, the of Chemical Engineering, Caltech, Material science is very important.
write the overall equation – 2NaCl + system for ammonia storage and trans- not permit. To obtain hydrogen, we have largest chemical company in the world, directed evolution enables development
CaCO = Na CO + CaCl – your fi rst port. There are engines already deve- to do many tricks. We can reform with with an annual turnover of $80-bn, does of enzymes that can do wonders. Renewable energy is critically de-
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guess would be that there is no way you loped to burn ammonia. methane, to get carbon monoxide and methoxy toluene conversion to anisic pendent on chemistry. Powerful mag-
can react the two materials which live hydrogen; carry out a Shift reaction of aldehyde in one electrode and at the Today, it is possible to produce all nets, key to effi cient wind turbines,
for millions of years in the earth. How- You hear a lot about ‘hydrogen carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and other electrode you have reduction of the three isomers of butylene glycol – need neodymium. Wind blades are
ever, chemistry is able to make them economy’ today. It is all chemistry! hydrogen; remove carbon dioxide; and so phthalic anhydride to phthalide. 1,4-butanediol, 1,3-butylene glycol and made of composites.
react to produce get soda ash, via sodium get pure hydrogen. This is what is done in 2,3-butylene glycol – by biotransfor-
bicarbonate. Metathesis is an excellent example a majority of ammonia plants today. With distributed energy, one can mation. Bulletproof vests were made from

174 Chemical Weekly March 26, 2024 Chemical Weekly March 26, 2024 175

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