Chemical companies are industrial processing plants that produce (or otherwise process) chemicals, usually on a large scale. The overall goal of chemical enterprises is to create new material wealth through chemical or biological transformation and or separation of substances. Chemical companies use specialized equipment, units and technologies in the manufacturing process. Other types of plants, such as polymer, pharmaceutical, food, and some beverage production equipment, power plants, refineries and other refineries, natural gas treatment and biochemical plants, water and wastewater treatment, pollution control equipment use many technologies similar to chemical plant technologies such as flow systems and chemical reactor systems. Some people think that refineries, pharmaceutical companies, or polymer manufacturers are actually chemical companies.
Petrochemical Plants (plants that use petrochemicals as raw materials or feedstocks) are usually located near refineries to minimize transportation costs for raw materials produced by refineries. Specialty and fine chemical plants are usually much smaller and less sensitive to location. Tools have been developed to convert the cost of a basic project from one geographic location to another.
Chemical companies use chemical processes, which are detailed industrial scale methods for converting raw chemicals into products. The same chemical process can be used in multiple chemical plants, and the production capacity of each plant may be different. In addition, a chemical plant on a site may be constructed to utilize more than one chemical process, such as the production of multiple products.
A chemical company usually has large containers or parts called units or lines. These units or lines are connected by pipes or other material moving equipment that can transport the material flow. This material flow may include a fluid (gas or liquid carried in a pipeline) and sometimes a solid or mixture, such as mud. A complete chemical process usually consists of steps that occur in a single unit called unit operation. The process of entering a plant as a feedstock, or feedstock, is often referred to as a feedstock conversion. In addition to the plant feedstock as a whole, the input stream of the feedstock processed in a particular plant can also be considered as the feedstock of the plant. The output stream from the factory as a whole is the final product, and sometimes the output stream from a single unit may be considered as the intermediate product of their unit. However, the final product of one plant may be intermediate chemicals, which are used as raw materials for further processing in another plant. For example, some products of a refinery may be used as feedstock for a petrochemical plant, which in turn may be used as a feedstock for pharmaceutical production.
The raw material, product, or both can be separate compounds or mixtures. It is usually not worthwhile to completely separate the components in these mixtures; the specific level of purity depends on product requirements and process economics.
