Chemical Industry in Modern Life

Almost everything we use today needs chemical products to be manufactured or to function. The Chemical Industry is one of the most important industries in the modern world. Chemical products are involved in almost every industrial process and are essential in other industries. The Chemical industry is the one responsible of converting raw materials like water, oil, natural gas, air, metals, and minerals, into more valuable products.

Around the 80% of the chemical industry production is centered in plastics and polymers. These products are fundamental for a very wide range of processes within other industries, like the automotive industry, medical instruments, food industry, space exploration, all manners of transport, and things of every day use like TVs, computers, pens, and even cloth. The chemical industry itself consumes around 26% of this chemical products. In a large scale, modern life depends on plastic and polymer products.

The most important chemical companies are from the United States and European Union and chemicals is calculated to be a $3 trillion global enterprise. The chemical business sales can be divided in a few broad categories like basic chemicals with around 40% of output, life sciences 30%, specialty chemicals 20% and customer products 10%.

Basic chemical include polymers, petrochemicals, reaction intermediates, inorganic chemicals and fertilizers. The polymers and plastics are used for construction pipes, tools, materials like acrylics, appliances, electronic devices, transportation, toys, games, packing, clothing and textiles like nylon and polyester, among many other products. Polymers come from petrochemical raw materials like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas and crude oil or petroleum. Petrochemicals are also used for producing other organic chemicals and well as specialty chemicals.

Other basic industrial chemicals include synthetic rubber, pigments, resins, explosives and rubber products. Inorganic chemicals belong to the oldest chemical categories, and include daily products like salt, chlorine, soda ash, acids like nitric, phosphoric and sulfuric acids, caustic soda and hydrogen peroxide, which are vital for several industries. Fertilizer belong to the smaller category of basic chemicals and include phosphates, ammonia and potash, which are used to supply the soil with nutrients for growing plants and agriculture.

Life sciences industry use different chemicals and biological substances for manufacturing pharmaceuticals, animal health products, vitamins and pesticides. This industry produce a small volume compared to other chemical sectors, but their products are most commonly very expensive. These life science products are produced with very detailed specifications and have to be of the better quality. There is a lot of money invested in investigation even before making the first marketable product. This industry is very strictly scrutinized by governmental agencies and authorities.

Specialty chemicals is a category of very high valued chemical products and is rapidly growing today thanks to scientific research and technology advances. This include the most innovative products valued more for what they do, than what chemicals they contain. This include electronic chemicals, industrial gases, adhesives and others.

Finally, the consumer products are chemicals directly sold to the customers like soap, detergents and cosmetics.