PDF (10.0 MB) - GEA Group

ACHEMA
GEA Cooling towers play a role in the chemical industry
worldwide. The towers (pictured left) have been installed in a
petrochemical site in Europe. As one of the leading equipment
suppliers to the industry, GEA Group will be the biggest single
exhibitor in this year’s Achema chemical engineering and
process industries exhibition in Frankfurt 11-15 May 2009.
Held every three years, ACHEMA is the number one event for
both industries and is predicted to attract 190,000 visitors
from across the world. GEA Group will have a 1,100 square
meter stand with representatives from 30 of its companies.
A little-known chemical compound
plays a key role in our everyday lives,
whether we realize it or not.
t’s not the sort of thing most of us know
about – aniline, that is. Chemists know it
as C 6 H 7 N, an organic compound. The GEA
Group knows it as a market sector. But for
most of us, aniline is not something that
plays a major role in our lives…or is it?
Aniline is made by treating benzene with
nitric acid, sulphuric acid and hydrogen at a
temperature of around 600°C. The resulting
yellowish liquid may not smell very nice but
it is incredibly useful. If you think this rather
unpleasant compound hasn’t yet touched
your life, think again.
Have you ever, for example, taken a
paracetamol? Aniline is a base product
for many common drugs. Aniline is also a
key ingredient in herbicides. By far the most
common use of aniline is in the production
of diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI),
a key ingredient of polyurethane foam for
insulating refrigerators or freezers, for
example – and where would we be without
them? One use of aniline has become so
familiar to us all that we hardly notice its
existence at all. The compound is used in
the production of synthetic indigo dye used
throughout the world in the most successful
fashion item ever known to mankind – blue
jeans. If you have ever owned a pair, it’s
aniline you have to thank.
Most of the chemical industry use GEA air
coolers as a vital part of their processes.
Over the years, GEA has delivered a large
number of the air coolers needed by the
leading chemical producers in the world.
In addition to the traditional chemical
manufacturing areas in Europe and the
United States, Asia and the Middle East are
developing as new centers for the production
of chemicals. The world market for MDI is
expected to keep growing, especially in Asia,
where wealth and consumers’ aspirations
are growing exponentially. For this reason
chemical production facilities in China are
being extended and air coolers from GEA
Luftkühler are being used in these worldclass
production facilities. This expansion
reflects a growing need for polyurethane
manufacture for a wide range of industries.
Plastics for today
GEA covers more than just air coolers for the
production of aniline and other chemicals,
significant though they undoubtedly are. GEA
Luftkühler provides the essential equipment
used to produce phithalic acid, a catalyst used
in the production of softeners for plastics.
Without phithalic acid modern plastics
wouldn’t have progressed much from the
brittle bakelite of the 1920s. Instead, today’s
plastics are created with the necessary
pliability to perform virtually any function,
from surgical devices to car bumpers.
At its manufacturing site in Herne, Germany,
GEA Luftkühler makes almost all the
key equipment for the oxidation part of
the phithalic acid process, including PSA
switch condensers, air cooled condensers,
air pre-heaters, GasKat gas coolers and
liquid condensers. In fact, the technology
is so fundamental to the chemical industry
that world experts in the production of
phithalic acid come together in a global PSA
meeting every year. GEA, of course, takes
part to combine their technical and process
knowledge to explore new opportunities for
this vital technology.
There is little that is certain in business,
particularly in these rather turbulent times.
Yet the applications for both aniline and
phithalic acid are so fundamental to modern
society that it’s hard to imagine anything but
growth long term. The consumerist world of
2009 might be contracting a little but, taking
a ‘helicopter view’ of the development of the
world’s civilizations, it seems inevitable that,
as growth returns and poorer civilizations
become more affluent, the markets for
plastics, herbicides, polyurethane foam,
drugs and even blue jeans will continue to
grow, too.
GENERATE MAGAZINE ISSUE 08 23