Chemical Park Research Articles

Industrial metabolism of chlorine in a chemical industrial park: the Chinese case

This paper presents a general chlorine metabolic model at industrial parks' level and takes one chemical industrial park in China as a case study. The general metabolism model of chlorine in industrial parks consists of 4 subgroups. Subgroup-1 is mainly composed of industries utilizing NaCl as the major chlorine source. Subgroup-2 includes chemical industries with Cl2 as the major chlorine source. Subgroup-3 uses HCl as the major chlorine source and subgroup-4 implies the effluent treatment engineering. The chlorine metabolic pattern illustrates the main flow routes of chlorine in chemical industrial parks and demonstrates that Cl2 and HCl are the key nodes in these routes. The model is employed to investigate the Cl stream of a typical chemical park in China. The maximum flux route of chlorine is the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production path: NaCl→Cl2→HCl→PVC. The relatively low resource efficiency (RE) of chlorine for the whole park (55.47%) indicates huge chlorine losses during production, which may be due to the outflow of by-products and effluents containing Cl. Four scenarios, direct utilization of HCl, conversion of HCl, Cl− recycle and the integrated scenario, are proposed to raise the RE of the park, achieving the maximum rise of RE from 55.47% to 83.69%.

Framework Design of Emergency Management Information System for Cloud Computing in Chemical Park

Collaborative emergency management mode provides a new idea for further reducing system safety risk in the chemical park. In this paper, the cloud computing and the expert system were used for the framework design of the emergency management information system to enhance emergency response capability of collaborative emergency managementmechanisms. The use of middleware integrated with multi-source data achieved the unified data manipulation interface. Intelligent delivery of information system was provided. Using agent-middleware technology to build decision layer could make massive data analysis, data mining and decision from the “cloud computing” platform access for every user. It can provide the necessary theoretical and technical support for enterprises in the chemical park, to give full play to the collaborative emergency management capability.

Repression Backfires: tactical radicalization and protest spectacle in rural China

In spring 2005, villagers in Dongyang County, Zhejiang were unhappy. For four years they had been complaining about pollution emitted by 13 factories located in the Zhuxi Chemical Park, but nothing had been done. So they set up a tent encampment to block delivery of supplies to the factories. At first, they employed restrained tactics, including going about daily life in the tents, badgering cadres sent to demobilize them, and kowtowing. After a harsh repression produced hundreds of injuries and left dozens of damaged vehicles and other evidence of police action strewn about, the tent-sitters switched to more aggressive tactics, including denouncing local leaders, carrying out mock funerals, interrogating factory owners and ransacking the homes of ‘traitors’. The authorities' ill-considered and poorly-timed repression led to tactical escalation, helped draw thousands of people to the scene, and ultimately resulted in the chemical park being closed. This episode speaks to the ‘dissent–repression nexus’ and suggests that repression can be counterproductive when it encourages protesters to ratchet up their tactics and a ‘protest spectacle’ ensues. In today's China, striking displays and theatrical performances, especially in the wake of a crackdown, can attract an audience, bring in financial support and create a carnival-like atmosphere in which popular acclaim, the breakdown of social order and the inversion of power hierarchies grants protesters leverage and induces the authorities to make concessions.

Benchmarking of industrial park infrastructures in Germany

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the operational performance of industrial park infrastructures in Germany to find first indications for cost saving potentials. Design/methodology/approach – Between 2006 and 2007, six chemical parks and chemical related industrial parks in Germany participated in a benchmarking study with focus on operation and maintenance of buildings, communication infrastructures and traffic infrastructures. Based on data analysis in combination with workshops, numerous key performance indicators were defined and calculated. Findings – To compare the different complexities of the analysed infrastructures, the most important key performance indicators were adjusted using correction factors defined and verified during the workshops. This made a discussion based on comparable and comprehensible figures possible which increased the acceptance and applicability of the benchmarking methodology. The benchmarking results showed large differences in performance levels, indicating that there are significant cost saving potentials in some industrial parks. Research limitations/implications – The comparability may remain limited due to the partly insufficient availability of data from the participants. Other limitations are due to the small number of investigated industrial parks and the focus of the benchmarking study on Germany. Originality/value – The developed benchmark and best practice methodology is well suited to evaluate best practice in the field of industrial park infrastructures. It is important for industrial parks to understand the individual performance level and to adapt best practice in all areas.

Domino effect in a catastrophic solid oxidizer fire

This case study examines a succession of three separate fires which occurred in a period of 4 days at an agricultural chemical manufacturing facility. The facility was located in a small chemical park. The succession of fires illustrates the concept of the domino effect: the first fire caused the second fire, and the second fire caused the third. The final fire was responsible for the total destruction of two businesses and the interruption of a third business. Each fire involved the solid oxidizer sodium chlorate. Despite having manufactured agricultural chemicals for over 25 years, the owner and management of the facility had lost their sense of vulnerability to the hazards of sodium chlorate. The fundamental root cause of these fires was the facility owner's inadequate control of the hazards of sodium chlorate. Workers at the facility had little comprehension of the ability of sodium chlorate to cause organic materials to spontaneously ignite. Housekeeping at the facility was poor. And finally, too large of a quantity of sodium chlorate was stored inside the facility, and this large inventory of solid oxidizer was placed adjacent to combustible materials. Simple procedural safeguards would have been sufficient to prevent the ultimate property damage. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 34: 167–171, 2015

Benchmarking of energy and utility infrastructures in industrial parks

Based on technological progress in conjunction with globalisation, the role of industrial sites has been changing and a cost competitive infrastructure is decisive for a company's long-term success. This article will introduce an innovative approach to benchmark maintenance and electric energy costs to produce and distribute electric energy, steam, industrial and drinking water and compressed air by an empirical examination. In this study, a benchmarking evaluation within 9 chemical parks and chemical related industrial parks was performed. In total, 23 key performance indicators in the area of maintenance and electric energy costs of production and distribution were defined and calculated based on data collected from the participants. To compare the different infrastructures, the most important key performance indicators were adjusted by correction factors. Thus, the correction factors, which have to be very specifically defined for each area, increase the acceptance and applicability of the benchmarking methodology. In consequence, the benchmarking, using correction factors, enabled the comparison of different infrastructures and a justified discussion based on comparable and comprehensible figures. Here, the benchmarking results showed large differences in performance levels, indicating that there are still significant cost saving potentials in some industrial parks. In practice, this new approach provides a robust guideline for practitioners in analysing and advancing the competitiveness of infrastructures on a solid theoretical foundation and also supplies a valuable contribution to policymakers and academics.

The Society of Senior Citizens and Popular Protest in Rural Zhejiang

Societies of Senior Citizens (SSCs) are often thought to be non-political organizations mainly focused on community traditions and services for the elderly. In Huashui town, Zhejiang, however, SSCs took the lead in mobilizing protest and causing 11 factories to be closed. From 2004 to 2005, SSCs helped fund a lawsuit, engineered a petition drive, and organized tent-sitting at a chemical park notorious for its pollution. During the encampment, SSCs drew up schedules for tent-sitters, offered compensation to protesters, provided logistical support, applied pressure on those reluctant to participate, and drew nearby villages into the protest. Huashui’s SSCs were effective mobilizing structures owing to their strong finances, organizational autonomy, effective leadership, and the presence of biographically-available, unafraid older villagers. Skilful mobilization led to efforts to rein in village SSCs. Town SSCs were established to oversee them, SSC seals were confiscated, and Societies in natural villages were instructed to shut down. This reorganization only had a limited effect. Since the 2005 protests, Huashui’s SSCs have played a larger, more assertive role in village affairs, including approving development plans and land use decisions. SSCs have also kept a close watch on village factories and have even flexed their muscles in local elections. SSC experiences in Huashui suggest that organized protest in China is more feasible than often thought and that understandings of protest outcomes should go beyond the success or failure of an episode to explore long-term consequences for the organizations involved.

Framework Design of Emergency Management Information System for Cloud Computing in Chemical Park

Collaborative emergency management mode provides a new idea for further reducing system safety risk in the chemical park. In this paper, the cloud computing and the expert system were used for the framework design of the emergency management information system to enhance emergency response capability of collaborative emergency managementmechanisms. The use of middleware integrated with multi-source data achieved the unified data manipulation interface. Intelligent delivery of information system was provided. Using agent-middleware technology to build decision layer could make massive data analysis, data mining and decision from the “cloud computing” platform access for every user. It can provide the necessary theoretical and technical support for enterprises in the chemical park, to give full play to the collaborative emergency management capability.

Societies of Senior Citizens and Popular Protest in Rural Zhejiang

Societies of Senior Citizens (SSCs) are often thought to be non-political organizations focused on community traditions and services for the elderly. In Huashui Town, Zhejiang, however, SSCs took the lead in mobilizing protest and caused 11 factories to be closed. From 2004 to 2005, SSCs helped to fund a lawsuit, engineered a petition drive and organized tent-sitting at a chemical park notorious for its pollution. Huashui’s SSCs were effective mobilizing structures owing to their strong finances, organizational autonomy, effective leadership and the presence of biographically available, unafraid older villagers. Skillful mobilization led to efforts to rein in village SSCs and a reorganization which, however, had only a limited effect. SSC experiences in Huashui suggest that organized protest in China is more feasible than often thought and that understandings of protest outcomes should go beyond the success or failure of an episode to explore long-term consequences for the organizations involved.

An Environmental Risk Zoning Method Based on Environmental Receptor Grading and Consequence Assessment

The methods in environmental risk zoning put more attention on analyzing the characteristics of environmental risk sources, while ignoring the vulnerability environmental receptor. In the work, a method based on environmental receptor grading and consequence assessment was developed for the environmental risk zoning. The method includes five steps and conducts in the (Geographic Information System) GIS platform. Finally, the method was applied in Pine Island Chemical Park, China as an illustration.

Risk Prevention and Emergency Countermeasures to Environmental Accidents of Chemical Industry Parks

Due to the high population density, the environmental accidents would caused the serious social impact and economic loss in China.The chemical parks are the major environmental risk sources. The environmental risk categories are introduced and the corresponding risk prevention measures of chemical industral park to environmental accident are researched in the paper. Moreover, the hazards reduce measures of environmental accidents around the chemical park ,which including the hazardous chemical monitoring, environmental pollution integrated emergency exercise,et al.,are also discussed.

Evonik adds phthalate-free and bio-based products to plasticizer portfolio, boosts US precipitated silica capacity

Evonik Industries has revealed plans to launch a new generation of plasticizers for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), expanding its range of sustainable plasticizers to include phthalate-free and bio-based products. The new plasticizers will be manufactured at facilities being constructed at the company's Marl Chemical Park site. Evonik reports that total investment in the project is in the double-digit million Euro range.

Study on Fire Safety Planning in Chinese Petrochemical Industry Parks

In order to explore the regularity of fire station construction in domestic chemical industry park, the study reviewed the typical safety incidents in decade. Under the summary of characteristics of fire disaster, explosion, and leakage incidents, this article puts forward the methods for the construction of fire station system in chemical parks, especially the fire station construction standards, equipment requirements and the enhanced fire station. Hopefully, the study will be beneficial for the future development of fire station construction in chemical industry parks.

Reseach on the Optimization of Chemical Logistics Park Internal Areas Layout

The number of chemical logistics park increases very fast in our country. The thesis uses the thought of SLP to engage in applied research with examples. By analyzing logistics factors and other factors, determine the relativity between districts. Regarding to each district's operation area, applied the methods of correlation diagram and the methods of dynamic-line arrangement separately to design the positions of each district. Finally, give a simple comparison and conclusions to the two methods.

The Petrochemical Park Fire Safety Planning Study Based on Fire Risk Analysis

According to the chemical industrial parks current development trend in China, the fire risks, fire safety situations and the existing problems of petrochemical parks have been widely surveyed. And the main basic contents of chemical industrial parks fire safety planning are described in the paper. Through the researches on fire safety planning of chemical industry park and its evaluation system, based on the security planning of the chemical park, the fire safety planning methods and planning procedure to improve the petrochemical industrial park fire prevention levels are proposed on the basis of fire risk analysis.

China's Chemical Industry Materials Based on the Content and Security Planning Research

With China's rapid economic development, the construction of a large number of chemical industrial park, And followed by a chemical park brought security issues. Therefore, security planning industrial zone is a very important thing. In this paper, the chemical content of the park's security planning, given a specific solution, and safety planning measures based on scientific research are given, This can make all the security risks chemical park disappear under the bud.

Research on Area Risk Assessment for Chemical Park based on Domino Effect Model

The area risk assessment model in consideration of domino effect has been build in order to carry out the overall quantitative risk assessment for chemical parks, then to provide a scientific basis for making safety plan and safety management of chemical parks. The consequence and probability model of domino effect initiated by fire and explosion has been established from three respects of heat load, blast wave load and explosion fragment load, according to domino effect mechanism. The area risk assessment procedure based on the domino effect is proposed, and the calculation models of individual risk and social risk on the basis of the domino extension probability are established taking target unit as the core. The conclusion of the example shows that the domino effect will increase significantly the individual risk value of the region, so it is very necessary to analyze the domino effect of chemical parks.

BASF COMES TO TOWN

LACK OF ORGANIZATIONAL self-confidence is not an attribute often associated with BASF, the world’s largest chemical company. Later this year, BASF will begin construction of a $1.2 billion polyurethane complex at the Chongqing Chemical Industry Park in southwest China. BASF’s assuredness will come in handy as it tries to convince wary residents that its project is in their best interest. The German company is eager for the plant’s construction to proceed smoothly. But it faces challenges on two fronts. Residents of the communities adjacent to the chemical park are former farmers, many of whom are bitter about having had to give up their land to make way for industry. Beyond the local communities, environmental activists are unconvinced of the safety of the project, which, they say, was approved in a secretive way. To improve its standing in the eyes of local residents and to bring environmental activists on board, the company’s Chongqing-based staff is launching ...

Challenges in risk management in multi-company industrial parks

The trend of companies focusing ever stronger on their core businesses has led to outsourcing of certain activities, e.g. maintenance, and even to selling out parts of industrial plants. This is the case also in Finland. Clusters of neighbouring companies, commonly called industrial parks, have been formed. In these multi-company parks safety and environmental responsibilities are not always clear and the risk map has changed. It has become evident that Finnish legislation has not followed this development of the industrial sector and the formation of industrial and technology parks. A Finnish project on the safety in chemical industrial parks has studied how safety and environmental issues can be best managed in multi-company chemical parks, and how the current legislation in Finland supports companies facing problems accentuated in or specific to industrial parks. The outcome outlines the identified challenges as well as the benefits of cooperation between the independent companies in industrial parks.

Singapore Catalysis Society

The chemical industry is a major pillar of Singapore’s manufacturing sector. The first refinery came on stream in 1961, and since then, Singapore has become one of the world’s top three oil refining centres with a total refining capacity of 1.4 Mio bpd. Subsequently, a highly integrated petrochemical industry developed downstream from the refineries. Jurong Island is the cornerstone of the chemical industry in Singapore, and with an area of about 3,200 ha is one of the biggest chemical parks in the world. It is home to more than 90 companies with investments in excess of 30 billion Singapore Dollar (S$) (exchange rate in September 2008: US $1.00 = S$ 1.41). The output of the Chemical Cluster grew from 50.7 billion S$ in 2004 to 83.1 billion S$ in 2007 at a compounded annual rate of almost 18%. With this, the chemical industry accounts for roughly one third of Singapore’s manufacturing output. The pharmaceutical companies are similarly concentrated as a cluster in the Tuas industrial area. This industry registered 30% growth in 2006 to generate an output of 23.0 billion S$. More recently opened the 183 ha Tuas Biomedical Park, which is slated for expansion by another 188 ha. This industry park houses companies such as Genentech, Lonza Biologics, and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals. The manufacturing industry can obtain support for research and process development from local subsidiaries and affiliates of companies such as Albany Molecular Research (AMRI), Codexis, and Sigma Aldrich Fine Chemicals (SAFC). Many big multinational chemical corporations such as BASF, Bayer, DOW, Mitsui Chemicals, and others have also set up their own research units in Singapore. The outlook of the industry is promising, and continued strong growth is expected over the next 10 years. To sustain this growth, the industry will need access to enough workers and trained professionals. In 2006, the chemicals sector accounted for more than 23,000 jobs. Manpower training is therefore of prime importance, and has a high priority in the planning by the Economic Development Board. Singapore is now focusing on innovation in chemical industry. By 2010, Singapore aims to invest up to 3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in research and development (R&D). Today, Singapore has over 22,600 research scientists and engineers in 18 research institutes and the two national universities.