Haze in Kuala Lumpur: August 11, 2005

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Haze in Kuala Lumpur August 11, 2005
Economic cost bad chemistry at work?
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GEK2500 Living with Chemistry

• Chemistry and the Economy

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Energy (fuel) and economy
What is oil? Chemicals! Hydrocarbons (84 carbon,
16 hydrogen) Coal (70-95 carbon, 3-4
hydrogen, 2-24 oxygen) Natural gas (83 carbon,
17 hydrogen) What drives the engine of
activities on earth!

• Changes in the price of oil have tremendous
  impact on the economy
• 1973 Middle East War - led to immediate shortages
  in petrol and heating oil
• 1986, a rapid drop in the price of oil
  -stimulated the economies of industrialized
  nations, but wreaked havoc with economies of
  poor, oil-producing nations
• 2004, rise in oil prices again even bigger rise
  in 2006

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90-minute blackout in several areas THE eastern
and western parts of Singapore were blacked out
yesterday morning in the worst power failure here
in 10 years. It happened at 10 am, when seven
gas-powered plants tripped after their supply was
cut abruptly during routine testing by the
Indonesian natural gas supplier. For 90 minutes,
thousands of people in seven estates were left
wondering when the hum of air-conditioners,
computers and washing machines would return. The
Energy Market Authority (EMA), Singapore's power
regulator, said at least 228 buildings were
affected in Bedok, Tampines, Pasir Ris and Kaki
Bukit in the east, and Mandai, Pandan and Tuas in
the west. At least 11 phone calls were made to
rescue people trapped in lifts. But perhaps the
biggest scramble was at the zoo. Keepers took no
chances even though the electrical wires in the
tiger and lion pens are just one of several
barriers separating the animals from visitors.
Within 45 minutes, the potentially-deadly animals
were moved into dens. Another major blackout in
June 2004
ST 8/6/02
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Energy (fuel) and political stability

• Attention has repeatedly been focused on the
  Middle East, where gt 50 of known petroleum
  reserves are located
• 1991 Gulf war - the threat of an Iraqi seizure of
  the oil fields of Kuwait
• Political situation in that area remains volatile
• Should energy availability and cost become
  unpredictable once again, conflicts will increase
• US60 for one barrel of oil (2005), 70 in
  2006, today gt100 (early July 2008 147)

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Fossil fuels

• 90 of the energy used in the world comes from
  fossil fuels
• Coal
• Natural gas
• Petroleum
• Non-renewable energy sources, supply is limited
• When will fossil fuels run out?

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World reserves of fuels

• Estimated world reserves of economically
  recoverable fuels (in thousands of metric tons
  coal equivalents)
• Fuel World
• Coal 926,000
• Petroleum 199,000
• Natural gas 143,000
• Source International Energy Outlook 1990, US
  Dept of Energy

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World distribution of coal
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World distribution of petroleum
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World distribution of natural gas
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Coal and natural gas

• Coal - derived from plants, complex material
  composed mainly of carbon
• Different grades - depending on content (H, O, N,
  even S)
• Inconvenient fuel (liquefaction)
• Natural gas - gas trapped in geological
  formations capped by impermeable rock
• Composed mainly of methane (CH4), composition
  varies greatly

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• We are using the fuel 50,000 times faster than
  they are formed !

90 of the fuel will have been used up in a
period of 300 years Yet, it took millions of
years to produce it!
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Petroleum

• Probably animal origin
• Main components are hydrocarbons (alkanes, cyclic
  compounds, etc.)
• Varying content of S, N, O
• Crude petroleum is of limited use - need to
  undergo separation
• Fractional distillation
• Almost every distillation fraction is useful

CnH2n2
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Whats in a barrel of oil (42 US gallons 159
litres)
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Petroleum refinery - fractional distillation of
petroleum
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Converting petroleum fractions

• Gasoline (petrol) fraction is most in demand
• Fractions that boil at higher temperatures are
  converted to gasoline by heating (in the absence
  of air)
• Catalytic cracking
• Convert lower octane-number compounds to higher
  ones
• Catalytic reforming

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Octane number

• Octane number used to evaluate fuel quality
• n-heptane (7 carbons) - o.n. 0
• isooctane (8 carbons)- o.n. 100
• (2,2,4-trimethylpentane)
• leaded petroleum (to prevent knocking) -
  environmental problem
• Alternative octane enhancers (chemical
  additives) but they pose problems of their own
  (e.g. methyl-t-butyl ether, MTBE)

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Petrochemicals

• Petroleum - an important source of industrial
  chemicals
• Seven important petrochemicals - ethylene,
  propylene, butylene, benzene, toluene, xylene and
  methane
• These are starting materials for manufacture of
  plastics, medicines, textiles, food, etc.
• Chemical processes to produce (cracking) or
  interconvert them

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Uses of ethylene

• Starting material for many industrial chemicals
• (note b billions of pounds)

CH CH
CH2
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Some industrial uses of ethylene

• Polymerization to PE
• Production of vinyl chloride (further to PVC)
• Production of vinyl acetate (further to PVA)
• Production of ethylene glycol - an antifreeze
  agent or coolant
• Production of ethanol (CH3CH2OH) and acetaldehyde
  (CH3CHO) - common solvent and starting material

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Chemical industries

• Various industries related to chemistry
• Petroleum and petrochemicals
• Pharmaceuticals
• Specialty and industrial chemicals
• Materials and microelectronics
• etc. etc.

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Chemistry and the microelectronics industry
See next slide
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Wafer fabricationprocess
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Manufacturing industry and the Singapore economy

• The manufacturing industry accounts for a quarter
  of the Singapore economy
• It is an engine of growth, along with financial
  and business services
• Long term aim manufacturing sectors
  contribution to Singapores gross domestic
  product gt 30 , employment share gt 20

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Singapore major industry sectors (1998)
2005 S180b 2007?
1995 15
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Chemical industries in Singapore

• Chemical industry is the second largest
  manufacturing sector
• World 3rd largest oil-refining centre with a
  refining capacity of 1.2 million barrels per day
• Houses global oil players such as BP, Caltex,
  Exxon-Mobil and Shell
• On petrochemicals - an ethylene capacity of 1
  million tonnes per annum

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Chemical output share (1998)
S83.1b in 2007, 1/3rd of Singapores total
manufacturing output (in 2005 S66.5b)
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Jurong Island
2007 Spore Chemical and refinery hub - S30b
investment by 90 companies
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Jurong Island
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Opening of Jurong Island(14/10/2000)

• Hub for 60 leading petroleum, petrochemical,
  specialty chemical and supporting companies
• Enabling industry integration on the same island,
  equipped with shared facilities and resources
• By 2018, the chemical industry should have output
  of S300 billion

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• Biomedical Industry including pharma companies
  (Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Sharpe Dohme,
  Schering-Plough, etc.
• Star performer in Singapores economy
• Will continue to contribute significantly in
  coming years
• Underlying this is chemistry

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Indonesia-SingaporeWest Natuna gas agreement

• Singapore to purchase natural gas from Indonesia.
  Gas now forms around 60 of energy source in
  Singapore

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Energy crisis High oil price
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Hydrogen economy

• USA investing US1.2 billion on hydrogen fuel
  cell research
• China is investing US50m
• The way of the future?
• Singapore trying out with 6 test vehicles
• Problems with storage and handling at the moment
  but
• Chemistry will attempt to solve them!
  (nanoscience and nanotechnology)

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Hydrogen Fuel Cells What and How? Go to this
National Geographic web site to find out
http//www.nationalgeographic.com/everyday/fuelcel
l.html
Learn more from Fuel Cells 2000, the online fuel
cell information resource at http//www.fuelcells.
org/ and US Department of Energys http//www.eere
.energy.gov/cleancities/atv/tech/fuel_cell.html
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Excerpt frm Carl Skadians article (ST 8/20/03)
on the power outage in the USA/Canada on Aug 14,
2003 Quote from the New York Times
newspaper 'For many Internet addicts, the
blackout last week was a rude reminder of just
how decisively the vaunted 21st-century digital
lifestyle can be laid low by a disruption in
19th-century electrons. 'Under cover of blackout,
the digital world revealed itself as very much in
electricity's thrall.' It went on to quote Mr
Paul Saffo, director of the technology
forecasting outfit called the Institute for The
Future, as saying 'Power electrons are the
mother's milk of the information age and power
distribution is a lot more fragile than we
imagine.' His advice? Carry spare
batteries. There you go. Think of mobile phones,
MP3 players,etc. that have become indispensable
personal items today. What makes them go?
Batteries! Think! What are batteries? Just a
bunch of chemicals!
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Chemistry the Economy
Petroleum
Coal
Natural gas
Fossil fuels
West Natuna Project
Energy
Fractionation
Fuel cells
Economy
Indonesia
Petrochemicals
Singapore
Ethylene
CHEMISTRY
Materials microelectronics
Pharmaceuticals
Petroleum petrochemicals
Specialty, industrial chemicals