-
Unit 1
Chemical
Industry
化学工业
Before reading the text below, try to
answer following question:
1.
When did the
modern chemical industry start?
2.
Can you give a
definition for the chemical industry?
3.
What are the
contribution which the chemical industry has made
to
meet and satisfy our needs?
4.
Is the
chemical industry capital- or labor-intensive?
Why?
s of the Chemical Industry
Although the use of
chemicals dates back to the ancient civilizations,
the evolution of what we
know as the
modern chemical industry started much more
recently. It may be considered to have
begun during the Industrial Revolution,
about 1800, and developed to provide chemicals roe
use
by other industries. Examples are
alkali for soapmaking, bleaching powder for
cotton, and silica
and sodium carbonate
for glassmaking. It will be noted that these are
all inorganic chemicals. The
organic
chemicals industry started in the 1860s with the
exploitation of William Henry Perkin’s
discovery if the first synthetic
dyestuff
—
mauve. At the start
of the twentieth century the emphasis
on research on the applied aspects of
chemistry in Germany had paid off handsomely, and
by 1914
had resulted in the German
chemical industry having 75% of the world market
in chemicals. This
was based on the
discovery of new dyestuffs plus the development of
both the contact process for
sulphuric
acid
and
the
Haber
process
for
ammonia.
The
later
required
a
major
technological
breakthrough
that
of
being
able
to
carry
out
chemical
reactions
under
conditions
of
very
high
pressure for the first time. The
experience gained with this was to stand Germany
in good stead,
particularly
with
the
rapidly
increased
demand
for
nitrogen-based
compounds
(ammonium
salts
for fertilizers and
nitric acid for explosives manufacture) with the
outbreak of world war
Ⅰ
in
1914.
This initiated profound changes
which continued during the inter-war years
(1918-1939).
1
．
化学工业的起源
尽管化学品的使用可
以追溯到古代文明时代，
我们所谓的现代化学工业的发展却是非常
近代（才开始的）
。可以认为它起源于工业革命其间，大约在
1800
年，并发展成为为其它工
业部门提供化学原料的产业。
比如制肥皂所用的碱，
棉布生产所用的漂白粉，
玻璃制造业所
用的硅及
Na
2
CO
3
.
我
们会注意到所有这些都是无机物。有机化学工业的开始是在十九世纪
六十年代以
William Henry Perkin
发现第一种合成染料
—
苯胺紫并加以开发利用为标志的。
20<
/p>
世纪初，德国花费大量资金用于实用化学方面的重点研究，到
19
14
年，德国的化学工业
在世界化学产品市场上占有
75%
的份额。这要归因于新染料的发现以及硫酸的接触法生产
和氨的哈伯生产工艺的发展。
而后者需要较大的技术突破使得化学反应第一
次可以在非常高
的压力条件下进行。这方面所取得的成绩对德国很有帮助。特别是由于<
/p>
1914
年第一次世界
大仗的爆发，对以
氮为基础的化合物的需求飞速增长。这种深刻的改变一直持续到战后
（
< br>1918-1939
）
。
date bake to/from:
回溯到
dated:
过时的，陈旧的
stand sb.
in good stead:
对。
。
。很有帮助
1
/
47
Since 1940 the chemical
industry has grown at a remarkable rate, although
this has slowed
significantly
in
recent
years.
The
lion’s
share
of
this
growth
has
been
in
the
organic
chemicals
sector due to the
development and growth of the petrochemicals area
since 1950s. The explosives
growth
in
petrochemicals
in
the
1960s
and
1970s
was
largely
due
to
the
enormous
increase
in
demand for synthetic polymers such as
polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon, polyesters and
epoxy
resins.
1940
年以来，化学工业一直以引人注目的速度飞速发展。尽管这种发展的速度近年来
已大大
减慢。化学工业的发展由于
1950
年以来石油化学领域的研究
和开发大部分在有机化
学方面取得。
石油化工在
60
年代和
70
年代的迅猛发
展主要是由于人们对于合成高聚物如聚
乙烯、聚丙烯、尼龙、聚脂和环氧树脂的需求巨大
增加。
The chemical
industry today is a very diverse sector of
manufacturing industry, within which
it
plays
a
central
role.
It
makes
thousands
of
different
chemicals
which
the
general
public
only
usually encounter as end or consumer
products. These products are purchased because
they have
the required properties which
make them suitable for some particular
application, e.g. a non-stick
coating
for
pans
or
a
weedkiller.
Thus
chemicals
are
ultimately
sold
for
the
effects
that
they
produce.
今天的化学工业
已经是制造业中有着许多分支的部门，并且在制造业中起着核心的作
用。
它生产了数千种不同的化学产品，
而人们通常只接触到终端产品或消费品。
这些产品被
购买是因为他们具有某些性质适合（人们）的一些特别的
用途，例如，用于盆的不粘涂层或
一种杀虫剂。这些化学产品归根到底是由于它们能产生
的作用而被购买的。
2.
Definition of the Chemical Industry
At
the turn of the century there would have been
little difficulty in defining what constituted
the
chemical
industry
since
only
a
very
limited
range
of
products
was
manufactured
and
these
were
clearly
chemicals,
e.g.,
alkali,
sulphuric
acid.
At
present,
however,
many
intermediates
to
products produced, from raw materials
like crude oil through (in some cases) many
intermediates
to products which may be
used directly as consumer goods, or readily
converted into them. The
difficulty
cones in deciding at which point in this sequence
the particular operation ceases to be
part of the chemical industry’s sphere
of activities. To consider a specific example to
illustrate thi
s
dilemma,
emulsion
paints
may
contain
poly
(vinyl
chloride)
/
poly
(vinyl
acetate).
Clearly,
synthesis of vinyl chloride (or
acetate) and its polymerization are chemical
activities. However, if
formulation
and
mixing
of
the
paint,
including
the
polymer,
is
carried
out
by
a
branch
of
the
multinational
chemical
company
which
manufactured
the
ingredients,
is
this
still
part
of
the
chemical industry of does it mow belong
in the decorating industry?
2
．
化学工业的定义
在本世纪初，
要定义什么是化学工业是不太困难的，
因为那时所生产的化学品是很有
限
的，而且是非常清楚的化学品，例如，烧碱，硫酸。然而现在有数千种化学产品被生产
，从
一些原料物质像用于制备许多的半成品的石油，
到可以直接
作为消费品或很容易转化为消费
品的商品。
困难在于如何决定在
一些特殊的生产过程中哪一个环节不再属于化学工业的活动
范畴。举一个特殊的例子来描
述一下这种困境。乳剂漆含有聚氯乙烯
/
聚醋酸乙烯。显然，<
/p>
氯乙烯（或醋酸乙烯）的合成以及聚合是化学活动。然而，如果这种漆，包括高聚物，它的
配制和混合是由一家制造配料的跨国化学公司完成的话，
那它仍
然是属于化学工业呢还是应
当归属于装饰工业中去呢？
2
/
47
It
is
therefore
apparent
that,
because
of
its
diversity
of
operations
and
close
links
in
many
areas
with
other
industries,
there
is
no
simple
definition
of
the
chemical
industry.
Instead
each
official
body
which
collects
and
publishes
statistics
on
manufacturing
industry
will
have
its
definition as to which operations are
classified as the chemical industry. It is
important to bear this
in mind when
comparing statistical information which is derived
from several sources.
因此，很明
显，由于化学工业经营的种类很多并在很多领域与其它工业有密切的联系，
所以不能对它
下一个简单的定义。
相反的每一个收集和出版制造工业统计数据的官方机构都
会对如何届定哪一类操作为化学工业有自己的定义。
当比较来自不同途径的
统计资料时，
记
住这点是很重要的。
3. The Need for Chemical
Industry
The chemical industry is
concerned with converting raw materials, such as
crude oil, firstly
into chemical
intermediates and then into a tremendous variety
of other chemicals. These are then
used
to
produce
consumer
products,
which
make
our
lives
more
comfortable
or,
in
some
cases
such as pharmaceutical produces, help
to maintain our well-being or even life itself. At
each stage
of these operations value is
added to the produce and provided this added
exceeds the raw material
plus
processing costs then a profit will be made on the
operation. It is the aim of chemical industry
to achieve this.
3
．
对化学工业的需要
化学工业涉及到原材料的转化，如石油
首先转化为化学中间体，然后转化为数量众多
的其它化学产品。
这些产品再被用来生产消费品，
这些消费品可以使我们的生活更为舒适或
者作药物维持人类的健康或生命。
在生产过程的每一个阶段，
都有价值加到产品上面，
只要
这些附加的价值超过原材
料和加工成本之和，
这个加工就产生了利润。
而这正是化学工业
要
达到的目的。
It
may
seem
strange
in
textbook
this
one
to
pose
the
question
“do
we
need
a
chemical
industry?” However trying to answer
this question will
provide(
ⅰ
) an
indication of the range of
the chemical
industry’s activities, (
ⅱ
)
its influence on our lives in everyday terms, and
(
ⅲ
) how
great is
society’s need for a chemical industry. Our
approach in answering the question will be to
consider the indus
try’s
contribution to meeting and satisfying our major
needs. What are these?
Clearly food
(and drink) and health are paramount. Other which
we shall consider in their turn are
clothing and (briefly) shelter, leisure
and transport.
在这样的一本教科书中提出：
“我们需要化学工业吗？”这样一个问题是不是有点奇怪
呢？然而，先回答下面几个问题
将给我们提供一些信息：
（
1
）化学工
业的活动范围，
（
2
）化
学工业对我们日常生活的影响，
（
3
）
社会对化学工业的需求有多大。
在回答这些问题的时
候
我们的思路将要考虑化学工业在满足和改善我们的主要需求方面所做的贡献。
是些什么需求
呢？很显然，食物和健康是放在第一位的。其它我们要考虑
的按顺序是衣物、住所、休闲和
旅行。
(1)
Food. The
chemical industry
makes a
major contribution to food production
in at least
three ways. Firstly, by
making available large quantities of artificial
fertilizers which are used to
replace
the elements (mainly nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium) which are removed as nutrients
by
the
growing
crops
during
modern
intensive
farming.
Secondly,
by
manufacturing
crop
protection chemicals,
i.e., pesticides, which markedly reduce the
proportion of the crops consumed
3
/
47
by pests.
Thirdly, by producing veterinary products which
protect livestock from disease or cure
their infections.
(1)
食物。化学工业对粮食生产所做的巨大贡献至少有三个方面。第一，提供大量可以
获得的肥料以补充由于密集耕作被农作物生长时所带走的营养成分。
（主要是氮、磷和
钾）
。
第二，生产农作物保护产品，如杀虫剂，它可以显著减少
害虫所消耗的粮食数量。第三，生
产兽药保护家禽免遭疾病或其它感染的侵害。
(2) Health. We are
all aware of the major contribution which the
pharmaceutical sector of the
industry
has made to help keep us all healthy, e.g. by
curing bacterial infections with antibiotics,
and even extending life itself, e.g.
?
–
blockers to
lower blood pressure.
（
2
）健康。我们都很了解化学工业中制药这一块在维护我们的身体健康甚至延长寿命
方面所做出的巨大贡献，例如，用抗生素治疗细菌感染，用
β
< br>-
抗血栓降低血压。
(3) Clothing. The improvement in
properties of modern synthetic fibers over the
traditional
clothing materials (e.g.
cotton and wool) has been quite remarkable. Thus
shirts, dresses and suits
made
from
polyesters
like
Terylene
and
polyamides
like
Nylon
are
crease-
resistant,
machine-washable, and drip-
dry or non-iron. They are also cheaper than
natural materials.
衣物。
在传统的衣服
面料上，
现代合成纤维性质的改善也是非常显著的。
用聚脂如涤
纶
或聚酰胺如尼龙所制作的
T
恤、上衣
、衬衫抗皱、可机洗，晒干自挺或免烫，也比天然面
料便宜。
Parallel
developments
in
the
discovery
of
modern
synthetic
dyes
and
the
technology
to
“bond” them to the fiber has resulted
in a tremendous increase in the variety of colors
available to
the fashion designer.
Indeed they now span almost every color and hue of
the visible spectrum.
Indeed if a
suitable shade is not available, structural
modification of an existing dye to achieve this
can readily be carried out, provided
there is a satisfactory market for the product.
与此同时，
现代合成染料开发和染色技术的改善使得时装设计师们有
大量的色彩可以利
用。的确他们几乎利用了可见光谱中所有的色调和色素。事实上如果某
种颜色没有现成的，
只要这种产品确有市场，就可以很容易地通过对现有的色彩进行结构
调整而获得。
Other
major
advances
in
this
sphere
have
been
in
color-
fastness,
i.e.,
resistance
to
the
dye
being washed out when the garment is
cleaned.
这一领域中另一些重要进展是不褪色，即在洗涤衣物时染料不会被洗
掉。
(4)
Shelter,
leisure
and
transport.
In
terms
of
shelter
the
contribution
of
modern
synthetic
polymers
has
been
substantial.
Plastics
are
tending
to
replace
traditional
building
materials
like
wood because they are
lighter, maintenance-free (i.e. they are resistant
to weathering and do not
need
painting).
Other
polymers,
e.g.
urea-formaldehyde
and
polyurethanes,
are
important
insulating
materials for reducing heat losses and hence
reducing energy usage.
（
4
）住所，休闲和旅游。讲到住所方面现代合成高聚物的贡献是巨大的。塑料正在取
代像木材一类的传统建筑材料，因为它们更轻，免维护（即它们可以抵抗风化，不需油漆）
。
另一些高聚物，
比如，
脲甲醛和聚脲，
是非常重要的绝缘材料可以减少热量损失因而减少能
量损耗。
4
/
47
Plastics and
polymers have made a considerable impact on
leisure activities with applications
ranging from all-weather artificial
surfaces for athletic tracks, football pitches and
tennis courts to
nylon
strings
for
racquets
and
items
like
golf
balls
and
footballs
made
entirely
from
synthetic
materials.
塑料和高聚物的应用对休闲活动有很重要的影响，
从体育跑道的全天候人造篷顶
，
足球
和网球的经纬线，到球拍的尼龙线还有高尔夫球的元件，
还有制造足球的合成材料。
Likewise
the
chemical
industry’s
contribution
to
transport
over
the
years
has
led
to
major
improvements.
Thus
development
of
improved
additives
like
anti-oxidants
and
viscosity
index
improves for engine
oil has enabled routine servicing intervals to
increase from 3000 to 6000 to
12000
miles. Research and development work has also
resulted in improved lubricating oils and
greases, and better brake fluids. Yet
again the contribution of polymers and plastics
has been very
striking
with
the
proportion
of
the
total
automobile
derived
from
these
materi
als
—
dashboard,
steering wheel, seat padding and
covering etc.
—
now exceeding
40%.
多年来化学工业对旅游方面所作的贡献也有很大的提高。
一些添加剂如抗氧化剂的开发
和发动机油粘度指数改进使汽车日产维修期限从
3000
英里延长到
6000
英里再到
12000
英
里。<
/p>
研发工作还改进了润滑油和油脂的性能，
并得到了更好的刹车油。
塑料和高聚物对整个
汽车业的贡献的比例是惊人的，源于这些材
料
—
挡板，轮胎，坐垫和涂层等等
—<
/p>
超过
40%
。
So
it
is
quite
apparent
even
from
a
brief
look
at
the
chemical
industry’s
contribution
to
meeting our major needs
that life in the world would be very different
without the products of the
industry.
Indeed the level of a country’s development may be
judged by the production level and
sophistication of its chemical
industry.
很显然简单地看一下化学工业在满足我们的主要需求方面所做的贡
献就可以知道，
没有
化工产品人类社会的生活将会多么困难。<
/p>
事实上，
一个国家的发展水平可以通过其化学工业
的生产水平和精细程度来加以判断。
4. Research and Development
(R&D) in Chemical Industries
One of the main reasons for
the rapid growth of the chemical industry in the
developed world
has been its great
commitment to, and investment in research and
development (R&D). A typical
figure is
5% of sales income, with this figure being almost
doubled for the most research intensive
sector, pharmaceuticals. It is
important to emphasize that we are quoting
percentages here not of
profits
but
of
sales
income,
i.e.
the
total
money
received,
which
has
to
pay
for
raw
materials,
overheads,
staff
salaries,
etc.
as
well.
In
the
past
this
tremendous
investment
has
paid
off
well,
leading to many useful and valuable
products being introduced to the market. Examples
include
synthetic polymers like nylons
and polyesters, and drugs and pesticides. Although
the number of
new products introduced
to the market has declined significantly in recent
years, and in times of
recession the
research department is usually one of the first to
suffer cutbacks, the commitment to
R&D
remains at a very high level.
4
．
化学工业的研究和开发。
发达国家化
学工业飞速发展的一个重要原因就是它在研究和开发方面的投入和投资。
通
常是销售收入的
5%
，而研究密集型分支如制药，投
入则加倍。要强调这里我们所提出的百
分数不是指利润而是指销售收入，
也就是说全部回收的钱，
其中包括要付出原材料费，
企
业
管理费，
员工工资等等。
过去这笔巨
大的投资支付得很好，
使得许多有用的和有价值的产品
5
/
47
被投放市场，
包括一些合成高聚物如尼龙和聚脂，
药品和杀虫剂。
尽管近年来进入市场的新
产品大为减少，
而且在衰退时期研究部
门通常是最先被裁减的部门，
在研究和开发方面的投
资仍然保持
在较高的水平。
The
chemical industry is a very high technology
industry which takes full advantage of the
latest
advances
in
electronics
and
engineering.
Computers
are
very
widely
used
for
all
sorts
of
applications,
from
automatic
control
of
chemical
plants,
to
molecular
modeling
of
structures
of
new
compounds, to the control of analytical
instruments in the laboratory.
化学工业是高技术
工业，它需要利用电子学和工程学的最新成果。计算机被广泛应用，
从化工厂的自动控制
，到新化合物结构的分子模拟，再到实验室分析仪器的控制。
Individual manufacturing plants have
capacities ranging from just a few tones per year
in the
fine chemicals area to the real
giants in the fertilizer and petrochemical sectors
which range up to
500,000 tonnes. The
latter requires enormous capital investment, since
a single plant of this size
can now
cost $$520 million! This, coupled with the
widespread use of automatic control equipment,
helps to explain why the chemical
industry is capital-rather than labor-intensive. <
/p>
一个制造厂的生产量很不一样，
精细化工领域每年只有几吨，
而巨型企业如化肥厂和石
油化工厂有可能高达
500,000
吨。后者需要巨大的资金投入，因为一个这样规模的工厂要花
费
2
亿
5
千万美元，
再加上自动控制设备的普遍应用，
就不难
解释为什么化工厂是资金密集
型企业而不是劳动力密集型企业。
The major chemical
companies are truly multinational and operate
their sales and marketing
activities
in
most
of
the
countries
of
the
world,
and
they
also
have
manufacturing
units
in
a
number of
countries. This international outlook for
operations, or globalization, is a growing trend
within
the
chemical
industry,
with
companies
expanding
their
activities
either
by
erecting
manufacturing units in other countries
or by taking over companies which are already
operating
there.
大部分化学公司是真正的
跨国公司，
他们在世界上的许多国家进行销售和开发市场，
他<
/p>
们在许多国家都有制造厂。
这种国际间的合作理念，
或全球一体化，
是化学工业中发展的趋
势。大公司通
过在别的国家建造制造厂或者是收购已有的工厂进行扩张。
6
/
47
Unit 2
Research and Development
研究和开发
Research
and development, or R&D as it is commonly referred
to, is an activity which is
carried out
by all sectors of manufacturing industry but its
extent varies considerably, as we will
see shortly. Let us first understand,
or at least get a feel for, what the terms mean.
Although the
distinction
between
research
and
development
is
not
always
clear-cut,
and
there
is
often
considerable overlap, we will attempt
to separate them. In simple terms research can be
thought
of
as
the
activity
which
produces
new
ideas
and
knowledge
whereas
development
is
putting
those
ideas
into
practice
as
new
process
and
products.
To
illustrate
this
with
an
example,
predicting the structure of a new
molecule which would have a specific biological
activity and
synthesizing it could be
seen as research whereas testing it and developing
it to the point where
it could be
marketed as a new drug could be described as the
development part.
研究和开发，或通常所称
R&D
是制造业各个部门都要进行的一项活动。我们马上可
以
看到，
它的内容变化很大。
我们首先了解或先感觉一下这个词的
含义。
尽管研究和开发
的定义总是分得不很清楚，
而且有许多重叠的部分，
我们还是要试着把它们区分开来。
< br>简
单说来，
研究是产生新思想和新知识的活动，
而开发则是把这些思想贯彻到实践中得到新
工艺和新产品的行为。
可以用一个例子来描述这一点，
预测一个有特殊生物活性的分子结
构并合成它可以看成是研究而测试它并把它发展到可以作为一种新药推向市场这一阶段
则看作开发部分。
1.
Fundamental
Research and Applied Research
In
industry the primary reason for carting out R&D is
economic and is to strengthen and
im
prove
the
company’s
position
and
profitability.
The
purpose
of
R&D
is
to
generate
and
provide information and knowledge to
reduce uncertainty, solve problems and to provide
better
data on which management can
base decisions. Specific projects cover a wide
range of activities
and time scales,
from a few months to 20 years.
1
．
基础研究和应用研究
在工业上进行研
究和开发最主要的原因是经济利益方面，
是为了加强公司的地位，
提
高公司的利润。
R&D
的目的是做
出并提供信息和知识以减低不确定性，解决问题，以及向
管理层提供更好的数据以便他们
能据此做出决定。
特别的项目涵盖很大的活动范围和时间范
围，
从几个月到
20
年。
We can pick out a number of
areas of R&D activity in the following paragraphs
but if we
were
to
start
with
those
which
were
to
spring
to
the
mind
of
the
academic,
rather
than
the
industrial, chemist then these would be
basic, fundamental (background) or exploratory
research
and the synthesis of new
comp
ounds. This is also labeled “blue
skies” research.
我们可以在后面的段落里
举出大量的
R&D
活动。但是如果我们举出的点子来源于研
究院而不是工业化学家的头脑，这就是基础的或探索性的研究
Fundamental research is
typically associated with university research. It
may be carried out
for
its
own
intrinsic
interest
and
it
will
add
to
the
total
knowledge
base
but
no
immediate
applications
of
it
in
the
“real
world”
well
be
apparent.
Note
that
it
will
provide
a
valuable
7
/
47
training
in
defining
and
solving
problems,
i.e.
research
methodology
for
the
research
student
who
carries
it
out
und
er
supervision.
However,
later
“spin
offs”
from
such
work
can
lead
to
useful applications. Thus physicists
claim that but for the study and development of
quantum
theory
we
might
not
have
had
computers
and
nuclear
power.
However,
to
take
a
specifically
chemical example, general studies on a
broad area such as hydrocarbon oxidation might
provide
information which would be
useful in more specific areas such as cyclohexane
oxidation for the
production of nylon
intermediates.
基础研究通常与大学研究联系在一起，
它可能是由于对其内在的兴趣而进行研究并
且这种研究能够拓宽知识范围，
但在现实世界中的直接应用可能性是很小的。
请注意，
这种
以内就在提出和解决问题方面提供了极有价值的训练，
< br>比如，
在指导下完成研究工作的学生
所接受的研究方法学
（的训练）
。而且，从这些工作中产生的“有用的副产品”随后也能带
< br>来可观的使用价值。
因此，
物理学家宣称要不是量子理论
的研究和发展我们可能仍然没有计
算机和核能量。
不管怎样，<
/p>
举一个特殊的化学方面的例子吧，
在各个领域如烃的氧化方面所<
/p>
做的广泛的研究将为一些特殊的领域如环己烯氧化生成尼龙中间产物提供有用的信息。
Aspects
of
synthesis
could
involve
either
developing
new,
more
specific
reagents
for
controlling particular
functional group interconversions, i.e. developing
synthetic methodology
or complete
synthesis of an entirely new
molecule
which is biologically active. Although the
former is clearly fundamental the
latter encompasses both this and applied aspects.
This term
‘applied’
has
traditionally
been
more
associated
with
research
out
in
industrial
laboratories,
since this is
more focused or targeted. It is a consequence of
the work being business driven.
通过合成可以生
产出一些新的、
更特殊的试剂以控制特殊的官能团转换，
即发展
合
成方法或完成一些具有生物活性的新分子的合成。
尽管前者显
然属于基础性研究而后者则包
括基础研究和实用性研究两部分。
所谓
“实用性”
习惯上是指与在工业实验室完成的研究联
系在一起的，因为它更具目的性，它是商业行为驱动的结果。
Note, however, that there
has been a major change in recent years as
academic institutions
have
increasingly
turned
to
industry
for
research
funding,
with
the
result
that
much
more
of
their
research
effort
is
mow
devoted
to
more
applied
research.
Even
so,
in
academia
the
emphasis generally is very much on the
research rather than the development.
然
而，
请注意。
近几年有很大的变化，
大
学研究机构正越来越多地转向工业界寻求研
究经费，
其结果就是
他们的研究工作越来越多地是致力于实用研究。
即使这样，
学院
工作的
重点通常还是在于研究而不是开发。
2.
Types of Industrial Research and
Development
The applied or more
targeted type of research and development commonly
carried out in
industry
can
be
of
several
types
and
we
will
briefly
consider
each.
They
are:
(
ⅰ
)product
development,
(
ⅱ
)
process
development,
(
ⅲ
)
process
improvement
and
(
ⅳ
)
applications
development.
Even
under
these
headings
there
are
a
multitude
of
aspects
so
only
a
typical
example
can
be
quoted
in
each
case.
The
emphasis
on
each
of
these
will
vary
considerably
within the different sectors of the
chemical industry.
2
．工业研究和开发的类型
通常在生产中完成的实用型的或有目的性的研究和开发可以分为好几类，
我们对此
加以简述。它们是：
（
1
）产品开发；
（
2
）工艺开发；
（
3
）工艺改进；
（
4
）应用开发；每一类
8
/
47
下还有许多分支。
我们
.
对每一类举一个典型的例子来加以说明。在化学工业的不
同部门内
每类的工作重点有很大的不同。
(1)Product
development.
Product
development
includes
not
only
the
discovery
and
development
of
a
new
drug
but
also,
for
example,
providing
a
new
longer-
active
anti-oxidant
additive
to an automobile engine oil. Development such as
this have enabled servicing intervals to
increase during the last decade from
3000 to 6000 to 9000 and now to 12000 miles. Note
that most
purchasers of chemicals
acquire them for the effects that they produce
i.e. a specific use. Teflon, or
polytetrafluoroethylene
(PTFE),
may
be
purchased
because
it
imparts
a
non-stick
surface
to
cooking pots and pans,
thereby making them easier to clean.
(1
)
产品开发。产品开发不仅包括一种新药的发明和生产，还包括，比如说，给一种汽
车发动机提供更长时效的抗氧化添加剂。
这种开发的产品已经使
（发动机）
的服务期限在最
近的十年中从<
/p>
3000
英里提高到
6000
、
9000
现在已提高到
12000
英里。
请注意，
大部分的买
家所需要的是化工产品能创造出来的效果，亦即某种特殊的用途。
Tdflon
，或称聚四氟乙烯
（
P
TFE
）被购买是因为它能使炒菜锅、盆表面不粘，易于清洗。
(2) Process development.
Process development covers not only developing a
manufacturing
process for an entirely
new product but also a new process or route for an
existing product. The
push
for
the
latter
may
originate
for
one
or
more
of
the
following
reasons:
availability
of
new
technology, change in the availability
and/or cost of raw materials. Manufacture of vinyl
chloride
monomer
is
an
example
of
this.
Its
manufacturing
route
has
changed
several
times
owing
to
changing
economics,
technology
and
raw
materials.
Another
stimulus
is
a
marked
increase
in
demand and hence sales
volume which can have a major effect on the
economics of the process.
The early
days of penicillin manufacture afford a good
example of this.
（
2
）工艺开发。工业开发不仅包括为一种全新的产品设计一套制造工艺，还包括为现有
的产品设计新的工艺或方案。
而要进行后者时可能源于下面的一个或几个原因：
新技术的利
用、
原材料的获得或价格发生了变化
。
氯乙烯单聚物的制造就是这样的一个例子。
它的制造
方法随着经济、
技术和原材料的变化改变了好几次。
另一个刺激因素是需求的显著增加。
因
而销售量对生产流程
的经济效益有很大影响。
Penicillin
早期的制造就为
此提供了一个很好
的例子。
The
ability
of
penicillin
to
prevent
the
onset
of
septicemia
in
battle
wounds
during
the
Second
World
War
(1939
～
1945)
resulted
in
an
enormous
demand
for
it
to
be
produced
in
quantity.
Up
until
then
it
had
only
been
produced
in
small
amounts
on
the
surface
of
the
fermentation
broth
in
milk
bottles!
An
enormous
R&D
effort
jointly
in
the
U.S.
and
the
U.K.
resulted
in
two
major
improvements
to
the
process.
Firstly
a
different
stain
of
the
mould
gave
much better yields than
the original Penicillium notatum. Secondly the
major process development
was
the
introduction
of
the
deep
submerged
fermentation
process.
Here
the
fermentation
takes
place
throughout
the
broth,
provided
sterile
air
is
constantly,
and
vigorously,
blown
through
it.
This
has
enabled
the
process
to
be
scaled
up
enormously
to
modern
stainless
steel
fermenters
having a capacity in excess of 50000
liters. It is salutary to note that in the first
world war (1914
～
1919) more
soldiers died from septicemia of their wounds than
were actually killed outright on the
battlefield!
Penicillin
能预防战争中因伤口感染引发的败血症，
因而在第二次世界大战
（
1939-1945
）
9
/
47
中，
< br>penicillin
的需求量非常大，需要大量生产。而在那时，
penicillin
只能用在瓶装牛奶表面
发酵的
方法小量的生产。
英国和美国投入了巨大的人力物力联合进行研制和开发，
对生产流
程做出了两个重大的改进。
首先用一个不同
的菌株
—
黄霉菌代替普通的青霉，
它的
产量要比
后者高得多。
第二个重大的流程开发是引进了深层发酵
过程。
只要在培养液中持续通入大量
纯化空气，发酵就能在所有
部位进行。这使生产能力大大地增加，达到现代容量超过
5000
升的不锈钢发酵器。
而在第一次世界大战中，
死于伤口感染的
士兵比直接死于战场上的人还
要多。注意到这一点不能不让我们心存感激。
Process development
for a new product depends on things such as the
scale on which it is to
be
manufactured,
the
by-products
formed
and
their
removal/recovery,
and
required
purity.
Data
will
be
acquired
during
this
development
stage
using
semi-
technical
plant
(up
to
100
liters
capacity) which will be invaluable in
the design of the actual manufacturing plant. If
the plant is to
be a very large
capacity, continuously operating one, e.g.
petrochemical or ammonia, then a pilot
plant
will
first
be
built
and
operated
to
test
out
the
process
and
acquire
more
data,
these
semi-
technical or pilot plants will be required for
testing, e.g., a pesticide, or customer
evaluation,
e.g., a new polymer.
对一个新产品进行开发要考虑产品生产的规模、产生的副产品以及分离
/
回收，产品所
要求的纯度。
在开发阶段利用
中试车间
（最大容量可达
100
升）<
/p>
获得的数据设计实际的制造
厂是非常宝贵的，
例如石油化工或氨的生产。
要先建立一个中试车间，
运转并
测试流程以获
得更多的数据。
他们需要测试产品的性质，
如杀虫剂，
或进行消费评估，
如一种新的聚合
物。
Note
that
by-products
can
has
a
major
influence
on
the
economics
of
a
chemical
process.
Phenol manufacture
provides a striking example of this. The original
route, the benzenesulphonic
acid route,
has become obsolete because demand for its by-
produce sodium sulfite (2.2 tons/l ton
phenol)
has
dried
up.
Its
recovery
and
disposal
will
therefore
be
an
additional
charge
on
the
process,
thus increasing the cost of the phenol. In
contrast the cumene route owes its economic
advantage over all the other routes to
the strong demand for the by-product acetone (0.6
tons/l ton
phenol).The sale of this
therefore reduces the net cost of the phenol.
注意，
副产品对于化学过程的经济效益也有很大的影响。
酚的生产就是一个有代表性的
例子。早期的方法，苯磺酸方法，由于它的副产品
亚硫酸钠需求枯竭而变的过时。亚硫酸钠
需回收和废置成为生产过程附加的费用，增加了
生产酚的成本。相反，异丙基苯方法，在经
济效益方面优于所有其他方法就在于市场对于
它的副产品丙酮的迫切需求。
丙酮的销售所得
降低了酚的生产成
本。
A major part
of the process development activity for a mew
plant is to minimize, or ideally
prevent
by
designing
out,
waste
production
and
hence
possible
pollution.
The
economic
and
environmental advantages of this are
obvious.
对一个新产品进行工艺开发的一个重要部分是通过设计把废品减到最
低，
或尽可能地防
止可能的污染，这样做带来的经济利益和对环
境的益处是显而易见的。
Finally
it
should
be
noted
that
process
development
requires
a
big
team
effort
between
chemists, chemical
engineers, and electrical and mechanical engineers
to be successful.
最后要注意，
工业开发
需要包括化学家、
化学工程师、
电子和机械工程师这样一支庞大
队伍的协同合作才能取得成功。
10
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47
（
3)
Process
improvement.
Process
improvement
relates
to
processes
which
are
already
operating. It may be a problem that has
arisen and stopped production. In this situation
there is a
lot of pressure to find a
solution as soon as possible so that production
can restart, since ‘do
wn
time’ costs money.
（
3
）
工艺改进。
工艺改进与正在进行的工艺有关。
它可能出现了某个问题使生产停止。
在这种情形下，
就面临着很大的压力要尽快地解决问题以便生产重新开始
，
因为故障期耗费
资财。
down time:
故障期
More
commonly,
however,
process
improvement
will
be
directed
at
improving
the
profitability of the process. This
might be achieved in a number of ways. For
example, improving
the
yield
by
optimizing
the
process,
increasing
the
capacity
by
introducing
a
new
catalyst,
or
lowering the energy requirements of the
process. An example of the latter was the
introduction of
turbo compressors in
the production of ammonia by the Haber process.
This reduced utility costs
(mainly
electricity) from $$6.66 to %0.56 per ton of
ammonia produced. Improving the quality of
the product, by process modification,
may lead to new markets for the product.
然而，更为常见的，工艺改进是为了提高生产过程的利润。这可以通过很多途径实现。
例如通过优化流程提高产量，
引进新的催化剂提高效能，
或降
低生产过程所需要的能量。
可
说明后者的一个例子是在生产氨的
过程中涡轮压缩机的引进。
这使生产氨的成本
（主要是电）
从每吨
6.66
美元下降到
0.56
美元。
通过工艺的改善提高产品质量也会为产
品打开新的市场。
In
recent
years,
however,
the
most
important
process
improvement
activity
has
been
to
reduce the environmental impact of the
process, i.e., to prevent the process causing any
pollution.
Clearly there have been two
interlinked driving forces for this. Firstly, the
public’s concern about
the safety of
chemicals and their effect on the environment, and
the legislation which has followed
as a
result of this. Secondly the cost to the
manufacturer of having to treat waste (i.e.,
material
which cannot be recovered and
used r sold) so that it can be safely disposed of,
say by pumping
into a river. This
obviously represents a charge on the process which
will increase the cost of the
chemical
being
made.
The
potential
for
improvement
by
reducing
the
amount
of
waste
is
self-evident.
然而，
近年来，
最重要的工艺改进行为主要是减少生产过程对环
境的影响，
亦即防止生
产过程所引起的污染。很明显，有两个相
关连的因素推动这样做。第一，公众对化学产品的
安全性及其对环境所产生影响的关注以
及由此而制订出来的法律；
第二，
生产者必须花钱对
废物进行处理以便它能安全地清除，
比如说，
排放
到河水中。
显然这是生产过程的又一笔费
用，它将增加所生产化
学产品的成本。通过减少废物数量提高效益其潜能是不言而喻的。
Note, however, with a plant
which has already been built and is operating
there are usually
only
very
limited
physical
changes
which
can
be
made
to
the
plant
to
achieve
the
above
aims.
Hence the importance,
already mentioned, of eliminating waste production
at the design stage of a
new
plant.
Conserving
energy
and
thus
reducing
energy
cost
has
been
another
major
preoccupation in recent years.
< br>然而，
请注意，
对于一个已经建好并正在运行的工厂来说
，
只能做一些有限的改变来达
到上述目的。
因此，
上面所提到的减少废品的重要性应在新公厂的设计阶段加以考虑。
近年
来另一个当务之急是保护能源及降低能源消耗。
11
/
47
(4) Applications
development. Clearly the discovery of new
applications or uses for a product
can
increase or prolong its profitability. Not only
does this generate more income but the resulting
increased scale of production can lead
to lower unit costs and increased profit. An
example is PVC
whose early uses
included records and plastic raincoats.
Applications which came later included
plastic bags and particularly
engineering uses in pipes and guttering.
（
4
）应用
开发。显然发掘一个产品新的用处或新的用途能拓宽它的获利渠道。这不仅
能创造更多的
收入，
而且由于产量的增加使单元生产成本降低，
从而使利润提
高。
举例来说，
PVC
早期是用来制造
唱片和塑料雨衣的，后来的用途扩展到塑料薄膜，特别是工程上所使
用的管子和排水槽。
Emphasis has
already been placed on the fact that chemicals are
usually purchased for the
effect, or
particular use, or application which they have.
This often means that there will be close
liaison between the chemical companies’
technical sales representatives and the customer,
and the
level of technical support for
the customer can be a major factor in winning
sales. Research and
development
chemists
provide
the
support
for
these
applications
developments.
An
example
is
CF3CH3F.
This
is
the
first
of
the
CFC
replacements
and
has
been
developed
as
a
extracting
natural products
from plant materials. In no way was this envisaged
when the compound was first
being made
for use as a refrigerant gas, but it clearly is an
example of applications development.
我们
已经强调了化学产品是由于它们的效果，
或特殊的用途、
用处而
得以售出这个事实。
这就意味着化工产品公司的技术销售代表与顾客之间应有密切的联系
。
对顾客的技术支持水
平往往是赢得销售的一个重要的因素。<
/p>
进行研究和开发的化学家们为这些应用开发提供了帮
助。
CH
3
CH
3
F
的制造就是一个例子。它最开始是用来做含氟氯烃的替代物作冷冻剂的
。然
而近来发现它还可以用作从植物中萃取出来的天然物质的溶解剂。当它作为制冷剂被
制造
时，固然没有预计到这一点，但它显然也是应用开发的一个例子。
< br>
ions in R&D Activities
across the Chemical Industry
Both the
nature and amount of R&D carried out varies
significantly across the various sectors
of the chemical industry.
In
sectors which involve largescale production of
basic chemicals and
where the
chemistry, products and technology change only
slowly because the process are mature,
R&D expenditure is at the lower end of
the range for the chemical industry. Most of this
will be
devoted
to
process
improvement
and
effluent
treatment.
Examples
include
ammonia,
fertilizers
and chloralkali
production from the inorganic side, and basic
petrochemical intermediates such a
ethylene from the organic side.
3
．化工行业中研究与开发活动的变化
化学工业的不同部门所进行的
R&D
的
性质与数量都有很大的变化。与大规模生产的基
础化工产品有关的部门中，化学产品和技
术变化都很慢，因为流程已很成熟。
R&D
经费支
出属于化工行业中低的一端，
而且大部分的费用是用于过程改进和废水处理。
无机方面的例
子有氨、肥料和氯碱的生产，有机方面的如乙烯等
一些基础石油化学的中间产物。
At the other end of the scale lie
pharmaceuticals and pesticides (or plant
protection products).
Here
there
are
immense
and
continuous
efforts
to
synthesize
new
molecules
which
exert
the
desired,
specific
biological
effect.
A
single
company
may
generate
10,000
new
compounds
for
screening eac
h year. Little
wonder that some individual pharmaceutical
company’s annual R&D
12
/
47
expenditure is now
approaching $$1000 million! Expressing this in a
different way they spend in
excess of
14% of sales income (note not profits) on R&D.
不一样规模生产的是药品和除草剂。
人们付出了巨大而持续的努力以合
成能产生所希望
的、特殊的生物作用的新分子。一家公司每年可能要合成
10,000
新化合物以供筛选。可以
想象一些医药公
司其每年的
R&D
经费支出高达
100
亿美元。换句话说，他们把超过
14%
的
销售收入投入在
R&D
上。
13
/
47
Unit 3 Typical Activities
of Chemical Engineers
化学工程师的例行工作
The
classical role of the chemical engineer is to take
the discoveries made by the chemist in
the laboratory and develop them into
money--making, commercial-scale chemical
processes. The
chemist works in test
tubes and Parr bombs with very small quantities of
reactants and products
(e.g., 100 ml),
usually
running “batch”,
constant
-temperature experiments.
Reactants are placed in
a small
container in a constant temperature bath. A
catalyst is added and the reactions proceed with
time. Samples are taken at appropriate
intervals to follow the consumption of the
reactants and the
production of
products as time progresses.
化学工程师经典的角色
是把化学家在实验室里的发现拿来并发展成为能赚钱的、
商业规
模的化学过程。
化学家用少量的反应物在试管和派式氧弹中反应相应得到少量的生成物，
所
进行的通常是间歇性的恒温下的实验，
反应物放在很小的置于恒温水槽的容器中，
加点催化
剂，反应
继续进行，随时间推移，反应物被消耗，并有生成物产生，产物在合适的间歇时间
获得。
By
contrast,
the
chemical
engineer
typically
works
with
much
larger
quantities
of material
and with very large (and expensive)
equipment. Reactors can hold 1,000 gallons to
10,000 gallons
or more. Distillation
columns can be over 100 feet high and 10 to 30
feet in diameter. The capital
investment for one process unit in a
chemical plant may exceed $$100 million!
与之相比，化学工程师通常面对的是数量多得多的物质和庞大的（昂贵的）设备。反应
器可以容纳
1000
到
10,000
加仑甚至更多。
蒸馏塔有
100
英尺多高，
直径
10
到
30
英尺。
化
工厂一个单元流程的投资可能超过
1
亿美元。
The
chemical
engineer
is
often
involved
in
“scaling
up”
a
chemist
-developed
small-scale
reactor and
separation system to a very large commercial
plant. The chemical engineer must work
closely with the chemist in order to
understand thoroughly the chemistry involved in
the process
and
to
make
sure
that
the
chemist
gets
the
reaction
kinetic
data
and
the
physical
property
data
needed
to
design,
operate,
and
optimize
the
process.
This
is
why
the
chemical
engineering
curriculum
contains so many chemistry courses.
在把化
学家研制的小型反应器及分离系统
“放大”
到很大的商业化车间
时，
通常需要化
学工程师的参与。
为了
彻底了解过程中的化学反应，
化学工程师必须与化学家密切合作以确
保能得到所需要的反应的动力学性质和物理性质参数以进行设计、
运转和优选流程。
这就是
为什么化工课程要包括那么多的化学类课程的原因。
The
chemical
engineer
must
also
work
closely
with
mechanical,
electrical,
civil,
and
metallurgical
engineers
in
order
to
design
and
operate
the
physical
equipment
in
a
plant--the
reactors,
tanks,
distillation
columns,
heat
exchangers,
pumps,
compressors,
Control
and
instrumentation devices, and so on. One
big item that is always on such an equipment list
is piping.
One of the most impressive
features f a typical chemical plant is the
tremendous number of pipes
running all
over the site, literally hundreds of miles in many
plants. These pipes transfer process
materials
(gases
and
liquids)
into
and
out
of
the
plant.
They
also
carry
utilities
(steam,
cooling
water, air,
nitrogen, and refrigerant) to the process units.
14
/
47
化学工程师还必须与机械、
电子、
土木建筑和冶金工程师密
切协作以设计和操作工厂的
机械设备
—
反应器、槽、蒸馏塔、热交换器、泵、压缩机、控制器和仪器设备等等。在这张
设备单上
还有一大类是管子。化工厂最典型的特征之一就是数目庞大的管道贯穿所有生产
间。
可以毫不夸张地说，
在许多车间都有几百英里长的管道。
这些管道输入和输出车间的反
应物质进行传递，同时还可携带有用的东西（
水蒸气、冷却水、空气、氧、冷却剂）进入操
作单元。
To commercialize the
laboratory chemistry, the chemical engineer is
involved in development,
design,
construction, operation, sales, and research. The
terminology used to label these functions
is by no means uniform from company to
company, but a rose by any other name is still a
rose.
Let
us
describe
each
of
these
functions
briefly.
It
should
be
emphasized
that
the
jobs
we
shall
discuss are “typical”
and “classical”, but are by no means the only
things that chemical engineers
do.
The
chemical
engineer
has
a
broad
background
in
mathematics,
chemistry,
and
physics.
Therefore,
he
or
she
can,
and
does,
fill
a
rich
variety
of
jobs
in
industry,
government,
and
academia.
要把实验室研究商业化，化学工程师要参
与进行开发、设计、建筑、操作、销售和研究
工作。
各个公司用
来表示这些工作的名词不完全一样，
但万变不离其宗。
让我们简
单地把每
个工作描述一下。应该强调的是，我们所讨论的工作是“典型的”和“经典的”
，但并不意
味着化学工程师只能做这些事。
化学工程师在数学、
化学和物理学方面都有很好的知识基础，
因此，他或她能够而且确实适应工业、政府部门、大专院校等非常广泛的职业要求。
1.
Development
Development is
the intermediate step required in passing from a
laboratory-size process to a
commercial-
size
process.
The
“pilot
-
plant”
process
involved
in
deve
lopment
might
involve
reactors that are five gallons in
capacity and distillation columns that are three
inches in diameter.
Development is
usually part of the commercialization of a
chemical process because the scale-up
problem is a very difficult one.
Jumping directly from test tubes to 10,000-gallon
reactors can be a
tricky and sometimes
dangerous endeavor. Some of the subtle problems
involved which are not at
all obvious
to the uninitiated include mixing imperfections,
increasing radial temperature gradients,
and decreasing ratios of heat transfer
areas to heat generation rates.
1.
开发
开发工作是从实验室规模向商业
化规模转化所必需的中间阶段。
开发阶段所涉及的
“中
试”
流程所使用的反应器容量为
5
加仑，
蒸馏塔直径为
3
英寸
。
开发通常是化学流程商业化
的一部分。因为“放大”规模是一
个非常困难的问题。直接从试管研制跳到在
10.000
加仑<
/p>
反应器里生产是非常棘手的有时甚至是危险的工作。
一些
（在实验室研究阶段）
根本不明显
的未加以考虑
的细微问题，
如混合不均匀，
温度梯度辐射状升高，
热交换面积逐渐降低以及
热交换速度下降等（在后一阶段变得影响很大）<
/p>
。
The
chemical
engineer
works
with
the
chemist
and
a
team
of
other
engineers
to
design,
construct,
and
operate
the
pilot
plant.
The
design
aspect
involves
specifying
equipment
sizes,
configuration, and materials of
construction. Usually pilot plants are designed to
be quite flexible,
so that a wide
variety of conditions and configurations can be
evaluated.
化学工程师与化学家和其他一些工程师协作对中师车间进行设计
、
安装和运行，
设计方
面包括确定设备
的尺寸、
结构、
制造所用的材料。
通常
中师车间的设计是有很大的变通性的，
15
/
47
以便能对各种情况和构造进行评估。
Once
the
pilot
plant
is
operational,
performance
and
optimization
data
can
be
obtained
in
order
to evaluate the process from an economic point of
view. The profitability is assessed at each
stage
of
the
development
of
the
process.
If
it
appears
that
not
enough
money
will
be
made
to
justify the capital
investment, the project will be stopped.
中试车间一旦开始运转，
就能获得性能数据和选定最佳数值以便从经济学角度对流程
进
行评价。
对生产过程的每一个阶段可能获得的利润进行评定。
如果结果显示投入的资金不能
有足够的回报，这项计划将被停止
。
The
pilot
plant
offers
the
opportunity
to
evaluate
materials
of
construction,
measurement
techniques, and
process control strategies. The experimental
findings in the pilot plant can be used
to improve the design of the full-scale
plant.
中师车间还提供了评价设备制造材料、
测量方法
、
流程控制技术的机会。
中试车间的这
些实验数据对于工业装置设计的改善能提供有用的帮助。
2.
Design
Based
on
the
experience
and
data obtained
in
the
laboratory
and
the
pilot
plant,
a team
of
engineers is assembled to design the
commercial plant. The chemical engineer’s job is
to specify
all process flow rates and
conditions, equipment types and sizes, materials
of construction, process
configurations,
control
systems,
safety
systems,
environmental
protection
systems,
and
other
relevant specifications. It is an
enormous responsibility.
2
．
设计
根据在实验室和中试车间获得的
经验和数据，一组工程师集中起来设计工业化的车间。
化学工程师的职责就是详细说明所
有过程中的流速和条件，
设备类型和尺寸，
制造材料，
流
程构造，控制系统，环境保护系统以及其它相关技术参数。这是一个责
任重大的工作。
The
design stage is really where the big bucks are
spent. One typical chemical process might
require
a
capital
investment
of
$$50
to
$$100
million.
That’s
a
lot
of
bread!
And
the
chemical
engineer
is
the
one
who
has
to
make
many
of
the
decisions.
When
you
find
yourself
in
that
position, you will be glad that you
studied as hard as you did (we hope) so that you
can bring the
best possible tools and
minds to bear on the problems.
设计阶段是大把金
钱花进去的时候。
一个常规的化工流程可能需要五千万到一亿美元的
资金投入，有许多的事情要做。化学工程师是做出很多决定的人之一。当你身处其位时，你
< br>会对自己曾经努力学习而能运用自己的方法和智慧处理这些问题感到欣慰。
The product of the design
stage is a lot of paper:
(1)
Flow
sheets
are
diagrams
showing
all
the
equipment
schematically,
with
all
streams
labeled
and
their
conditions
specified
(flow
rate,
temperature,
pressure,
composition,
viscosity,
density, etc.)
设计阶段的产物是很多图纸：
（
1
）工艺流程图。是显示所有设备的图纸。要标出所有的流线和规定
的条件（流速、
温度、压力、构造、粘度、密度等）
。
16
/
47
(2)
P
and
I
(Piping
and
Instrumentation)
Drawings
are
drawings
showing
all
pieces
of
equipment (including sizes, nozzle
locations, and materials), all piping (including
sizes, materials,
and
valves),
all
instrumentation
(including
locations
and
types
of
sensors,
control
valves,
and
controllers),
and
all
safety
systems
(including
safety
valve
and
rupture
disk
locations
and
sizes,
flare lines, and safe
operating conditions).
（
2
）管道及设备图。标明所有设备（包括尺寸、喷嘴位置和材料）
、所有
管道（包括大
小、控制阀、控制器）以及所有安全系统（包括安全阀、安全膜位置和大小
、火舌管、安全
操作规则）
。
(3) Equipment specification
Sheets are sheets of detailed information on all
the equipment
precise
dimensions,
performance
criteria,
materials
of
construction,
corrosion
allowances,
operating
temperatures,
and
pressures,
maximum
and
minimum
flow
rates,
and
the
like.
These
“spec
sheets”
are
sent
to
the
equipment
manufacturers
for
price
bids
and
then
for
building
the
equipment.
（<
/p>
3
）仪器设备说明书。详细说明所有设备准确的空间尺度、操作参
数、构造材料、耐
腐蚀性、
操作温度和压力、
< br>最大和最小流速以及诸如此类等等。
这些规格说明书应交给中标
< br>的设备制造厂以进行设备生产。
3.
Construction
After the equipment manufacturers
(vendors) have built the individual pieces of
equipment,
the pieces are shipped to
the plant site (sometimes a challenging job of
logistics, particularly for
large
vessels
like
distillation
columns).
The
construction
phase
is
the
assembling
of
all
the
components into a
complete plant. It starts with digging holes in
the ground and pouring concrete
for
foundations
for
large
equipment
and
buildings
(e.g.,
the
control
room,
process
analytical
laboratory, and maintenance shops).
3
．
建造
当设备制造把设备的所有部分都
做好了以后，
这些东西要运到工厂所在地
（有时这是后
勤部门颇具挑战性的任务，尤其对象运输分馏塔这样大型的船只来说）
。
建造阶段要把所有
的部件装配成完整的工厂，
首先要做的就是在
地面打洞并倾入混凝土，
为大型设备及建筑物
打下基础（比如控
制室、流程分析实验室、维修车间）
。
After these initial
activities, the major pieces of equipment and the
steel superstructure are
erected. Heat
exchangers, pumps, compressors, piping, instrument
sensors, and automatic control
valves
are installed. Control system wiring and tubing
are run between the control room and the
plant.
Electrical
wiring,
switches,
and
transformers
are
installed
for
motors
to
drive
pumps
and
compressors.
As
the
process
equipment
is
being
installed,
it
is
the
chemical
engineer’s
job
to
check that
it is all hooked together properly and that each
piece works correctly.
完成了第一步，就开始安装设备的主
要部分以及钢铁上层建筑。要装配热交换器、泵、
压缩机、
管道
、
测量元件、
自动控制阀。
控制系统的
线路和管道连接在控制室和操作间之间。
电线、开关、变换器需装备在马达上以驱动泵和
压缩机。生产设备安装完毕后，化学工程师
的职责就是检查它们是否连接完好，每部分是
否正常工作。
This is
usually a very exciting and rewarding time for
most engineers. You are seeing your
ideas being translated from paper into
reality. Steel and concrete replace sketches and
diagrams.
17
/
47
Construction is the culmination of
years of work by many people. You are finally on
the launch
pad, and the plant is going
to fly or fizzle! The moment of truth is at hand.
对大部分工程师来说这通常是一个令人激动、
享受成功的时候。
你将看到自己的创意由
图纸变为现实。
钢铁和混凝土代替了示意图和表格。
建筑是许多人多年辛劳的结果。
你终于
站到了发射台上，工厂将要起飞还是最后失败。揭晓的那一刻即将到来。
Once the
check-
out phase is complete, “startup”
begins. Startup is the initial commissioning
of
the
plant.
It
is
a
time
of
great
excitement
and
round-the-clock
activity.
It
is
one
of
the
best
learning
grounds
for
the
chemical
engineer.
Now
you
find
out
how
good
your
ideas
and
calculations really are.
The engineers who have worked on the pilot plant
and on the design are
usually part of
the startup team.
测试阶段一旦完成，
“
运转阶段”就开始了。启动是工厂的首项任务，是令人兴奋的时
刻和日夜不停的工作。<
/p>
这是化学工程师最好的学习机会之一。
现在你可以了解你的构思和
计
算究竟有些什么好。参与中试车间和设计工作的工程师通常也是启动队伍中的人员。<
/p>
The startup
period can require a few days or a few moths,
depending on the newness of the
technology, the complexity of the
process, and quality of the engineering that has
gone into the
design.
Problems
are
frequently
encountered
that
require
equipment
modifications.
This
is
time
consuming and expensive: just the lost
production from a plant can amount to thousands of
dollars
per
day.
Indeed,
there
have
been
some
plants
that
have
never
operated,
because
of
unexpected
problems with
control, corrosion, or impurities, or because of
economic problem.
启动阶段需要几天或几个月，
< br>根据设计所涉及工艺技术的新颖、
流程的复杂程度以及工
程的质量而定。
中间经常会遇到要求设备完善的问题。
这是耗时
耗财的阶段：
仅仅每天从车
间出来的废品会高达数千美金。确实
，曾经有些车间因为没有预计到的问题如控制、腐蚀、
杂质或因为经济方面的问题而从来
没有运转过。
The
engineers are usually on shift work during the
startup period. There is a lot to learn in a
short
time
period.
Once
the
plant
has
been
successfully
operated
at
its
rated
performance,
it
is
turned over to the
operating or manufacturing department for routine
production of products.
在启动阶段，
工程师们通常需轮流值班。
在很短的时间里有很多的东西需要学习。
一旦
车间按照设定程序成功运转，它就转变为产品的常规生产或制造部门。
4.
Manufacturing
Chemical
engineers
occupy
a
central
position
in
ma
nufacturing.
(or
“operations”
or
“production,” as it is
called in some companies). Plant technical service
group are responsible for
the technical
aspects of running an efficient and safe plant.
They run capacity and performance
tests
on
the
plant
to
determine
where
the
bottlenecks
are
in
the
equipment,
and
then
design
modifications and additions to remove
these bottlenecks.
4
．
制造
化学工程师在制造阶段占据中心
的位置。
车间技术服务部门负责车间有效而安全地运转
的技术方
面。
他们进行生产量和性能测试以找出设备的瓶颈在哪，
然后设
计一些修正或附加
的东西以解决这些瓶颈。
Chemical
engineers
study
ways
to
reduce
operating
costs
by
saving
energy,
cutting
raw
18
/
47
material
consumption,
and
reducing
production
of
off-specification
products
that
require
reprocessing. They
study ways to improve product quality and reduce
environmental pollution of
both air and
water.
化学工程师研究一些方法节省能源，
降低原材料
消耗、
减少不合要求的需进行处理的产
品的生产，
以降低生产成本。
他们还研究一些提高产品质量、
减
少空气和水中环境污染的措
施。
In
addition
to
serving
in
plant
technical
service,
many
engineers
have
jobs
as
operating
supervisors. These
supervisors are responsible for all aspects of the
day-to-day operation of the
plant,
including supervising the plant operators who run
the plant round the clock on a three-shift
basis, meeting quality specifications,
delivering products at agreed-upon times and in
agreed-upon
quantities,
developing
and
maintaining
inventories
of
equipment
spare
parts,
keeping
the
plant
well maintained, making sure safe
practices are followed, avoiding excessive
emissions into the
local environment,
and serving as spokespersons for the plant to the
local community.
除了提供技术服务外，
许
多工程师还负责生产监督。
这些监督保证工厂日常生产的各个
方
面正常进行。包括管理换班工作的操作工，满足质量要求，按期按量发出产品，生产并保
持设备备件的存储量，
为车间设备维修，
保证安全规则被遵守，
避免过多排出废物污染环境，
并且做工厂对当地社会的代言人。
5.
Technical sales
Many
chemical engineers find stimulating and profitable
careers in technical sales. As with
other
sales
positions,
the
work
involves
calling
on
customers,
making
recommendations
on
particular products to fill customer’s
needs, and being sure that orders are handled
smoothly. The
sales engineer is the
company’s representative and must know the
company’s product line well.
The sales
engin
eer’s ability to sell can greatly
affect the progress and profitability of the
company.
5
．
技术销售
许多化学工程师发现在技术
销售中充满了刺激性的、
有利可图的机会。
与其它的销售业
务一样，
这项业务包括拜访客户，
推荐一些
特别的商品以满足客户的需要，
并确保订单能顺
利完成。
销售工程师是公司的代表，
必须十分清楚公司的产品生产情况。
销售工程师的销售
能力极大地影响公司的发展和利润。
The
marketing
of
many
chemicals
requires
a
considerable
amount
of
interaction
between
engineers
in
the
company
producing
the
chemical
and
engineers
in
the
company
using
the
chemical. This interaction can take the
form of advising on how to use a chemical or
developing a
new chemical in order to
solve a specific problem of a customer.
许多化工产品的市场开发需要制造化工产品公司的工程师与使用化工产品公司的工程
师
密切合作。
这种合作所采取的方式可以是对如何使用一种化学产品提出建议，
或者是生产
出一种新的化学产品以解决客户的某个特殊的困难。
When the sales
engineer discovers problems that cannot be handled
with confidence, he or
she must be able
to call on the expertise of specialists. The sales
engineer may sometimes have to
manage
a
joint
effort
among
researchers
from
several
companies
who
are
working
together
to
solve a problem.
< br>当销售工程师碰到他自己没有把握解决的问题时，
他或她必须要请教专家。
有时销售工
19
/
47
程师还需组织来自不同公司的研究人员共同努力来解决某
个问题。
6.
Research
Chemical engineers are engaged in many
types of research. They work with the chemist in
developing new or improved products.
They develop new and improved engineering methods
(e.g.,
better computer programs to
simulate chemical processes, better laboratory
analysis methods for
characterizing
chemicals,
and
new
types
of
reactors
ad
separation
systems).
They
work
on
improved
sensors
for
on-line
physical
property
measurements.
They
study
alternative
process
configurations and
equipment.
6
．
研究
化学工程师能从事多种类型的研
究工作。
他们与化学家联合开发新的或革新的产品。
他
们探索新的和改良的工程技术
（比如更好的计算机程序以模拟化工工艺，
更好的实验室分析
方法分析有代表性的化学产品，新型的反应和
分离系统。
）他们研究改进的传感器以进行物
理性质的在线检测
，他们还研究单个流程结构和设备。
Research engineers are likely to be
found in laboratories or at desks working on
problems.
They usually work as members
of a team of scientists and engineers. Knowledge
of the process
and common types of
process equipment helps the chemical engineer make
special contributions
to the research
effort. The chemical engineer’s daily activities
may sometimes closely
resembl
e
those of
the chemist or physicist working on the same team.
研究工程师可能是在实验室或办公桌前钻研难题。
他们通常是一
组科学家或工程师中的
一员。
了解生产流程以及通常流程所使用
的设备使化学工程师能在研究工作中做出突出的贡
献。化学工程师的日常工作有时颇似那
些化学家和物理学家。
20
/
47
Unit 10
What Is Chemical
Engineering?
什么是化学工程学
In a wider sense, engineering may be
defined as a scientific presentation of the
techniques
and
facilities
used
in
a
particular
industry.
For
example,
mechanical
engineering
refers
to
the
techniques
and
facilities
employed
to
make
machines.
It
is
predominantly
based
on
mechanical
forces which are used to change the
appearance and/or physical properties of the
materials being
worked,
while
their
chemical
properties
are
left
unchanged.
Chemical
engineering encompasses
the
chemical processing of raw materials, based on
chemical and physico-chemical phenomena of
high complexity.
广义来讲，
工程学可以定义为对某种工业所用技术和设备的科学表达。
例如，
机械工程
学涉及的是制造机器的工业所用技术和设备。
它优先讨论的是机械力，
这种作用力可以改变
所加工对象的
外表或物理性质而不改变其化学性质。
化学工程学包括原材料的化学过程，
以
更为复杂的化学和物理化学现象为基础。
Thus,
chemical
engineering
is
that
branch
of
engineering
which
is
concerned
with
the study of the design, manufacture,
and operation of plant and machinery in
industrial chemical processes.
< br>因此，化学工程学是工程学的一个分支，它涉及工业化化学过程中工厂和机器的设计、
制造、和操作的研究。
Chemical engineering is above all based
on the chemical sciences, such as physical
chemistry,
chemical thermodynamics, and
chemical kinetics. In doing so, however, it does
not simply copy
their
findings,
but
adapts
them
to
bulk
chemical
processing.
The
principal
objectives
that
set
chemical
engineering apart from chemistry as a pure
scie
nce, is “to find the most
economical route
of
operation
and
to
design
commercial
equipment
and
accessories
that
suit
it
best
of
all”.
Therefore,
chemical
engineering
is
inconceivable
without
close
ties
with
economics,
physics,
mathematics, cybernetics, applied
mechanics, and other technical sciences.
前述化学工程学都是以化学科学为基础的，
如物理化学，
化
学热力学和化学动力学。
然
而这样做的时候，
< br>它并不是仅仅简单地照搬结论，
而是要把这些知识运用于大批量生产的化
学加工过程。
把化学工程学与纯化学区分开来的首要目的是
“找到最经济的生产路线并设计
商业化的设备和辅助设备尽可能地适应它。<
/p>
”因此如果没有与经济学，物理学，数学，控制
论，应用机械以及
其它技术的联系就不能想象化学工程会是什么样的。
In its early days, chemical engineering
was largely a descriptive science. Many of the
early
textbooks and manuals on chemical
engineering were encyclopedias of the commercial
production
processes known at the time.
Progress in science and industry has bought with
it an impressive
increase
in
the
number
of
chemical
manufactures.
Today,
petroleum
for
example
serves
as
the
source material for the production of
about 80 thousand chemicals. The expansion of the
chemical
process
industries
on
the
one
hand
and
advances
in
the
chemical
and
technical
sciences
on
the
other have made it possible to lay
theoretical foundations for chemical processing. <
/p>
早期的化学工程学以描述性为主。
许多早期的有关化学工程的教科
书和手册都是那个时
候已知的商品生产过程的百科全书。
科学和
工业的发展使化学品的制造数量迅速增加。
举例
21
/
47
来说，
今天石油已经成为八万多种化学产品生产的原材料。
一方面是化学加工工业扩张的要
求，另一方面是化学和技术水平的发展为化学工艺建立理论基础提供了可能。
As
the
chemical
process
industries
forged
ahead,
new
data,
new
relationships
and
new
generalizations were added to the
subject-matter of chemical engineering. Many
branches in their
own right have
separated from the main stream of chemical
engineering, such as process and plant
design, automation, chemical process
simulation and modeling, etc.
随着化学加工工业的
发展，
新的数据，
新的关系和新的综论不断添加到化学工程学的
目
录中。
然后又从主干上分出许多的分支，
如工艺和工厂设计，
自动化，
化工工艺模拟和模型，
等等。
1.
A Brief
Historical Outline
Historically,
chemical engineering is inseparable from the
chemical process industries. In its
early days chemical engineering which
came into being with the advent of early chemical
trades
was a purely descriptive
division of applied chemistry.
1
．
简要的历史轮廓
从历史上来说，
化学工程学与化学加工工业密不可分。
在早期，
化学工程学随着早期化学产
品交易的发展而出现，是应用化学的纯描述性的分支。<
/p>
The
manufacture
of
basic
chemical
products
on
Europe
appears
to
have
begun
in
the
15th
century
when
small,
specialized
businesses
were
first
set
up
to
turn
out
acids,
alkalis,
salts,
pharmaceutical
preparations, and some organic compounds.
< br>在欧洲，基础化学产品的制造出现在
15
世纪。一些小的
、专门的企业开始创立，生产酸、
碱、盐、药物中间体和一些有机化合物。
For all the rhetoric of nineteenth-
century academic chemists in Britain urging the
priority of
the study of pure chemistry
over applied, their students who became works
chemists were
little
more
than qualitative and quantitative analysts. Before
the 1880s this was equally true of German
chemical firms, who remained content to
retain academic consultants who pursued research
within
the university and who would
occasionally provide the material for
manufacturing innovation. By
the 1880s,
however, industrialists were beginning to
recognize that the scaling up of consultants’
laboratory
preparations,
and
syntheses
was
a
distinctly
different
activity
from
laboratory
investigation.
They
began
to
refer
to
this
scaling
problem
and
its
solution
as
“chemical
engineering”—
possibly
because the mechanical engineers who had already
been introduced into
works to who
seemed best able to understand the process
involved. The academic dichotomy of
head and hand died slowly.
由
于十九世纪英国的学院化学家强调纯化学的研究高于应用化学，
他们的要成为工业化学<
/p>
家的学生也只是定性和定量分析者。
在
1
9
世纪
80
年代以前，
德国的化学公司也是这样。
他
们愿意聘请那些在大学里
进行研究的人作顾问，
这些人偶尔为制造的革新提供一些意见。
然
而到了
80
年代，工业家们开始认识
到要把顾问们在实验室的准备和合成工作进行放大是一
个与实验室研究截然不同的活动。
他们开始把这个放大的问题以及解决的方法交给
“化学工
程师”
—
这可能是受到已经进入工厂的机械工
程师的表现的启发。
由于机械工程师熟悉所涉
及的加工工艺，<
/p>
是维修日益复杂化的工业生产中的蒸气机和高压泵的最合适的人选。
学院研
究中头和手两分的现象逐渐消亡。
22
/
47
Unit operation
. In Britain
when in 1881 there was an attempt to name the new
Society of
Chemical industry as the
“Society of Chemical engineers”, the suggestion
was turned down. On
the other hand, as
a result of growing pressure from the industrial
sector the curricula of technical
institutions began to reflect, at last,
the need for chemical engineers rather than
competent analysts.
No longer was mere
description of existing industrial processes to
suffice. Instead the expectation
was
that the processes generic to various specific
industries would be analyzed, thus making room
for the introduction of thermodynamic
perspectives, as well as those being opened up buy
the new
physical chemistry of kinetics,
solutions and phases.
单元操作。
1
881
年英国曾经准备把化学工业的一个新的协会命名为
“化学
工程师协会”
，
这个建议遭到了拒绝。
另一方面，
由于受到来自工业界日益加重的压力，
大学的课程开
始体
现出除了培养分析工作者还要培养化学工程师的要求。
现在
仅仅对现有工业过程进行描述已
经不够了，
需要对各种特殊工业
进行工艺属性的分析。
这就为引入热力学及动力学、
溶液和
相等物理化学新思想提供了空间。
A key figure in this transformation was
the chemical consultant, George Davis (1850-1907),
the
first
secretary
of
the
Society
of
Chemical
Industry.
In
1887
Davis,
then
a
lecture
at
the
Manchester
Technical School, gave a series of lectures on
chemical engineering, which he defined
as the study of “the
appl
ication of machinery and plant to
the utilization of chemical action on the
large scale”. The course, which
revolved around the type of plant involved in
large
-scale industrial
operations
such
as
drying,
crashing,
distillation,
fermentation,
evaporation
and
crystallization,
slowly became recognized as a model for
courses elsewhere, not only in Britain, but
overseas. The
first fully fledged
course in chemical engineering in Britain was not
introduced until 1909;though
in
America, Lewis Norton (1855-1893) of MIT pioneered
a Davis-type course as early as 1888.
在这个转变期，一位关键的人物是化学顾问
George Da
vis
，化学工业协会的首任秘书。
1887
< br>年
Davis
那时是
Manch
ester
专科学校的一名讲师，
做了一系列有关化学工程学的
讲座。
他把化学工程学定义为对
“大规模化学生产中所应用的机
器和工厂”
的研究。
这们课程包括
了大
规模工业化操作的工厂的各种类型，如干燥、破碎、蒸馏、发酵、蒸发和结晶。后来逐
渐
在别的地方而不仅仅在英国，而是国外，成为许多课程的雏形。英国直到
1909
年化学工
程学才成为一门较为完善的课程，而在美国，
MIT
的
Lewis Norton
< br>早在
1888
年就已率先开
出了
Davis
型课程。
In 1915, Arthur D. Little,
in a report on MIT’s programme, referred to it as
the study of “unit
operations”
and
this
neatly
encapsulated
the
distinctive
feature
of
chemical
engineering
in
the
twentieth
century.
The
reasons
for
the
success
of
the
Davis
movement
are
clear:
it
avoided
revealing
the
secrets
of
specific
chemical
processes
protected
by
patents
or
by
an
owner’s
reticence
—
factors
that
had
always
seriously
inhibited
manufacturers
from
supporting
academic
programmes
of
training
in
the
past.
Davis
overcame
this
difficulty
by
converting
chemical
industries
“into
separate
phenomena
which
could
be
studied
independently”
and,
indeed,
experimented with in pilot plants
within a university or technical college workshop.
1915
年，
Arthur D.
little
在一份
MIT
的计划书
中，提出了“单元操作”这个概念，这几
乎为二十世纪化学工程学的突出特点做了定性。
Davis
这一倡议的成功原因是很明显的：它
避免了泄露特殊化学过程中受专利权或某个拥有者的保留权所保护的秘密。
过去
这种泄露已
经严重限制了制造者对学院研究机构训练计划的支持。
Davis
把化学工业分解为“能独立进
行研究的单个的工序
”
从而克服了这个困难。
并且在大学或专科学校的工厂里用中试
车间进
23
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47