|
Isopropyl alcohol, (CH3)2CHOH (also known as
IPA or 2-propanol), is a clear, colorless, volatile, flammable liquid with
a slight odor. It is miscible with water and a variety of organic solvents.
Various grades of 99% IPA are commercially available, including USP (United
States Pharmacopoeia), ACS reagent and ACS semiconductor.
The largest producers of IPA are Shell, ExxonMobil, Sasol and Dow; together,
they have over 72% of world capacity. In the last few years, oversupply, decreased
demand and lower margins resulted in two major plant closures in Western Europe.
Shell closed its Stanlow, United Kingdom IPA plant in 2003 (with 90 thousand
metric tons of annual capacity) and BP shut its 100 thousand metric ton-per-year
Port Talbot, United Kingdom IPA plant in 2004.
The following pie chart shows world consumption of IPA in 2005:
Use of IPA in direct solvent applications consumed over 50% of total IPA demand.
IPA is also used in surface coatings, inks, pesticide formulations, electronic
applications, reagents and as a processing solvent in the production of resins.
The following pie chart shows world consumption of IPA by end use:
Global IPA-based acetone production is expected to decrease with the increase
of phenol capacity (acetone is a coproduct of phenol by the cumene peroxidation
process). Worldwide IPA consumption is forecast to grow at an average annual
rate of 2.0–2.5% during 2005–2010.
|
