Archives for Commodities
A metalloid is an element that has properties intermediate between metals and nonmetals. They typically appear metallic but are brittle and poor (semi) conductors. They can be alloyed with metals. They have a wide range of uses such as catalysts, flame retardants, glass, semiconductors and electronics. There are six commonly…
Virtually all sulphur produced worldwide is used to make sulphuric acid, mostly produced by the Contact Process. In this process sulphur is burned in air, or ores like pyrite are heated in air, to produce sulphur dioxide. This is then converted to sulphur trioxide by heating in air to about…
Global zinc production in 2020 is estimated to be 12Mt, less than 2019 due to the COVID panic. The biggest producers were China, Peru and Australia. World zinc reserves are 250Mt and resources about 1.9Bt. Zinc has been known since Roman times but rarely used until recent times. The Chinese…
Nitrogen is “fixed” as ammonia (NH3) primarily by way of the Haber-Bosch process. This takes nitrogen from the air, hydrogen from natural gas and combines them at a 1:3 ratio and heats the mixture to 400OC at a pressure of 200 atm to form ammonia. There are various “green” ammonia…
Silica sands must be at least 95% silica (SiO2) and less than 0.6% iron oxide. Lower grade sand is usually called regular sand or construction sand. The world consumes about 300M tonnes of silica sand every year. The largest consumers are China and North America Some are predicting a looming…
Current three way catalytic converters have been in use since the early 1980’s. In brief, they use rhodium at the front end in a low oxygen environment to reduce nitrogen oxides to nitrogen gas and oxygen. This is followed by a more oxygen rich environment, created by oscillating the fuel…