化学工程与工艺专业英语 UNIT 1.ppt

化学工程与工艺专业英语
授课班级:化工05
授课教师:郎中敏
学时:32
Unit 1 Chemical Industry
Before reading the text below, try to answer following questions:
1. When did the modern chemical industry start?
2 . Can you give a definition for the chemical industry?
3 . What are the contributions which the chemical industry has made to meet and satisfy our needs?
4 . Is the chemical industry capital-or labor-intensive? Why?
1. Origins 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 for 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 anic chemicals. anic chemicals industry started in the 1860s with the exploitation of William Henry Perkin’s discovery of the first synthetic dyestuff—mauve. At the start of the twentieth century the emphasis on research on the applied of chemistry in Germany had paid off handsomely, and by 1914 had resulted in the German chemical industry having75% 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 latter 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-pounds (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).
Since 1940 the chemical industry has grown at a remarkable r