CHARLENE E. CANCERAN September 23, 2015ChE150-B02Homework 1CHALLENGES OF THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN THE 21ST CENTURYChemical industry creates a wide variety of products which play a big role in our daily lives as well as in the global economy: Pharmaceuticals, petrochemical, packaging, agrochemicals, detergents just to name a few. Although the products that this industry produce are very essential to our lives, the changing world introduces a lot challenges in many aspects of chemical industry. Today, the information age opens up global communication channels, promotes the development of companies with global reach , changes the way companies are doing business and is likely the motive force to industry restructuring. This means that as technology evolves and progresses, the competition among which company can produce the best product for the people tightens. Aside from this, companies must also consider the profit or return of investment. In other words, they must know where the profitable market is. One example is the case of petrochemical industry. Many oil producing countries made a strategic decision not just to sell the crude oil, but also to participate in the higher added value markets downstream. They began to invest in both refineries and petrochemical plants close to the oil fields in their own countries (major production facilities now exist, for example, in Saudi Arabia). However, these are far away from the actual markets for the refined oils and chemicals. As it is cheaper to transport crude oil than to distribute many of its end products around the globe, there is now a trend for oil-producing countries to invest in more distant refineries and plants, closer to the consumer market. Meanwhile, US and European companies are investing heavily in vast refineries and chemical plants in emerging countries, in collaboration with the local chemical companies.Another challenge considered in the chemical industry is safety to humans, animals, and environment. Safety must be at the top of the chemical industrys agenda and for good reason. Many of its products are potentially hazardous at some stage during their manufacture and transport. These chemicals may be solids, liquids or gases, flammable, explosive, corrosive and/or toxic. Manufacturing processes frequently involve high temperatures, high pressures, and reactions which can be dangerous unless carefully controlled. Because of this the industry operates within the safety limits demanded by national and international legislation.There are serious concerns about the potential impact of certain manufactured chemicals on living organisms, including ourselves, and on the natural environment. These concerns include air, land and sea pollution, global warming and climate change, ozone depletion of the upper atmosphere and acid rain. Because of this, continuous improvement and neverending research on the environmental, health, safety and security knowledge and performance of our technologies, processes and products over their life cycles are conducted so as to avoid harm to people and the environment