Industrial Chemistry and Water Treatment

The products of the chemical industry are divided into three categories: Basic chemicals, Speciality chemicals, Consumer chemicals. There have been breath-taking changes in the industry over the last 10 years around, not only with in Europe and in the US but particularly in China, India, the remainder of Asia and Brazil. The industry can be a very important contributor to the wealth of a nation. For as an example it contributes over 1.5% to the Gross National Product (GNP) of European countries, which is over 6.5% of the GNP produced by all manufacturing industries. Generally personnel in the industry are among the most well rewarded of all manufacturing industries because the industry has the largest proportion of highly qualified people and generally it is the most productive.

Making potable water optimizing the performance of treatment chemicals and equipment can dramatically minimize costs and maximize return on investment helping to meet the most stringent water quality requirements. Raw water includes rainwater, water from infiltration wells, and water from bodies like lakes and rivers. Treatment includes -The phenomenon of water molecules spontaneously migrating through a permeable membrane being used to separate a dilute solution from a concentrated solution until the concentration in both is uniform is called osmosis. They also noted that if pressure was added to the extreme contaminant solution, this natural flow maybe reversed. Conventional pre-treatment-Conventional treatment consists of the following unit processes: coagulation, flocculation, clarification, and filtration, and is typically followed by disinfection at full-scale.

Ultrafiltration-A simple procedure called "low pressure" ultrafiltration permits the clarification and disinfection of water in a very single step. A membrane barrier acts such as  a filter for all particles over 10-20 nm in size: pollen, algae, bacteria, viruses, germs and organic molecules.

Pharmaceutical chemistry is the study of medicine, and it involves drug development. Pharmaceutical chemistry involves cures and remedies for disease, analytical techniques, pharmacology, metabolism, quality assurance, and drug chemistry.Pharmaceutical chemistry also includes other branches of study such as pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and drug metabolism. These are important for learning the consequences that drugs possess the body. By discovering and structurally characterizing compounds with medicative activity, chemists’ surface measure ready to style new medicine with increased efficiency and shrivelled adverse side effects.

The transition metals are the metallic elements that mean a bridge, or transition, between the two sides of the table. They have partially filled d orbitals.

Properties of transition metals:

• Metals almost all: HARD, STRONG, High melting and boiling point
• Conduct heat & electricity
• Form Alloys
• Show variable oxidation states
• Form paramagnetic species as a result of partially filed shells.

Most transition metals form also one oxidation state. Transition metals demonstrate a wide range of chemical behaviours. Some transition metals are strong reducing agents, whereas others have very low reactivity. The elements titanium, manganese, zirconium, vanadium, and chromium too have abundances in more than of 100 grams (3.5 ounces) per ton. Some of the most important and useful transition elements have very low crustal abundances—e.g., tungsten, platinum, gold, and silver.

Osmosis is a phenomenon during which a solvent (usually water) passes through a semipermeable barrier from the side with lower solute concentration to the acute solute concentration side. To reverse the flow of water (solvent), a pressure difference greater than the pressure difference is applied as a result, separation of water from the compound occurs as pure water flows from the high concentration to the low concentration. Reverse osmosis membrane separations are governed by the properties of the membrane utilized in the procedure. These properties based on the chemical nature of the membrane material (almost always a polymer) as well as its physical structure. Membranes occupy through a selective separation wall. Certain substances can pass through the membrane, while other substances are caught.Membrane filtration is used as another flocculation, sediment purification techniques, adsorption, extraction and distillation. The choice of membrane depends upon the nature of the input of water and it is essential to be able to use the most suitable one in any particular set of circumstances.

Water desalination processes separate dissolved salts and other minerals from water. Membrane separation requires driving forces including pressure (applied and vapour), electric phenomenon, and concentration to control natural osmotic pressures and effectively force water through membrane processes. The cost is extremely high and so it can’t be afforded by everyone who needs it, but because the desalinisation technology is improving fast, so the prices are getting down to fall, making it more cost effective to countries and islands that required it. Desalination techniques are being developed on a far smaller scale. Portable desalination kits are a prime example. Desalination is becoming more economically viable as the technology improves. Desalination plants may be provided in a very wide range of outputs to cater for little amount of isolated communities or to contribute substantially to water supplies for big cities and even for irrigation.

Water is widely utilized in industry, whether it’s encountered as raw water, process water or waste water. As GDP increases, so will industrial water consumption. The industrial sector is that the second highest user of water after agriculture. India’s annual water withdrawals were about 500 billion metric capacity units and also the Indian industry consumed about 10 billion cubic meter of water as process water and 30 billion cubic meters as cooling water. Composition of natural waters changes because the processes of oxidation and reduction, blending of waters with different compositions, temperature alterations, precipitation, bacterial self-purification, and other natural factors. Three main approaches may be indicated in development of water supply systems:

• Through flow
• Circulating (closed type water supply)
• Mixed

The first approach is characterized by great expenditure of fresh water and waste water is fully directed to the hydro graphic system. This approach was typical of all manufacturing industry during the primary 1/2 of the 20^th century and resulted in exhaustion of a number of water sources. The system of industrial water supply includes:

1. Preparation of source water to be used in technological processes;
2. Collection and treatment of industrial waste water with the aim of purification and further utilization in water circulation systems or their disposal in the open hydro graphic network;
3. Industrial and drinking water supply.

The alcohols are widely used as solvents and as intermediates for the synthesis of more complex substances. The simple ethers, ROR, don’t have 0-H bonds, and most of their reactions are limited to the substituent groups. When alcohols react with a hydrogen halide, a substitution takes place producing an organic compound and water. Alcohol is converted into alkyl halide the reaction is carried in the presence of acid and halide ions and not at elevated temperatures. Halide ions are good nucleophiles and since halide ions are present in high concentration, most of the carbonations react with an electron pair of a halide ion to form a more stable species, the alkyl halide product. The overall result is an SN1 reaction.

Nomenclature of Alkyl Halides, alcohols and ethers:

• Common Nomenclature
• Substitutive nomenclature

Ethanol reacts very slowly with methyl iodide to forms methyl ether, but sodium ethoxide in ethanol solution reacts quite rapidly. In fact, the reaction of alkoxides with alkyl halides or alkyl sulphates is an important general method for the preparation of ethers, and is known as the Williamson synthesis.

Spectroscopic properties of alcohol:

• Nucleophilic Properties. Ether Formation
• Biological redox reactions
• Williamson ether synthesis

Medicinal chemistry in its universal practice—focusing on small organic molecules—encompasses synthetic chemistry and aspects of natural products and computational chemistry in close combination with chemical biology, enzymology and structural biology, together aiming at the finding and development of recent therapeutic agents. This sector includes chemicals utilized in kind of industries for e.g.  Selenium dioxide as oxidising agent in preparation of API's selenium sulphide for antidandruff shampoos, sodium selenite anhydrous and pentahydrate in animal feed formulations. Discovery is that the identification of novel active chemical compounds, often called "hits", which are typically found by assay of compounds for a desired biological activity. Initial hits can come from repurposing existing agents towards an advanced pathological process. Hit to lead and lead optimization. This involves the optimization of the synthetic route for bulk industrial production, and discovery of the all most all suitable drug formulation. Organic and inorganic chemicals are raw materials, serving as reactants, reagents, catalysts and solvents. The use of industry chemicals is decided by the specific manufacturing process and operations.

Geochemistry is that the branch of global Science that applies chemical principles to deepen an understanding of the globe system and systems of other planets.  Because radioactive isotopes decay at measurable and constant rates (e.g., half-life) that are proportional to the number of radioactive atoms remaining in the sample, analysis of rocks and minerals can also provide reasonably accurate determinations of the age of the formations in which they are found. Geochemistry generally concerns the study of the distribution and cycling of elements with in the crust of the planet. Oxygen is the most abundant element on Earth. The eight most common elements found on Earth, by weight, are oxygen (O), silicon (Si), aluminium (Al), iron (Fe), calcium (CA), sodium (Na), potassium (K), and magnesium (Mg). Except in acid or siliceous igneous rocks containing greater than 66% of silica, called as felsic rocks, quartz isn’t abundant in igneous rocks.

• Felsic, intermediate and mafic igneous rocks
• Geochemistry of trace metals in the ocean
• Mineral constitution
• Formation of minerals to molecular interactions

Colloid and Surface Chemistry is to develop discovery, scholarship, and innovation in colloid, surface, interface, and nanomaterial’s chemistry as pursued by a worldwide and multidisciplinary scientific community. The term dispersion is generally used as a synonym of colloidal system. Colloid chemistry deals with matter in a state of very fine subdivision in which each particle has a high surface/volume ratio. The principles of surface chemistry therefore largely govern the special properties of colloids. The surface tension of a liquid can be defined as the work which must be performed to produce 1 sq.cm of new surface at constant temperature. Surface tension refers to the gas (usually air)/ liquid interface, the work required to produce 1 sq.cm of new surface at a liquid/liquid interface is usually termed the interfacial tension of the pair of liquids. Static surface tension - As a rule the fluid dispersions (emulsions, foams) are stabilized by adsorption layers of amphiphile molecules. These can be ionic and non-ionic surfactants, lipids, proteins, etc. All of them have the property to lower the service of the surface (or interfacial) tension, s, in accordance with the Gibbs adsorption equation. If the surface of an equilibrium surfactant solution is disturbed (expanded, compressed, renewed, etc.), the system will try to restore the equilibrium by exchange of surfactant between the surface and the subsurface layer (adsorption–desorption). The change of the surfactant concentration in the subsurface layer triggers a diffusion flux in the solution.

Inorganic chemistry deals with the properties and reactivity of all chemical elements. Chemistry Conferences advanced interests concentrate on understanding the role of metals in biology and also the environment, the planning and properties of materials for energy and details, fundamental studies on the nanotechnology.Key topics in the field of inorganic chemistry includes Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry, Basic (General) Types of Inorganic Chemistry Reactions, Chemistry of Inorganic Compounds, Geochemistry, Extraction (incl. Mining) of Inorganic Chemicals, Bioinorganic Chemistry, Synthetic, Industrial Chemistry. Inorganic Chemistry Topics identifiable from the Periodic Table include-

• Groups I and II
• Group III
•  Group IV
• Group V
• Group VI
• Group VII
• Transition Metals

Study of the structure, nomenclature, occurrence, synthesis and reactions of aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids and their derivatives. The -OH group is the only group attached to a benzene ring is a phenol. Aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids are a few of the important classes of organic compounds containing carbonyl group. These are highly polar molecules. Therefore, they boil at higher temperatures than the hydrocarbons and weakly polar compounds such as ethers of comparable molecular masses The -OH group of phenols allows these molecules to form hydrogen bonds with one another. An organic compound with multiple amine groups is termed a di-amine, tri-amine, tetra-amine, build on the quantity of amine groups (also called amino groups) attached to the molecule. The formula for methylene di-amine (also called diaminomethane), as an example, would be as follows: H2N-CH2-NH2. Aldehydes and ketones are the best and most significant carbonyl compounds. There are two systems of nomenclature;

1. Common Names 
2. IUPAC Names.

Some important methods for the preparation of aldehydes and ketones are as follows:

1. by oxidation of alcohols
2. by dehydrogenation of alcohols
3. from hydrocarbons

The relationship between stereochemistry and spin state has led us to formulate simple rules to predict the geometries of 4 & 6 -coordinated transition metals. The reason that isomers are so important in drug design is that normally, just one particular isomer is effective in treating the condition. The branch of chemistry that is concerned with the spatial arrangements of atoms in molecules and with chemical and physical effects of these arrangements. There are two geometric isomers possible for this composition: Cis and Trans. The facial isomer gets its name because all three chlorides are coordinated on one face of the octahedron. The merisomer (short for "meridional“) has the three chloride ions coordinated in an exceedingly that has the metal ion.

Boiling water treatment: 

Water treatment is used to optimize most water-based industrial processes, for example heating, cooling, processing, cleaning, and rinsing so operating costs and risks are reduced. Steam boilers can proportion or corrode, and these deposits will mean more fuel is required to heat a similar amount of water.

• Corrosion production
•  Production of high quality steam

External treatment:Is reduction or removal of impurities from water outside the boiler. In general, external treatment is utilized when the quantity of 1 or more of the feed water impurities is just too high to be tolerated by the boiler system.

Internal treatment: To react with incoming feed water hardness and prevent it from precipitating on the boiler metal as scale. To condition any suspended matter such as hardness sludge in the boiler and make it non-adherent to the boiler metal.

Cooling water treatment:

Water is utilized as extensively as a highly efficient coolant in many commercial, manufacturing and technical process activities where cooling is required.  The water treatment of cooling towers is an integral a part of process operations in many industries, with the chance of productivity and products quality being adversely stricken by scale,corrosion, fouling and microbiological contamination. In general, a basic cooling water treatment system typically includes some kind of:

• Clarification
• Filtration and/or ultrafiltration
• Ion exchange/softening
•  Chemical feed
• Automated monitoring

Green water treatment:

Green water is most effectively removed by utilizing a UV Clarifier in conjunction with a filter, however sometimes you would like to provide things a boost by using an extra pond treatment. The following are some tried-and-true methods add plants ,Water Treatments, Fish Feeding, Green Water Control: Ultraviolet (UV) Clarifiers, String Algae Control: Hose, Hand, or Net, Consider water dyes to direct UV rays coming from sun. 

 Waste Water Treatment:

The principal objective of wastewater treatment is usually to permit human and industrial effluents to be disposed of without danger to human health or unacceptable damage to the natural environment. Biological waste treatment plants use biological matter and bacteria to smash down waste material. Physical waste treatment plants use chemical reactions also physical processes to treat wastewater. The following could be a step by step process of how 

• Wastewater Collection-Collection system is put in location by municipal administrations, to confirm waste water is collected and directed to a central point.
• Odour Control-Wastewater:contains a lot of dirty substances that cause a foul smell over time.

Industrial Chemistry is the branch of chemistry which applies physical and chemical processes both towards the transformation of raw materials into products that are of benefit to humans. The main areas of research and teaching are on the catalyst and process development, mechanical and thermal unit operations and process of chemical change engineering. It enables efficient production of basic, intermediate and end products. Industrial chemistry is a component of the long chain in the design and manufacturing process. Industrial chemists affect the ideas, the planning, the testing, and prototyping of latest industrial products. In order to plan something entirely new help solve the major problems of the planet their essential skills are, in-depth knowledge and application of chemistry and creativity with chemicals.

 In a general sense, industrial chemists are involved in:

Food manufacturing accounted for $738.5 billion (12.9 %) of all U.S. manufacturing shipments in 2012, while beverages and tobacco products accounted for $142.5 billion (2.5 %). Combined, these industries accounted for $881 billion (15.4 %), forming the largest single industry within the manufacturing sector. Food & beverage producers are constantly looking for production optimization while achieving the highest levels of quality and compliance. The beverage manufacturing industry is made up of establishments that make either alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages .The output of these industries is predominantly sold directly to consumers, so most people have an intuitive understanding of the processes and products associated with these manufacturers. Applications include Drinking water treatment, Boiler water treatment, Cooling water treatment, Ingredient water treatment, Corn wet milling, Gelatine Concentration, Juice processing, de-alcoholization, Whey protein concentration, Brine Clarification. It faces a confluence of challenges such as climate change, changes in food supply and demand, and imbalances in the governance of food production systems, food price volatility and food security.

A clear trend exists towards diets that include more animal products for example fish, meat and dairy products, which in order to increase the demand for feed grains (FAO, 2007). There is also a growing use of agricultural products, particularly grains& oil crops as bioenergy production feedstock. The role of agriculture with in the process of development has been reappraised & re-valued from the specific view of its contribution to industrialization & its importance for harmonious development, political & economic stability. Agro-industry the processing, preservation and preparation of agricultural production for intermediate and final consumption, performs a spread of crucial functions that support development and poverty alleviation. There are a number of methods classifying agro-based industries. According to the International Standard Classification (ISIC) agro-industry consists of: -

• Food and beverages
• Tobacco products;
• Paper and wood products
• Textiles, footwear and apparel
• Lather products
• Rubber products.

One of the most effective and well-developed environmental applications of nanotechnology has been in water remediation & treatment where different nanomaterial can help purify water through different mechanisms including adsorption of heavy metals & other pollutants, removal & inactivation of pathogens & transformation of toxic materials into less toxic compounds It highlights the uses of nanotechnology to purify water, including separation and reactive media for water filtration. Nano materials and nanoparticles to be used in water bioremediation and disinfection.

1. Silver: As a good antimicrobial agent, silver nanoparticles have been widely used for the disinfection of water.
2. Iron: various zero-valent metal nanoparticles, like Fe, Zn, Al, and Ni, in water pollution treatment have drawn wide research interest. Compared with Fe, Ni contains a less negative standard reduction potential, indicating a lower reducing ability.Therefore, zero-valent iron nanoparticles are the foremost extensively studied zero-valent metal nanoparticles.
3. TiO2: Owing to its high highly efficient and pragmatic photo catalysis, photo catalytic activity, reasonable price, photo stability, and chemical and biological stability TiO2 is the most exceptional photo catalyst yet. The large band gap energy of TiO2 requires ultraviolet (UV) illumination to induce charge separation within the particles.
4. ZNo:  ZnO NPs are environment-friendly as they’re compatible with organisms, which make them suitable for the treatment of water & wastewater. Besides, the photo catalytic capability of ZnO NPs is comparable to it of TiO2 NPs because their band gap energies are almost the identical.

A lead compound is usually defined as a latest chemical entity that could potentially be developed into a latest drug by optimizing its beneficial effects and minimizing its side effects. The method by which a drug is delivered can have a crucial effect on its efficacy. Attempts are being made to develop, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, interferon-alpha, and antibodies, due to problems with fundamental technologies for protein drug discovery. Liquid dispersions & additionally nanoparticle dispersions consisting of small particles of 10–400 nm diameter show great promise as drug delivery systems. Lead discovery includes -

• Choosing disease and drug target.
• Identifying a bioassay.
• Finding a lead compound.
• Isolation and purification.
• Structure determination
• SAR(Structure Activity Relationship)
• Identification of pharmacophore.

It is fusion of traditional and modern medicine or system or reductionist thinking. The difference between something personalized and participatory medicine. The truth is that modern medicine is desperately apart from new treatments. It takes years for a brand new drug to get through the research and development pipeline to manufacture and the cost is enormous. 74 per cent of U.S.A medical students believe that western medicine would benefit by integrating traditional or alternative therapies and practices.  Example –Artemisinin, which is extracted from Artemisia Annua or Chinese sweet wormwood, is the basis for the most effective malaria drugs the world has ever seen. There are many examples of traditional remedies used by people. Willow bark was used to treat headaches and fever. Quinine was used to treat malaria.

Petro chemistry is a part of chemistry that studies the transformation of petroleum and gas into useful products and raw materials for chemical products. Main ingredients of these fossil material sources are especially aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, which are processed in petrochemical plants.  Over a lot of  years, natural changes in organic materials have produced petroleum which has accumulated under the earth’s surface. Petroleum rich areas are generally found in regions that support retention, such as porous sandstones. Crude oils Average composition rates are 84% carbon, 14% hydrogen, 1%-3% sulphur, &less than1% each of nitrogen, oxygen, metals and salts. Depending on the sulphur content crude oils are either categorized as sweet or sour. A process called fractional distillation separates crude oil into various segments. Fractions at the top have lower boiling points than fractions at the bottom. The bottom fractions are heavy & are thus "cracked" into lighter and more useful products. There are problems relating to the increasing scarcity of workable hydrocarbon deposits.

Ultra-pure water contains by definition only H20 (H+ and OH-) ions in equilibrium. Ultrapure water conductivity is about 0,054 us/cm at 25oC, also expressed as resistivity of 18, 3 MOhm. Ultrapure water production often must be done in 2 steps. For example, from valve water or fresh groundwater, the water should first be demineralized by membrane filtration or ion natural process to achieve the subsequent conductivity of 10 us/cm. The demineralized water is then processed through a high performance Mixed Bed or by Electrodionisation. Ultra-pure water is principally utilized in the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industry. Because of the continuing miniaturisation in the semiconductor industry, the specifications become stricter annually. Ultrapure water is too utilized in the production of flat panel displays and photovoltaic panels and pharmaceutical industry. It’s critical for injection and for cleaning process equipment. The power industry is up to now user, employing ultrapure water to produce feed water for steam boilers. The pressure membrane technologies of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, Nano filtration and reverse osmosis are the all most all versatile and, hence, most extensively used while the lynchpin of most ultrapure water production systems. In particular, membrane technologies possess certain properties that make them unique when collate to other water treatment technologies. These include:

• Continuous process, resulting in automatic and uninterrupted operation
• Low energy utilization involving neither phase nor temperature changes
• Modular design-no significant size limitations
•  Minimal moving parts with low maintenance requirements

Photochemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the chemical effects of sun light. For the industrial chemist, photochemistry is simply one of the many the various means of manufacturing chemical compounds or bringing them into reaction. What is going on in a chemical reaction the study of chemical reactions, isomerization and physical behaviour that may occur under the influence of visible and/or ultraviolet light is called Photochemistry. However, it has some advantages over thermal, catalytic and other methods that immediately fascinate him. These include:
(1) Selective activation of individual reactants,
(2) Specific reactivity of electronically excited molecules,
(3) Low thermal load on the reaction system.
The main aim of preparative photochemistry is to reduce manufacturing costs for chemical products by introducing photochemical steps in the syntheses. Important applications have been also found in U.K.-curable paints, primers, and printing inks.

(4) Photo stabilizers are primarily used in plastics and man-made fibers. Photochemistry is a key tool in both the manufacturing and also the use of latest cars. Radiation curing is worn as an extra efficient, economically and ecologically attractive technology for the coating and bonding a large number of the parts used in a car, and avoiding degradation of the coating caused by photo induced processes during the foreseen service time may be s a key issue. Solar energy conversion in photo reaction and photo chemistry in electronics are the various techniques in photo chemistry equivalent to the manufacturing chemistry.

There’s a reason the “organo” comes first in “organometallic chemistry”—our goal is generally the creation of recent bonds in organic compounds. The metals tend to simply be along for the ride (although their influence, obviously, is essential). And the fact is that you can do things with organometallic chemistry that you just cannot do using straight-up chemical science. Metal-organic compounds are a class of chemical compounds that contain metals and organic ligands, which confer solubility in organic solvents or volatility. Metal coordination complexes of organic ligands, e.g., metal acetylacetonates, lakesides. Many complex feature coordination bonds between a metal& organic ligands. The organic ligands often bind the metal through a heteroatom e.g. oxygen/nitrogen, during in which case such compounds are considered coordination compounds. Organometallic compounds undergo several important reactions.

• Oxidative addition and reductive elimination
• Transmetalation
• Carbometalation
• Hydrometalation
• Electron transfer
• Beta-hydride eliminatio
• Organometallic substitution reaction
• Carbon-hydrogen bond activation
• Cyclometalation
• Nucleophilic abstraction

A branch of chemistry that deals with the identification of compounds and mixtures (qualitative analysis) or the determination of the proportions of the constituents (quantitative analysis): techniques commonly used are titration, precipitation, spectroscopy, chromatography, etc. The importance of it is due to its ability to check the quality of foods, drugs and other chemicals which we use in daily life. Most chemists routinely make qualitative and quantitative measurements. For this reason, some scientists suggest that analytical chemistry isn’t a separate branch of chemistry, but simply the request of chemical knowledge. In fact, you may be having performed quantitative and qualitative analyses in other chemistry courses.  Analytical chemistry as the requisition of chemical knowledge ignores the unique perspective that analytical chemists bring back the study of chemistry.

Electrochemistry is defined as the branch of chemistry that examines the phenomena resulting from combined chemical and electrical effects that cause electrons to move. It refers to electrochemical processes involving electron transfer to or from a molecule or ion changing its oxidation position. The loss of electrons from an atom or molecule is termed as oxidation, and also the gain of electrons is reduction. A reaction is categorized as oxidation and reduction depending on the direction of electron transfer. The principles of cells are wont to make electrical batteries. In science and technology, battery could be a device that stores energy and makes it available in an electrical form. Electrochemistry is too vital through a broad range of important technological applications. For example, batteries are important not only in storing energy for mobile devices and vehicles, but also for load levelling to enable the use of renewable energy conversion technologies. This field covers -
Electrolytic processes – Reactions during which chemical changes occur on the passage of an electrical current.
Galvanic or voltaic processes - Chemical reactions that results in the production of electrical energy. Large number of chemicals available in the market but electrochemical synthesis of chemicals has been limited to a narrow spectrum. The reasons for this are  previously attributed to a lag in the education of chemists and engineers in electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering, a shortage of suitable resources for cell construction, and most importantly the prohibitive costs involved (in many cases) in electrochemical synthesis. However, over the past 40 years, there have been significant developments in electrochemical synthesis and methods3 due to the advances in materials science and nanotechnology, the development of in-situ spectroscopy techniques and progress in multi-scale modelling. As a result, it’s timely to revisit some industrial electrochemical processes and to introduce for example new economic opportunities for the electrochemical manufacturing of chemicals.