Chemical Industry: Challenges and Opportunities in the Era of AI

Introduction

The Indian Chemical industry produces more than 80,000 commercial products. The country’s chemical compounds manufactured is diversified and broadly classified into bulk chemicals, specialty chemicals, agrochemicals, polymers, and fertilizers. Currently, India is the global fourth-largest producer of agrochemicals and accounts for about 16% of the world's production of dyestuffs and dye intermediates. The global market share of the Indian colorants industry is about 15%. Specialty chemicals constitute 22% of the total chemicals and petro-chemicals market in India.

The country’s chemical industry is delicensed with an exception for a few hazardous chemicals. India holds a strong position in chemical compounds exports and imports in the world, ranking 14th in exports and 8th in imports. Proximity to the Middle East, the world’s source of petrochemical feedstock enables the country's economic benefits.

As per government data, the Indian chemical industry is worth USD 178 billion in 2019 and it is projected to grow to USD 304 billion in 2025. The compound annual growth rate of 9.3% will draw investments of ₹8 lakh crore by 2025. The specialty chemical industry is expected to grow to USD 64 billion by 2025.

The sector of chemical manufacturing facilities

The chemical manufacturing sector involves the manufacturers in converting raw materials into thousands of types of products, including basic chemicals used by other manufacturers for processing the end chemical product. Along with a few chemical compound examples, the chemical manufacturing sector is sub-divided into the following facilities.

Basic chemicals facilities produce chemicals by basic processes such as thermal cracking and distillation of petrochemical, industrial gases, synthetic dyes and pigments, and other organic and inorganic chemicals such as cyclic hydrocarbons, acyclic hydrocarbons, and caustic soda.
Coatings and Adhesives facilities mix pigments, solvents, and binders into paints, manufacture paint products such as paint remover and thinners, and manufacture adhesives, glues, and caulking compounds.
Resins and synthetic rubber facilities manufacture resins, plastic materials, synthetic rubber, fibers, and filaments.
Cleaning and Personal care products facilities manufacture esters, polyquaternium, polymers, surfactants, mild surfactants, and chelants.
Pesticides and fertilizers: Pesticides facilities manufacture herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, and nitrogen, phosphate, and potash are essential fertilizers manufactured.
Pharmaceuticals facilities involve in processing organic and inorganic raw materials into chemical products and producing pharmaceutical raw materials.
Other chemical products small and medium facilities manufacture powder emulsion, toluene, acetaldehyde, N-Hexane, butadiene, ethylene, IGETABOND™, Solvent-grade mixed xylenes, ammonia, nitrates, chlorides, etc.

Chemical Properties of Organic Compounds

Carbon compounds are also called organic compounds. Organic compounds have played a pivotal role in input provision for other industries of paints, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, dyestuffs, intermediates, etc. Produced in India, the major basic organic compounds are methanol, aniline, phenol, formaldehyde, acetic acid, and phenol-formaldehyde.

Table 1: Chemical Properties of Organic Compounds

Details	Methanol	Aniline	Phenol	Formaldehyde	Acetic Acid	Phenol-Formaldehyde
Chemical formula	CH3OH or CH4O	C6H7N	C6H6O	CH2O	CH3COOH	C8H6O2
Molar mass (g/mol)	32.04	93.13	94.113	30.03	60.052 l	134.13
Appearance	Colorless liquid	Colorless liquid	Transparent crystalline solid	Colorless gas	Colorless liquid	Hard and rigid with a smooth and lustrous surface
Odor	Sweet and pungent	Pungent	Sweet and tarry	Pungent	Heavily vinegar-like	Amber-colored
Density	0.792 g/cm3	1.0297 g/cm3	1.07 g/cm3	0.8153 g/cm3 (−20 °C)(liquid)	1.049 g/cm3 (liquid); 1.27 g/cm3 (solid)	1.2–1.4 g/cm3
Melting point	−97.6 °C	−6.30 °C	40.5 °C	−92 °C	16 to 17 °C	70-85˚C
Boiling point	64.7 °C	184.13 °C	181.7 °C	−19 °C	118 to 119 °C	181.8 °C
Solubility in water	Miscible	3.6 g/100 mL at 20 °C	8.3 g/100 mL (20 °C)	400 g/L	Miscible	dissolve after heating for 10 min at 120°C and insoluble at 140°C
Vapor pressure	13.02 kPa (at 20 °C)	0.6 mmHg (20° C)[2]	0.4 mmHg (20 °C)	> 1 atm	11.6 mmHg (20 °C)	-
Acidity (pKa)	15.5	4.63	9.95 (in water), 18.0 (in DMSO), 29.1 (in acetonitrile)	13.27 (hydrate)	4.756	8.5 to 12.7
Conjugate acid	Methyloxonium	H2O	-	-	-	-
Conjugate base	Methanolate	-	Phenoxide	-	Acetate	-
Magnetic susceptibility (χ)	−21.40·10−6 cm3/mol	−62.95·10−6 cm3/mol	-	−18.6·10−6 cm3/mol	-31.54·10−6 cm3/mol	-
Refractive index (nD)	1.33141	1.58364	1.5408 at 41 °C	2.330	1.371	1.57-1.59
Viscosity	0.545 mPa·s (at 25 °C)	3.71 cP (3.71 mPa·s at 25 °C)	3.437 mPas at 50 °C to 1.099 mPas at 100 °C	0.1421 cP at 25 °C	1.22 mPa s	20 to 100 cP
Dipole moment	1.69 D	-	1.224 D	-	1.74 D	-

Chemical Compounds List and Formulas

Chemical compounds list and their formulas are listed below:

Table 2: Chemical compounds list and formulas

Chemical Compound name	Chemical formula
Caustic soda (Paint stripper)	NaOH
Methyl Ethyl Ketone (thinner)	C4H8O
N-methyl-pyrrolidone (drug solubilizer and penetration enhancer)	C5H9NO
Dichloromethane (an ingredient in paint remover)	CH2Cl2.
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (plastic resin)	(C5O2H8)n
Polychloroprene (synthetic rubber)	CH2=CCl−CH=CH2
Phosphate	PO₄³⁻
Potash	K2SO4.Al2(SO4)3
2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (herbicide)	C8H6Cl2O3
Acetaldehyde	CH3CHO
Polyacrylamide (soil conditioner)	-CH2CHCONH2-

Chemical compound manufacturers

India ranks 6th in the world in chemical sales contributing 3% to the global chemical industry. The market size of the chemical industry in India stood at USD 180 billion in 2020. Here is the list of the top chemical compound manufacturers in India.

1.UPL Limited

UPL Limited is majorly engaged in the agro-business of production and sale of agrochemicals, crops and seeds, and non-agro products sale of industrial chemicals, chemical intermediates, and specialty chemicals. The company and its subsidiaries provide a sustainable solution for seeds, crop protection, plant stress, and stimulation, post-harvest, soil and water technologies, and aquatics catering to region-specific demands.

2. Coromandel International Limited

Operating over a network of 750rural retail outlets across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka, Coromandel International Limited offers plant nutrients and crop protection solutions including fertilizer, crop protection, bio-pesticides, specialty nutrients, and Organic fertilizer. and farming services including crop advisory, soil testing, and farm mechanization to around 3 million farmers.

3.Tata Chemicals Ltd

Tata Chemicals Ltd operates through two verticals- basic chemistry and specialty chemistry. Key products in the inorganic basic chemistry solutions are:

Alkali products: soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, caustic soda, and crushed refined soda
Halogen products: chlorine-based products and bromine-based products
Salt products: industrial salt, livestock salt, animal salt, and gypsum

The company's facilities in specialty chemistry include crop protection and agri-input solutions, nutritional solutions, prebiotics, sugar alternatives, higher dispersible silica, precipitated silica, silica dispersion, nano-zinc oxide, and lithium-ion cells.

4. Pidilite Industries Ltd

Pidilite Industries Ltd is a pioneer in adhesives, sealants, waterproofing solutions, and construction chemicals to arts & crafts, industrial resins, and polymers in India. Adhesive and waterproofing brands including Fevicol, Fevikwik, M-Seal, and Dr. Fixit are market leaders.

5. Aarti Industries Limited

Aarti Industries Limited is one of the most competitive benzene-based specialty chemical companies and pharmaceuticals in the world. The company uses feedstock materials such as benzene, toluene, nitric acid, chlorine, methanol, aniline sulfur, etc., to create a highly integrated value chain. It is the sole manufacturer of nitro fluoro aromatics using the Halex process and the only manufacturer of the Phlyenediamines (PDA) value chain in India.

Challenges and Opportunities of the Chemical industry in the era of AI

The chemical industry is facing innumerable challenges from all directions in which the chemical industry is continuously investing efforts to balance demand and supply alongside maintaining production, promoting novel developments, and new areas of exploration while maintaining minimal effects on nature. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is accepted and broadly used by chemists to perform various tasks. The use of AI will accelerate drug discovery and efficiently cuts down the effort to market new drugs. So far, AI has made significant progress toward pharmaceutical discovery attempts in the R&D sector. AI can help chemists in molecule property prediction, molecule design, retrosynthesis, reaction outcome prediction, reaction conditions prediction, and chemical reaction optimization.

AI technologies in other sectors of the chemical industry will advance to predicting product quality grade, optimizing yield, implementing predictive maintenance, producing more accurate forecasts, improving health and safety compliance, boosting new product development, and employing data analytics to analyze carbon-out.

Conclusion

The chemical industry is a major growth industry that contributes sufficiently to the economic benefits of India. The role of chemical compounds manufacturers is to convert raw materials into thousands of types of products, including basic chemicals used by other manufacturers for processing the end chemical product. The chemical industry will recognize the best technology to drive efficiency between production and the environment and this include using Artificial Intelligence

FAQs: Chemical Industry

Q. What will be AI's influence on the chemical industry?

Ans. AI in the chemical industry will effectively control the production process, optimize processing, heighten production efficiency, and reduce environmental burden.