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Chemical Manufacturing

Chemical Manufacturing map

Map showing location of U.S. facilities in this sector; please click on the map to see a larger version.

Sector Profile

Chemical manufacturing creates products by transforming organic and inorganic raw materials with chemical processes. Chemicals generally are classified into two groups: commodity chemicals and specialty chemicals. Commodity chemical manufacturers produce large quantities of basic and relatively inexpensive compounds in large plants, often built specifically to make one chemical. Commodity plants often run continuously, typically shutting down only a few weeks a year for maintenance.

Specialty-batch or performance chemical manufacturers produce smaller quantities of more expensive chemicals on an "as needed" basis that are used less frequently. Often there is only one or a limited number of suppliers producing a given product. In contrast to the production of commodity chemicals, batch manufacturing requires that the raw materials, processes, operating conditions, and equipment change on a regular basis to respond to the needs of customers.

Demographics

There are approximately 13,500 chemical manufacturing facilities in the United States owned by more than 9,000 companies. Facilities are located all over the country, with many companies in Texas, Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas. The specialty-batch chemical sector is composed primarily of small companies, with more than 89 percent employing 500 or fewer employees. The chemical industry is an essential contributor to the U.S. economy, with shipments valued at about $555 billion per year.

Environmental Impact

The Chemical sector produces a multitude of environmental impacts. It is one of the largest users of natural gas, which is required for energy and as a feedstock. The sector emitted more than 1.5 million tons of criteria air pollutants, of which more than 80 percent were carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) (NEI, 2002). Nearly half of these emissions are energy related. The Chemical sector also manages a huge amount of chemicals that are reported to EPA's Toxic Release Inventory. About 5 percent of the more than 10 billion pounds of chemicals managed are disposed of or otherwise released to air and water, while the rest goes to treatment, energy recovery, and recycling.

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Performance Data and Trends for this Sector

You can find recent data and trends for this sector in the Chemical Manufacturing chapter of the 2008 Performance Report (PDF) (10 pp, 1MB, About PDF).

The performance trends for the specialty-batch chemical sector are highlighted in the most recent Sector Strategies Performance Report.

The Chemical Manufacturing chapter in the report, Energy Trends in Selected Manufacturing Sectors: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmentally Preferable Energy Outcomes (PDF) (12 pp, 316K, About PDF), outlines the trends and opportunities in energy use for this sector.

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EPA Sector Strategies Activities

The Sector Strategies Program is working with the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA), the American Chemistry Council (ACC), and other stakeholders of the Chemical Manufacturing sector to assess opportunities to improve environmental performance while supporting the chemical industry. The program's work focuses on assisting with regulatory compliance issues and promoting environmental management systems and other voluntary programs.

The Sector Strategies Program has compiled the Compendium of Chemical Tools, a collection of Chemical Manufacturing sector work, information on other relevant government programs, and a wide range of sector-related tools. The compendium contains reports and other documents, meeting summaries, programs, information about chemical-focused trade associations and state organizations, and links to other relevant web sites.

Compliance Assistance

Environmental Management Systems

An environmental management system (EMS) enables manufacturing facilities to achieve improvements in environmental, health, and safety performance beyond government-required levels. The EMS Implementation Guide for the Specialty-Batch Chemical Manufacturing Industry was jointly developed by the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA) and EPA's Sector Strategies Program. The EMS Guide is an important tool to help batch chemical facilities meet Responsible Care Management Systems standards and will be the first step for many facilities that do not have a process in place to weave environmental decision making and improvement into their daily processes and business planning.

Voluntary Programs

Voluntary programs are an important component of the Sector Strategies Program’s ongoing efforts to work with industry sectors to address environmental challenges. The Voluntary Programs Guide: Specialty-Batch Chemical Sector was conceived to address industry partners’ assertion that targeted tools were needed to help facilities and companies choose the right voluntary program for themselves. The 2004 guide is divided into two sections. The first section contains one-page summaries of programs designed for individual companies or facilities from twelve voluntary programs across EPA offices, and are organized by topic area. The second section summarizes four additional voluntary programs that may be of broader interest to the specialty-batch chemical sector as a whole. An appendix to this document presents more detailed information on all 16 programs.

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Resources

Trade Associations

Key Documents

Sector-related Links

Compendium of Chemical Tools is a collection of Chemical Manufacturing Sector work.

Industry Sector Notebooks

EPA Sector Contacts

Headquarters
Jan Gilbreath
Chemical Sector Lead, EPA Sector Strategies Program
Tel: (202) 564-6279
E-mail: Jan Gilbreath (gilbreath.jan@epa.gov)

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