Chemical Production Figures for the USA

Top 50 Chemicals

Billions of lb (pounds)
Chemical		1995	1994	1993	1992	1991	1990

Sulfuric acid		95.36	89.63	78.70	89.72	85.62	88.09
Nitrogen		68.04	63.91	57.39	60.51	57.03	56.23
Oxygen			53.48	50.08	45.28	43.46	38.99	40.48
Ethylene		46.97	44.60	40.02	40.92	39.96	36.47
Lime			41.23	38.37	37.25	35.71	33.60	34.90
Ammonia			35.60	34.51	33.72	36.59	34.04	33.59
Phosphoric acid		26.19	25.58	23.03	25.58	24.68	24.07
Sodium hydroxide	26.19	25.11	24.93	24.50	24.39	24.06
Propylene		25.69	23.94	21.47	23.42	21.55	21.85
Chlorine		25.09	24.37	23.91	23.51	22.65	23.62
Sodium Carbonate	22.28	20.56	19.80	20.84	20.50	20.18
Methyl tert-butylether	17.62	13.61	12.90	10.88	9.57	8.88
Ethylene dichloride	17.26	16.76	17.95	15.15	13.71	13.85
Nitric acid		17.24	17.22	16.51	16.09	15.05	16.00
Ammonium nitrate	15.99	17.03	16.51	15.66	14.62	14.16
Benzene			15.97	15.27	12.32	11.98	11.78	12.45
Urea			15.59	15.90	16.57	17.53	16.27	16.43
Vinyl chloride		14.98	13.85	14.22	11.31	11.14	10.63
Ethylbenzene		13.66	10.76	9.34	11.11	8.87	8.37
Styrene			11.39	11.29	9.59	9.00	8.11	8.02
Methanol		11.29	12.18	10.51	8.08	8.70	8.34
Carbon dioxide		10.89	11.80	11.78	10.88	9.76	10.37
Xylene			9.37	9.06	8.74	6.39	6.13	3.21
Formaldehyde		8.11	8.17	7.60	8.28	6.43	6.72
Terephthalic acid, 
dimethyl ester		7.95	7.58	7.11	5.64	7.64	7.77
Ethylene oxide		7.62	7.24	5.33	5.83	5.25	5.36
Hydrochloric acid	7.33	7.47	6.98	7.13	5.60	6.03
Toluene			6.73	6.75	6.38	6.01	6.80	6.21
p-Xylene		6.34	6.26	5.79	5.66	5.35	5.20
Cumene			5.63	5.22	4.39	4.67	4.17	4.31
Ammonium sulfate	5.24	5.18	4.85	4.78	4.46	5.08
Ethylene glycol		5.23	6.09	5.20	5.13	4.81	5.07
Acetic Acid		4.68	3.98	3.33	3.59	3.61	3.75
Phenol			4.16	3.92	3.19	3.71	3.60	3.54
Propylene oxide		4.00	3.70	3.28	2.90	2.75	2.60
1,3-Butadiene		3.68	3.38	3.12	3.23	3.05	3.09
Carbon black		3.32	3.25	3.22	3.02	2.72	2.87
Isobutylene		3.24	3.08	1.07	0.95	0.97	1.21
Potash			3.22	3.08	3.32	3.86	3.90	3.78
Acrylonitrile		3.21	3.03	2.49	2.83	2.65	2.68
Vinyl acetate		2.89	3.04	2.77	2.66	2.73	2.66
Titanium dioxide	2.77	2.76	2.56	2.51	2.19	2.15
Acetone			2.76	2.66	2.43	2.43	2.34	2.33
Butyraldehyde		2.68	2.19				
Aluminum sulfate	2.41	2.21	2.10	2.09	2.36	2.45
Sodium silicate		2.25	2.01	1.99	1.82	1.79	1.76
Cyclohexane		2.13	1.96	2.00	2.24	2.31	2.46
Adipic acid		1.80	1.80	1.69	1.56	1.56	1.62
Nitrobenzene		1.65	1.44				
Bisphenol A		1.62	1.70	1.29	1.20	1.21	1.15
Sodium sulfate		na	1.02	1.18	1.22	1.54	1.57
Calcium chloride	na	na	0.97	0.80	0.93	1.04
Caprolactam		1.58	1.51	1.43	1.38	1.28	1.38
n-Butyl alcohol		1.49	1.48	1.34	1.28	1.32	1.27
Isopropyl alcohol	1.42	1.45	1.27	1.46	1.34	1.46

References:
Chem. and Eng. News, 1992, June 29, pg 35.
Chem. and Eng. News, 1994, July 4, pg 31.
Chem. and Eng. News, 1995, June 26, pg 39.
Chem. and Eng. News, 1996, June 24, pg 38.
Chem. and Eng. News, 1997, June 23, pg 38.
see the pages at ACS on Chemical Products and the later discussion here.

Methyl tert-butylether, MTBE.

I'm not sure what happened here. In the 1994 list, this was quoted as 24.05 but in the 1995 list that figure was revised to 12.90 which is a much smaller increase on previous years. The Table giving the figures for the Organics noted that these values were C&EN estimates.
The use of this as a gasoline additive to replace lead compounds is expected to lead to increases in the figures for the next few years.
For the answers to some frequently answered questions on gasoline, oxygenates etc., see here.

(CH3)3COCH3
RMM 88.15
bp 55-56
d  0.740

Created and maintained by Dr. Robert J. Lancashire,
The Department of Chemistry, University of the West Indies,
Mona Campus, Kingston 7, Jamaica.

Created Feb 1995. Last modified 21st April-98.
URL http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm:1104/lectures/top50old.html