Process industries
Process industries includes companies that use physical and/or chemical processes to extract, transport, and process feed materials to produce semi-finished or end products. This category is very broad and covers industries such as petrochemical, pulp and paper, chemical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, desalination, and metals.
Although specific processes used in this sector can vary substantially, they all tend to involve service environments that place severe demands on the materials of construction. Elevated temperature, high pressure and very corrosive process environments are common in process industries. Because of this, it is critical that construction materials are selected that can meet the corrosion resistance, strength and fabrication requirements of the process.
Processes in this sector typically require multi-component systems constructed with piping, tubing, tanks, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, valves, pumps and reactor vessels. Molybdenum-bearing stainless steels and nickel alloys are used extensively in this sector to meet the required strength and corrosion resistance.