Eastman Chemical Company's “Chemicals from Coal” program: The first quarter century

Eastman Chemical Company first initiated its Chemicals from Coal program in the mid-1970s. The program led to the successful commercialization of a process to produce acetic anhydride entirely from coal-based synthesis gas in 1983. However, Eastman Chemical Company did not stop to work with on chemicals from coal with the attainment of the acetic anhydride process and they continued to look at the additional processes for chemicals from coal. In this manuscript, Eastman Chemical Company will discuss the case for coal which led Eastman Chemical Company to take a leadership role in the production of chemicals from coal and then present three case studies, including the commercially practiced Eastman acetic anhydride process and potentially competitive processes for vinyl acetate and methacrylic acid, which demonstrate the viability of replacing petroleum and natural gas based processes with processes based entirely on coal derived synthesis gas.