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Chemical Reactions

Catalysis and Industrial Chemistry

What chemicals are produced on the largest scale?

In terms of volume (not profit), sulfuric acid is the largest chemical produced worldwide. Global consumption is around two hundred million tons per year—a number that is just too impossibly large to imagine. Nitrogen (N2), ethylene (CH2CH2), oxygen (O2), lime (mainly CaO), and ammonia (NH3) round out the top five, though sometimes these change.