ABSTRACT
Development of new industrial chemistry to create new chemicals or to make existing chemicals more efficiently consumes a high proportion of exploratory research spending in the chemical industry. It is important to use every possible tool to increase the probability of success in the chemical reaction phase of research. The use of thermodynamics is just one tool, but it is certainly an important one. Computation of the expected chemical equilibrium requires the Gibbs free energy of reaction. It is computed from the sum of Gibbs free energies of formation of the products minus the sum for the reactants. The heats and free energies of formation are all developed on a standard basis, with the enthalpy and free energy of formation of the elements defined as zero at all temperatures. Therefore, the heats and free energies of formation of both elements and molecules can be added and subtracted to obtain the values for overall reactions.
