Petrochemicals and polymers

In addition to rayon, pitch, and PAN, many polymeric materials have been used to make carbon fibers. However, only the big three, rayon, pitch, and PAN, have endured the high-performance markets. Their price has dropped over the years, but remains high, accounting for over one-half of the production costs, too high for the GP markets. The literature supports that recycled petrochemical polymers and fibers and renewable cellulosics and lignins, which are inexpensive and widely available, may be potential feedstocks for GP carbon fibers. ... 

In general, the pharmaceutical industry has been criticized for its lack of modernization in this area. It has been said that PAT as an enabling technology has been established practice among petrochemical, polymer, and food industries long before the pharmaceutical sector embraced it—a comment many times heard not only from the media, but from industry regulators as well. In a 2003 article by The Wall Street Journal, reporters commented that The pharmaceutical industry... 

Contributions to giobai ciimate change for some petrochemical polymers and the two polylactide polymers (for key to polymers see Figure 6.13)... 

Figure 1.11 Fossil energy requirement for petrochemical polymers and PLA. The cross-hatched area of the bars represent the fossil energy used as chemical feedstock (i.e., fossil resource to build the polymer chain). The solid part of the bars represented the gross fossil energy used for the fuels and operation supplies used to drive the production processes. PC = polycarbonate HIPS = high-impact polystyrene GPPS = general purpose polystyrene LDPE = low-density polyethylene PET SSP = polyethylene terephthalate, solid-state polymerization (bottle grade) PP = polypropylene PET AM = polyethylene terepthalate, amorphous (fiber and film grade) ...

Figure 1.13 Gross water used in the production of petrochemical polymers and PLA (adapted from Vink et al., 2003).

Figure 8 Contributions to global climate change for some petrochemical polymers and two PLA (PLA 1 = first-generation PLA PLA B/WP = PLA derived from biomass and wind power scenario). Reproduced from Vink, E. T. H. Rabago, K. R. Glassner, D. A. Gruber, P. R. Polym. Degrad. Stab. 2003, 80, 403, Copyright Elsevier.

Architectural Saflex for Sound Control, Tech. Bulletin No. 6295, Monsanto Polymers and Petrochemicals, St. Louis, Mo., 1972. 

Propjiene [115-07-17, CH2CH=CH2, is perhaps the oldest petrochemical feedstock and is one of the principal light olefins (1) (see Feedstocks). It is used widely as an alkylation (qv) or polymer—ga soline feedstock for octane improvement (see Gasoline and other motor fuels). In addition, large quantities of propylene are used ia plastics as polypropylene, and ia chemicals, eg, acrylonitrile (qv), propylene oxide (qv), 2-propanol, and cumene (qv) (see Olefin POLYMERS,polypropylene Propyl ALCOHOLS). Propylene is produced primarily as a by-product of petroleum (qv) refining and of ethylene (qv) production by steam pyrolysis. 

To complete the picture, Fig. 1 shows a map of the major catalyst usages in the petrochemical, fuel, polymer, and fertilizer fields. 

It is interesting to consider that biopol)nners are by no means new to this world. It is only because of our fascination with petrochemical products that these wonderful materials have been neglected for so long. In fact, natural or biopol3Tners have been considered in the 1940s and Henry Ford has used these biopol3maers in the construction of a car. However, with the discovery of petrochemical polymers, the low cost of these quickly over shadowed natural materials. 

NMR microscopy has become a well-established method in many different areas of research. The scope of the disciplines involved is extremely broad and is still expanding, encompassing chemical, petrochemical, biological and medical research, plant physiology, aerospace engineering, process engineering, industrial food processing, materials and polymer sciences. 

Most of the plastics and synthetic polymers that are used worldwide are produced from petrochemicals. Replacing petroleum-based feedstocks with materials derived from renewable resources is an attractive prospect for manufacturers of polymers and plastics, since the production of such polymers does not depend on the limited supply of fossil fuels [16]. Furthermore, synthetic materials are very persistent in the environment long after their intended use, and as a result their total volume in landfills is giving rise to serious waste management problems. In 1992,20% of the volume and 8% of the weight of landfills in the US were plastic materials, while the annual disposal of plastics both in the US and EC has risen to over 10 million tons [17]. Because of the biodegradability of PHAs, they would be mostly composted and as such would be very valuable in reducing the amount of plastic waste. 

The next 10 chapters cover a collection of petrochemicals not altogether related to each other. Synthesis gas is a basic building block that leads to the manufacture of ammonia and methanol. MTBE is made from methanol from synthesis gas (with a little isobutylene thrown in). The alcohols in Chapter 14 and 15, the aldehydes in 16, the ketones in 17, and the acids in 18 are all closely related to each other by looks, though the routes to get to them are perplexingly different. Alpha olefins and the plasticizer and detergent alcohols have the same roots and routes, but different ones from the rest. Maleic anhydride, acrylonitrile, and the acrylates— well, they re all used to make polymers and they had to be somewhere. 

As one of the newest petrochemicals to make the big time, alpha olefins have found two niches. One is in the petrochemicals industry as precursors for detergents, copolymers, and specialty chemicals. The other niche is in this book, appropriately sandwiched in between the usual list of petrochemical derivatives and the polymers. The alpha olefins are indeed derivatives, but the process for creating them is more like polymerization than any other derivative process. 

The man-made catalysts, mostly solids, usually aim to cause the high-temperature rupture or synthesis of materials. These reactions play an important role in many industrial processes, such as the production of methanol, sulfuric acid, ammonia, and various petrochemicals, polymers, paints, and plastics. It is estimated that well over 50% of all the chemical products produced today are made with the use of catalysts. These materials, their reaction rates, and the reactors that use them are the concern of this chapter and Chapters 19-22. 

Analogous poly(itaconate)s polymers like poly(ditetrahydrofurfuryl methacrylate) have been also studied because there are at least two advantages in using ita-conate acid based polymers over methacrylate acid derivatives itaconic acid can be obtained through fermentation from renewable, non petrochemical sources and the toxicity of its derivatives is lower than for methacrylate derivatives [64,140],... 

The heterogeneous catalysts have a profound impact on the chemical industry in general for example 60% of all chemical processes, 75% of oil refining processes, nearly 100% of polymers and about one hundred petrochemicals depend on the action of catalysts, as well as a significant part of environmental technologies (VOCs, automotive emissions control, stationary sources, etc.) and fine chemical production. Actually, the worldwide catalysts market is worth about 10 billion USD, (i.e. 10 x 109 USD) a year and, according to some... 

Tanizaki, Y. et al.. ACS/CSJ Chem. Congress, Worldwide Prog, of the Petrochem. Org. and Polym. Chem. Indust. Honolulu, 1979... 

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