Polyethylene consumption

The world consumption of polyethylene is growing at above the average economic growth figures. Total use in the world was estimated at 62 million tonnes in 2001 that gives an average of nearly 10 kg/person worldwide. In Western Europe, the volume of polyethylene used in 2001 was close to 11 million toimes (about 35 kg/person). Table 3.1 shows the growth of polyethylene consumption over the years 1987 to 2001. 

Plastemart.com (2010) Global Polyethylene consumption in 2008 declined by almost 4%. http //www.plastemart.com/Plastic-Technical Article.asp LiteraturelD=1407 Paper= Global Polyethylene-consiunption-demand-2008-dedine-4percent... 

The increase in global polyethylene consumption was 14% for the six year period 2004-2010, which corresponds to an annual increase of just over 2%. It is important to note that in late 2008, the global economy experienced a deep recession and the global economic growth slightly declined between 2008 and 2010. 

Table 5.2 Global polyethylene consumption by product type.

However by the end of 2010 consumption continued to expand, with a global polyethylene consumption of 154 billion poimds, which is a 6% increase over the 2007 period summarized above. Ihe consumption data for the individual segments of the polyethylene market for 2010 were HDPE, 69 bilHon pounds LLDPE, 46 billion poimds and LDPE, 39 billion pounds. 

The introduction of polyethylene for consumer applications began immediately at the conclusion of World War II, when polyethylene capacity increases at ICI, DuPont and Union Carbide accelerated the rapid growth of the polyethylene industry. Fabrication methods were developed for applications in film, pipe, injection molding and blow molding. Polyethylene consumption in 1953 in the United States was about 144 million pounds, which was a 24-fold increase over the 1945 production. For the year 1953, the applications for polyethylene by the fabrication method are summarized in Table 6.1. 

The total U.S. consumption of H2TiFg is 20 t/yr. The 1993 price varied between 2.80 to 7.50/kg depending on quantity and specifications. It is packaged in DOT approved polyethylene-lined dmms and the salts in polyethylene-lined fiber board dmms. 

About 35% of total U.S. LPG consumption is as chemical feedstock for petrochemicals and polymer iatermediates. The manufacture of polyethylene, polypropylene, and poly(vinyl chloride) requires huge volumes of ethylene (qv) and propylene which, ia the United States, are produced by thermal cracking/dehydrogenation of propane, butane, and ethane (see Olefin polymers Vinyl polymers). 

Thermoplastics. The highest consumption of color concentrates is in thermoplastic resins, such as low and high density polyethylene, polypropylene, PVC, and polystyrene. Processing techniques for thermoplastics are usually based on dry color dispersion in a compatible resin (36). 

Styrene—butadiene elastomers, emulsion and solution types combined, are reported to be the largest-volume synthetic mbber, with 28.7% of the world consumption of all synthetic mbber in 1994 (38). This percentage has decreased steadily since 1973 when SBR s market share was 57% (39). The decline has been attributed to the switch to radial tires (longer milage) and the growth of other synthetic polymers, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester, and polystyrene. Since 1985, production of SBR has been flat (Table 3). 

By the mid-1990s capacity for polyethylene production was about 50 000 000 t.p.a, much greater than for any other type of plastics material. Of this capacity about 40% was for HDPE, 36% for LDPE and about 24% for LLDPE. Since then considerable extra capacity has been or is in the course of being built but at the time of writing financial and economic problems around the world make an accurate assessment of effective capacity both difficult and academic. It is, however, appeirent that the capacity data above is not reflected in consumption of the three main types of material where usage of LLDPE is now of the same order as the other two materials. Some 75% of the HDPE and LLDPE produced is used for film applications and about 60% of HDPE for injection and blow moulding. 

Surprisingly the water consumption of a starter battery, provided it contains anti-monial alloys, is affected by the separator. Some cellulosic separators as well as specially developed polyethylene separators (e.g., DARAMIC V [76]) are able to decrease the water consumption significantly. The electrochemical processes involved are rather complex and a detailed description is beyond the scope of this chapter. Briefly, the basic principle behind the reduction of water loss by separators is their continuous release of specific organic molecules, e.g., aromatic aldehydes, which... 

Screening of process conditions was one driver for performing polyethylene synthesis [1]. Thus, test-throughput frequency, the number of possible samples per day, is a target value. Also, flexibility with regard to temperature and pressure at low sample consumption is a major issue. In addition to fastness and flexibility, the quality of the information and the insight obtained is seen as a motivation for micro-channel studies. 

The majority of plasticiser consumption is in CR and NBR. Plasticisers are also technically important in chlorosulphonated polyethylene, hydrogenated nitrile, ethyl acrylate copolymer, epichlorohydrin copolymer and ethylene-acrylic terpolymer. At around 10 kt/annum (Europe), total consumption of plasticisers is on a much smaller scale than the process oils used in hydrocarbon rubbers. Typical addition levels are below 20 phr. 

Ethylene is obtained by catalytic cracking of naphtha. It is one of the key petrochemical commodities worldwide used mostly in the production of polyethylene, ethyl benzene, ethylene oxide and others. The consumption of ethylene for the production of alcohols and other surfactant raw materials represents less than 10% of the total end uses of ethylene on a worldwide basis. 

Chemically, the simplest class of commercial polymers in the polyhydrocarbons. The most important commercial hydrocarbon polymer is polyethylene. The consumption of monomers from which polyethylene is derived can be used as an index for comparing the relative living standard of nations. 

On the other hand, the rates of grafting of CTFE onto butadiene- and isoprene-grafted polyethylenes were lower than those onto original ones (Figure 2). As shown in Figure 3, the rate of consumption of the unsaturated groups, as well as the gel fraction, was remarkably accelerated by CTFE. 

Figure 5 shows the relationship between the gel fraction and the total consumption of the unsaturated groups (—A[U] expressed by equation (4)) in the irradiation of butadiene-and isoprene-grafted polyethylenes in the presence of CTFE. 

The gel fraction increased with the consumption of the unsaturated groups. The efficiency of gel formation by the total consumption of the unsaturated groups, that is, the slope of the curves decreased with the increase in the initial total concentration of the unsaturated groups. The lower efficiency in the polyethylene with higher concentration of the unsaturated groups may be caused by the more frequent intramolecular cross-linking reaction in the dienes-grafted polyethylenes. 

Some polymers are used industrially in their two forms, thermoplastic and thermoset for example, the polyethylenes or the VAE. Thermoset consumption is roughly 12-20% of the total plastic consumption. 

As shown in Figure 2.33, polyethylene has the highest consumption (nearly 60%) in both thermoplastic and thermoset (PEX) forms, and also foamed PE (2%). PVC is second (roughly 30%) and the others are polypropylene,TPEs, polyamide, fluoropolymers. .. 

Applications and consumption are far lower than for polyethylene and polypropylene. Consequently, there are relatively few grades marketed, corresponding to the major applications such as ... 

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