Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated aspetchems[1]) are thechemical products obtained frompetroleum by refining. Somechemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from otherfossil fuels, such ascoal ornatural gas, or renewable sources such asmaize,palm fruit orsugar cane.
The two most common petrochemical classes areolefins (includingethylene andpropylene) andaromatics (includingbenzene,toluene andxyleneisomers).
Oil refineries produce olefins and aromatics byfluid catalytic cracking of petroleum fractions.Chemical plants produce olefins bysteam cracking ofnatural gas liquids likeethane andpropane. Aromatics are produced bycatalytic reforming ofnaphtha. Olefins and aromatics are the building-blocks for a wide range of materials such assolvents,detergents, andadhesives. Olefins are the basis forpolymers andoligomers used inplastics,resins,fibers,elastomers,lubricants, andgels.[2][3]
Global ethylene production was 190 million tonnes and propylene was 120 million tonnes in 2019.[4] Aromatics production is approximately 70 million tonnes. The largestpetrochemical industries are located in theUnited States andWestern Europe; however, major growth in new production capacity is in theMiddle East andAsia. There is substantial inter-regional petrochemical trade.
Primary petrochemicals are divided into three groups depending on theirchemical structure:
In 2007, the amounts of ethylene and propylene produced in steam crackers were about 115 Mt (megatonnes) and 70 Mt, respectively.[5] The output ethylene capacity of large steam crackers ranged up to as much as 1.0 – 1.5 Mt per year.[6]
The adjacent diagram schematically depicts the major hydrocarbon sources and processes used in producing petrochemicals.[2][3][7][8]
Likecommodity chemicals, petrochemicals are made on a very large scale. Petrochemical manufacturing units differ from commodity chemical plants in that they often produce a number of related products. Compare this withspecialty chemical andfine chemical manufacture where products are made in discrete batch processes.
Petrochemicals are predominantly made in a few manufacturing locations around the world, for example inJubail andYanbu Industrial Cities in Saudi Arabia,Texas andLouisiana in the US, inTeesside in theNortheast of England in theUnited Kingdom, inTarragona inCatalonia, inRotterdam in the Netherlands, inAntwerp inBelgium, inJamnagar,Dahej inGujarat,India and in Singapore. Not all of the petrochemical or commodity chemical materials produced by the chemical industry are made in one single location but groups of related materials are often made in adjacent manufacturing plants to induce industrial symbiosis as well as material and utility efficiency and othereconomies of scale. This is known inchemical engineering terminology as integrated manufacturing. Specialty and fine chemical companies are sometimes found in similar manufacturing locations as petrochemicals but, in most cases, they do not need the same level of large-scale infrastructure (e.g., pipelines, storage, ports, and power, etc.) and therefore can be found in multi-sector business parks.
The large-scale petrochemical manufacturing locations have clusters of manufacturing units that share utilities and large-scale infrastructures such as power stations, storage tanks, port facilities, road and rail terminals. In the United Kingdom, for example, there are four main locations for such manufacturing: near the River Mersey in North West England, on the Humber on the East coast of Yorkshire, in Grangemouth near the Firth of Forth in Scotland, and in Teesside as part of theNortheast of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC). To demonstrate the clustering and integration, some 50% of the United Kingdom's petrochemical and commodity chemicals are produced by the NEPIC industry cluster companies in Teesside.
In 1835,Henri Victor Regnault, a French chemist leftvinyl chloride in the sun and found white solid at the bottom of the flask which waspolyvinyl chloride. In 1839,Eduard Simon discovered polystyrene by accident by distillingstorax. In 1856,William Henry Perkin discovered the first synthetic dye,Mauveine. In 1888,Friedrich Reinitzer, an Austrian plant scientist observedcholesteryl benzoate had two different melting points. In 1909,Leo Hendrik Baekeland inventedbakelite made fromphenol andformaldehyde. In 1920,Union Carbide built inWest Virginia first petrochemical plant in the world.[9] In 1928,synthetic fuels were invented usingFischer-Tropsch process. In 1929,Walter Bock invented synthetic rubberBuna-S which is made up ofstyrene andbutadiene and used to make car tires. In 1933,Otto Röhm polymerized the first acrylic glassmethyl methacrylate. In 1935,Michael Perrin inventedpolyethylene. In 1937,Wallace Hume Carothers inventednylon. In 1938,Otto Bayer inventedpolyurethane. In 1941,Roy Plunkett inventedTeflon. In 1946, he inventedPolyester.Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are made fromethylene andparaxylene. In 1949, Fritz Stastny turnedpolystyrene into foam. After World War II,polypropylene was discovered in the early 1950s. In 1965,Stephanie Kwolek inventedKevlar.[10]
The following is a partial list of major commercial petrochemicals and their derivatives:
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| Inorganic | |
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| Interdisciplinarity | |
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