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Posts: 1755
Aug 29 07 12:50 PM
I haven't looked into plastics production in some time, however I was under the impression that plastics were now being created without the overly large use of petrochemicals as they had been in the past. Am I in error in this thought? Fiery Red
The term "plastics" encompasses organic materials, such as the elements carbon (C), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N), chlorine (Cl) and sulfur (S), which have properties similar to those naturally grown in organic materials such as wood, corn and rosin. Organic materials are based on polymers, which are produced by the conversion of natural products or by syththesis from primary chemicals coming from oil, natural gas or coal. The plastic manufacturing process begins by heating the hydrocarbons in a "cracking process." Here, in the presence of a catalyst, larger molecules are broken down into smaller ones such as ethylene (ethene) C2H4, propylene (propene) C3H6, and butene C4H8 and other hydrocarbons. The yield of ethylene is controlled by the cracking temperature and is more than 30% at 850°C and such products as styrene and vinyl chloride can be produced in subsequent reactions. These are then the starting materials for several other types of plastics. Therefore, this process results in the conversion of the natural gas or crude oil components into monomers such as ethylene, propylene, butene and styrene. These monomers are then chemically bonded into chains called polymers. Different combinations of monomers yield plastic resins with different properties and characteristics. Each monomer yields a plastic resin with different properties and characteristics. Combinations of monomers produce copolymers with further property variations.
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