the.com/petrochemicals
dead plankton, under enough pressure and time, becomes your yoga pants.
means chemicals derived from petroleum or natural gas, used as the raw building blocks for plastics, fertilizers, solvents, and synthetic fabrics.
from the industry took off in the early 20th century when refiners realized crude oil's leftover fractions, once burned off as waste, could be cracked into ethylene and propylene, the molecular lego bricks of modern materials.
barrel breakdownroughly 10-15% of a crude barrel becomes petrochemicals
hidden everywhereaspirin, lipstick, and tires all start here
cracking processheat splits long hydrocarbons into smaller reactive molecules
future demandexpected to outpace fuel as oil's main use