Industrial Chemistry and Water Treatment

Petroleum and Organic industrial chemistry

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The petrochemicals industry is broadly defined as that industrial activity which uses petroleum or natural gas as a source of raw materials and whose products are neither fuels nor fertilizer. The petrochemical industry begins with oil refineries or extracting plants built to remove ethane and higher hydrocarbons from natural gas streams; sometimes methane itself is used as a source material or feedstock. The industry is so varied that analysis by specific compound or class of compound is the most effective method of presentation. Industrial chemistry  today can be divided roughly into four major areas. In order of their current economic importance they are polymers, petrochemicals, synthetic materials (other than polymers), and miscellaneous organic materials lumped together under the general heading of "fine chemicals". The historic development and present industrial structure of each of these areas are different. Crude oil and raw natural gas and condensates are naturally occurring substances potentially containing thousands of individual chemicals called hydrocarbons. After crude oil is removed from the ground, it is sent to a refinery by pipeline industry, ship, or barge. In order to make finished petroleum products, these substances are separated at the refinery into different boiling fractions. Each of these fractions typically requires additional processing before they can be sold or blended into finished petroleum products like gasoline, diesel fuel, motor oil, etc. The separated fractions are often referred to as petroleum process streams” and are individual substances defined according to the last processing step that they have undergone. Petroleum substances are subject to nomenclature rules developed jointly by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Petroleum Institute (API); this nomenclature used is presented in API’s published reference document, “Petroleum Stream Terms Included in the Chemical Substance Inventory for the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)”. Under the High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program, companies were "challenged" to make health and environmental effects data publicly available on chemicals produced or imported in the United States in the greatest quantities. HPV chemicals are classified as those chemicals produced or imported in the United States in quantities of 1 million pounds or more per year.