Most refineries also include hydrogenation units to recycle some of the heavier catalytic products into lighter more profitable products.
The "lights", such as propane, butane, etc. are fed into reactor units and cooked into styrene monomers and polyols used for plastics feedstocks.
Almost nothing is wasted. The flares you see are maintained for emergency purposes. If an accident takes place, process gasses are dumped into the emergency flare and burned off. The small flame you usually see is maintained as an ignition source.
Plastic or Paper?
Choose plastic. Paper destroys forests, kills rivers, and pollutes the air. When paper is processed the lignin (wood fiber) is separated from the wood sugars.
Those sugars are washed into the water and promote bacterial and algal growth. When the microorganisms decay, they suck up all the oxygen in streams and kill all the fish.
The air emissions from paper mills contain lots of H2SO4, the water emissions from the paper bleaching process include dioxins and chlorinated organics.
Petrochemical plants are actually less polluting than paper mills. And you don't cut down trees to make plastic. Most petrochemical plants use oil efficently. The waste products from the cracking process are usually used as feedstock for another product or burned as fuel.
Raymond
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Most refineries also include hydrogenation units to recycle some of the heavier catalytic products into lighter more profitable products.
The "lights", such as propane, butane, etc. are fed into reactor units and cooked into styrene monomers and polyols used for plastics feedstocks.
Almost nothing is wasted. The flares you see are maintained for emergency purposes. If an accident takes place, process gasses are dumped into the emergency flare and burned off. The small flame you usually see is maintained as an ignition source.
Plastic or Paper? Choose plastic. Paper destroys forests, kills rivers, and pollutes the air. When paper is processed the lignin (wood fiber) is separated from the wood sugars. Those sugars are washed into the water and promote bacterial and algal growth. When the microorganisms decay, they suck up all the oxygen in streams and kill all the fish. The air emissions from paper mills contain lots of H2SO4, the water emissions from the paper bleaching process include dioxins and chlorinated organics. Petrochemical plants are actually less polluting than paper mills. And you don't cut down trees to make plastic. Most petrochemical plants use oil efficently. The waste products from the cracking process are usually used as feedstock for another product or burned as fuel. Raymond