IAT 336 Lecture Notes - Environmental Stress Cracking, Nitrocellulose, Cellulose Acetate
4 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
Plastics are among the most versatile and useful of all materials known to man. Yet like other design materials at the end of their life cycle or use, plastics create ethical issues. In recent years, it has become more clear that the world"s raw materials are limited. This is especially evident of petrochemicals or oil. Almost 7% of a barrel of oil is dedicated to creating raw material for plastic production. Benzene is used for creating polystyrene; ethylene is used for producing polyethylene. Plastics are also made from naptha and natural gas. This problem will surely become even more pressing for raw materials in the future because population growth is making ever growing demands. Petrochemical raw materials are become more scarce as recent oil crises have demonstrated, prices will rise in the long term. E. g. a barrel of oil could reach whereas a barrel of crude oil is presently hovering around.
