Hastur wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 6:27 am
Plastig bags are made from Ethane gas that comes of at the very top of the refining tower. Mostly from refining natural gas. They get the ethane out to prevent the gas from burning to hot. They used to burn of the ethane of at the top, remember the eternal lights on top of refining towers, until some smart guy figured out how to link the molecules into chains and make a great product instead.
They can’t stop making ethane. It’s a product of the refining process.
Few things burn as cleanly as ethane (or plastic bags). It leaves only heat, water vapor and some CO2.
Wow, 3 pages added in under a day.
Yes, the stuff used for plastics is a byproduct of the refining process. One 42 (iirc) gallon standard "barrel" of oil produces some refined gasoline, some diesel (less refined), and a bunch of byproducts that are used for motor/lubrication oils (various grades) as well as plastics. You don't just "stop burning gasoline/diesel" and *still* get all those other refined products.
Ethane if course is used in polyethylene (PETE, #1 recyclable) - "soda bottle" plastic, also high density polyethylene (HDPE, #2) "milk jug" plastic, low density polyethylene (LDPE, #4) "flexible lid" plastic (lid on milk jugs, snap on lids for coffee cans, etc). #3 is polyvinyl chloride (PVC), #5 is polypropylene, and #6 is polystyrene... Pretty sure all of them come from other refining byproducts of oil.
Of course on the bright side, if the US stops burning all that gasoline/diesel, there's sure to be good money to be made selling it to China and other countries at a cheap price, while we use the plastic byproducts. Doesn't really do much to prevent all that CO2 though, just changes who is burning it.