Hi all.

Most chemical/physical industrial processes end dumping wastes/ores that have no applications. Besides the gases burned in refinery stacks, what hydrocarbons do petrochemicals yield and how are they disposed of ?

Beyond lazy humans disposing plastics into oceans and everywhere else ☹️...

2 hours ago, Externet said:

Hi all.

Most chemical/physical industrial processes end dumping wastes/ores that have no applications. Besides the gases burned in refinery stacks, what hydrocarbons do petrochemicals yield and how are they disposed of ?

Beyond lazy humans disposing plastics into oceans and everywhere else ☹️...

With hydrocarbons, none. The residue from distillation is sold either as residual fuel oil for ships or processed into bitumen, or via further vacuum-distillation to produce lubricating base oils. The sulphur removed from distillate fuels is also sold. In some cat cracking processes surplus carbon is generated as petroleum coke. This can also be sold for a number of purposes.

When I first joined Shell and went on the induction course, we were introduced to the "carcass of beef analogy". The butcher buys a whole carcass and divides it up into valuable and less valuable cuts of meat, plus bones and offal. All of these can be sold for some kind of price, though many of the cheaper cuts command a price that is actually less per kg than was paid for the whole carcass. But even though these may look at first glance as if they are sold "at a loss", it make sense to sell them for whatever you can get. They can be seen as "byproducts", with some value though not very much.

So it is with crude oil. It gets converted into multiple products and byproducts but all have a price and can be sold.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by exchemist