Talk:Petrochemical

message: As one who has worked in the petrochemicals industry for 28 years, I find the current definition rather strange.  Admittedly, the compounds named are chemicals, and they are derived from rocks, however I think that there is a distinction to be made between chemicals and fuels.  The agricultural chemicals mentioned are either made by relatively small-scale multi-stage organic synthesis (pesticides and herbicides) or are not organic at all (fertilisers - urea, ammonium nitrate, phosphate and potassium.  Is ammonia a petrochemical simply because it is made by the reaction of methane-derived hydrogen and nitrogen?).
I would therefore suggest the following as a short alternative, which could of course be enlarged (though there are already articles on most of the indivdual chemicals):
Petrochemicals are chemical products made from raw materials of petroleum (hydrocarbon) origin.   
The two main classes of raw materials are olefins (including ethylene and propylene) and aromatics (including benzene and xylene isomers), both of which are produced in very large quantities, mainly by the steam cracking and catalytic reforming of refinery hydrocarbons.  From these basic building blocks are made a very wide range of raw materials used in industry - plastics, resins, fibres, solvents, detergents, etc.  
World production of ethylene is around 110 million tonnes per annum, of propylene 65 million tonnes and of aromatic raw materials 70 million tonnes.  The largest petrochemical industries are to be found in the USA and Western Europe, though the major growth in new production capacity is in the Middle East and Asia.  There is a substantial inter-regional trade in petrochemicals of all kinds.
::The above version seems far better than the current definition of petrochemicals, which gives the impression that coal-based chemicals are also petrochemicals. Is there any reason why it hasn't been adopted?
::If there are no objections, I propose substituting the above for the current article.
::User:Bathrobe 13 April 2006 (not logged in)
* When I read the current article the first thing that came to mind was that most pharmaceuticals are petrochemicals (If one goes back far enough in the production chain, most pharmaceuticals begin in an olefins plant.). As do most specialty chemicals and for that matter, some ethanol added to cheaper hard liquor and the CO2 used for carbonated beverages should all be considered petrochemicals. Perhaps some examples like these are worth mentioning? The examples given seem much more industrial StateOfTheUnion 18:11, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Definition of Petrochemical

message: ... currently redirects here, but the article doesn't really address either the commercial or engineering aspects, just the chemistry.  Is there someplace better that could be pointed, or is our coverage just rather incomplete?  Alai 06:22, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[petrochemical industry]] 

message: Presently the article says that "petrochemical" is not a correct term since the Greek prefix petro- means "rock", and that petrochemicals come not from rock, but from crude oil.  I think that "petrochemical" is derived from the English word petroleum which means "crude oil" from the ground (or from underground).  "Petroleum" in turn was derived from petro- meaning "rock" (in effect, meaning from the ground, as opposed to oil from plant or animal sources) and oleum meaning "oil".  However, the term "oleochemical" would also be reasonable, meaning chemical from oil.  H Padleckas (talk) 20:59, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think you're right about the likely etymology, Henry, but I think oleochemical wouldn't be right - especially as it already has a (quite different meaning), see oleochemical.  And when was the last time someone from BP sat down and said, "We need to build a new oleochemical plant in China"?  "Correct" or not, petrochemical is the word used for chemicals from petroleum, see also wiktionary:petrochemical.  I think we should remove the remark, which isn't sourced and doesn't have anything useful to add. When someone researches the etymology properly, they can add it in.  Walkerma (talk) 06:21, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Arguably it ought to be "petroleochemical". Nagakura shin8 (talk) 12:12, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology 

message: I added a few images visualizing the production routes of many of the chemicals mentioned on this page, using the data contained within the article.  For each of the images, I've included the Graphviz source code used to generate them in case anyone has future additions, or better ideas about how to visualize these.  Mr3641 (talk) 15:40, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Visualization of Production Networks added

message: I think petrochemistry and petrochemical (and possibly petroleum product) should be merged.  There's little difference in what the topic described by the articles are, although there are significant differences in content.  — Arthur Rubin  (talk) 03:11, 21 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I am a proponent of combining related and relevant articles, especially if they are stubs, to facilitate the creation of a single better article. There is also the stub article Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC), and the stub article, Petroleum products that is being suggested (tagged) to be merged here, but the merge requests are not combined. I do have an issue with part of the above comment, "There's little difference in what the topic described by the articles are, although there are significant differences in content.". I may be just having a misunderstanding day but "described by the articles" would be the same as "content", so I am having trouble deciphering this, especially considering all three titles are related. Otr500 (talk) 04:26, 3 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Petrochemistry 

message: I am removing the merge requests because of lack of participation per Wikipedia:Tagging pages for problems#Removing tags. If an editor feels they should still be merged and places a tag again please follow the proper procedures and carry through with the request. Otr500 (talk) 18:30, 22 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tag removal 

message: Since Petrochemicals are used to make medicines the insignificant petrochemicals should also be listed for a list that is exhaustive.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:C518:6C40:F02A:330C:11CC:ACDB (talk) 01:40, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Petrochemical list should be exhaustive