A Century of Petrochemical Advances

This session will focus on advances in the petrochemical industry, past, present, and future. The beginnings of the petrochemical industry date back more than 150 years. The first chemicals produced were aniline and dyestuffs and other derivatives from coal starting in the mid-1800s. Then, scientists in Germany led major advances, starting from acetylene production via Reppe's chemistry. This presentation gives an overview from these early beginnings to modern day cracking for ethylene and propylene production and modern aromatics complexes, derivatives, and the like, to next generation technologies on the horizon, such as those based on natural gas or on coal to olefins via syn gas and methanol intermediates.