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ADDITIONAL READING
Exercise 32. Make a summary of the text using the following phrases:
1. The title of the text is…
2. The text is about… The text deals with…
3. The text covers such points as… first… second… third…
4. It should be underlined that…
5. In conclusion, I may say that…
6. To my mind… In my opinion…
PETROCHEMISTRY
All spheres of modern life are directly connected with chemical products.
Petrochemistry has one of the key roles in the production of polymers, syn-
thetic rubbers, lubricating oils, dissolvent, colorants, additives, detergents, and
raw materials for most organic compounds.
Petrochemistry is a science that can readily be applied to fundamental hu-
man needs,
such as health, hygiene, housing, and food. Yet, it is an inventive
business sector constantly adapting to new environments and meeting new
challenges.
Chemicals derived from petroleum or natural gas — petrochemicals — are
an essential part of the chemical industry today. Today, the main purposes of
petrochemistry are the study and development of methods of hydrocarbons,
natural gas and other oil component processing for the creation of optimal
processes of producing organic compounds. The organic compounds are used
as raw material for production of the marketable chemical products (such as
polymers, films, synthetic rubbers, detergents, lubricants, colorants, additives,
etc.). Most organic compounds are “petrochemical”,
but usually this term is
applied to the products, which are made in relatively large quantities.
Petrochemistry is a fairly young industry. According to the opinion of Rus-
sian scientists, the beginning of the petrochemistry development is 1920, when
the American company “Standard Oil” started to produce isopropyl alcohol
from propylene. The first petrochemical plant, involved in ethylene produc-
tion, was put in operation in 1923 by another American company — Union
Carbide.
Before then, it used to be an experimental sector,
starting with basic ma-
terials: synthetic rubbers in the 1900s, Bakelite, the first petrochemical derived
in 1907, the first petrochemical in the 1920s, polystyrene in the 1930.
The new industry started to grow rapidly only in the 1940s, more than
80 years after the drilling of the first commercial oil well in 1859. During World
War II, the demand for materials to replace costly and sometimes less efficient
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products caused the petrochemical industry to develop into a major sector in
today’s economy and society.
The petrochemistry industry includes an incredible variety of areas — from
household goods to medicine, from leisure to highly specialized fields like ar-
chaeology or crime detection.
However, all this is little known. Petrochemicals
do not reach the final
consumer; they are first sold to customer industries, undergo several transfor-
mations, and then go into products that seem to bear no relation whatsoever
to the initial raw material. As a result, few of us make the connection between
the petrochemical industry and their equipment, their CDs,
food packaging
or computers; few realize the amount of scientific efforts that went into these
commonplace objects.
Although benefiting daily from end products that have been made thanks
to the input of the petrochemical industry, we don’t see an obvious connection
between these everyday commodities and petrochemistry.
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