and other developed countries use up to 20 times as much plastic per person as India, Indonesia and other developing countries.Ī seal trapped in plastic pollution. And the growing global population, improving economic conditions and technological progress will create even more demand for plastics in the future, according to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The annual demand for plastic has almost doubled since 2000. Two large ethane crackers came online on the Gulf Coast in December with two smaller facilities scheduled to open soon. New petrochemical plants are also planned near the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi River, an area already called “Cancer Alley” because of the toxic emissions from its existing petrochemical plants.
#Chewing on plastic causing gas cracker
Shell is currently building a $6 billion ethane cracker 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. IHS Markit projects that these three states, also known as the Shale Crescent, will supply 37 percent of the U.S.’s natural gas by 2040, enough to support five large ethane crackers.
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natural gas production has gone from two percent in 2008 to 27 percent in 2017. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia’s share of U.S. The new Shell cracker under construction on the Ohio River in PA. In 2018, DOE published a report about the potential for Appalachia to become a new “ethane hub” because of its Marcellus and Utica shale resources, and the Trump administration is touting the plastics and petrochemical industry as the next big thing for the region. The Department of Energy (DOE) expects that by 2025, the eastern U.S., including Appalachia, will be producing 20 times more ethane than it did in 2013.
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The United States already produces around 40 percent of the world’s ethane-based petrochemicals and is the largest exporter of ethane, selling to Norway, the U.K., and Scotland, and to China and India, where plastic demand is rising. In the process, ethane crackers can emit pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, as well as benzene, which is carcinogenic, and volatile organic compounds that can react with sunlight to form ground-level ozone. These molecules then reform into ethylene, a basic building block of the petrochemical industry that is used to make resins, adhesives, chemicals, and plastics.
#Chewing on plastic causing gas crack
To make plastic, companies separate it from the natural gas mixture and convey it in liquid form via pipeline to an “ethane cracker,” a large industrial plant that uses intense heat to crack or break apart ethane molecules. are in the permitting process “If even a quarter of these ethane cracking facilities are built,” she said, “it’s locking us into a plastic future that is going to be hard to recover from.” One analyst from the data and analytics firm IHS Markit said that unless plastic production is slowed down, “they’ll just find something else to wrap in plastic.” Ethane crackersĮthane is an odorless and colorless constituent of natural gas. Judith Enck, former regional EPA director and a founder of Beyond Plastics, has said that 2020 is a critical year because many of the new plastic production facilities in the U.S. Growth in ethane production, consumption and exports. has extracted so much ethane with its natural gas, over $200 billion have been invested into 333 new chemical and plastics projects, as of the end of 2019. Natural gas contains ethane, which is a building block of plastic. As a result, the World Economic Forum expects plastic production to double by 2040.
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Big companies like Exxon Mobil, Shell and Saudi Aramco, which see signs of a coming decline in fossil fuel use, are compensating for the low prices by investing in plastic production, since plastics are made from oil, gas and their byproducts. Consequently, some fossil fuel companies are being forced to shut down drilling rigs and file for bankruptcy protection. The over-abundance of natural gas has resulted in the lowest gas prices since 2016. Just as the world is starting to address its enormous plastic pollution problem, these companies are doubling down on plastic, with huge potential consequences for climate and the environment. With the recent fracking boom causing low gas prices, fossil fuel companies are seeking other ways to bolster their profits - by making more plastic.