WAEC - Chemistry (1989 - No. 1)
The major raw material in a plastic industry is
ethanol
sulphur
methylethanoate
ethene
ethane
Explication
- Earlier, molasses act as a raw material which yield ethanol from which ETHENE (gotten is used to) produce a range of poly(ethene) plastics.
- Nowadays, starting new raw materials are obtained by the fractional distillation of crude oil or petroleum.
- During the thermal cracking of petroleum; long chain alkanes are converted into smaller chain alkanes, ALKENES (with Ethene being the predominate), etc.
- The Alkenes such as Ethene and Propene can be made into Poly(ethene) / plastic, nylon, etc.