Product Improvement

As already noted (Chapter 1), petroleum, and its derivatives have been used for millennia (Henry, 1873; Abraham, 1945; Forbes, 1958a, 1958b, 1959; James and Thorpe, 1994) and petroleum is perhaps the most important raw material consumed in modern society. It provides not only raw materials for the ubiquitous plastics and other products, but also fuel for energy, industry, heating, and transportation.