ABSTRACT
The petrochemical industry uses petroleum and natural gas as feedstocks to make intermediates, which are later converted to final products that people use, such as plastics, paints, pharmaceuticals, and many others. Coal, which is currently considered the bad boy of fossil fuels due to environmental issues some of which are real and some of which are emotional, may become more important both as an energy source and as the source of organic chemical feedstock in the 21st century. A major issue in the use of biomass is one of feedstock diversity. Biomass-based feedstock materials used in producing chemicals can be obtained from a large variety of sources. Pyrolysis is a medium temperature method which produces gas, oil, and char from crops which can then be further processed into useful fuels or feedstock. Shale oil is produced from oil shale by the thermal decomposition of the kerogen component of oil shale.
