ABSTRACT
In the mid-to late 1970s an “oil crisis” occurred in the U. S. when the oil-rich Middle Eastern countries slowed their production and sale of crude oil (petroleum) in order to drive up prices. What the average American remembers most about the crisis is the extraordinarily long lines of automobiles at the limited numbers of gasoline stations that were able to obtain and sell gasoline. What the average American does not remember about it is the effect the crisis had on the manufacture, sales, and overall economics of the chemical process industries that utilize petroleum in the manufacture of their products. In this chapter, we will take a look at the structure, classification, and importance of the chemicals these industries manufacture and use. These chemicals are called
organic chemicals
and the division of chemistry that deals with them is called
organic chemistry
. The organic chemicals manufactured by the chemical process industries have come to represent an
extraordinarily important aspect of the everyday lives of every American. Virtually every aspect of life
as we know it is affected by chemicals that are derived from petroleum. You cannot look around the room in which you are sitting or take a tour of your home and neighborhood without identifying dozens of consumer products that have their origin in petroleum. The obvious examples are fuels and oils such as gasoline, kerosene, propane (also called liquefied petroleum gas, or lp gas), butane (as in butane cigarette lighters), and motor oils. Other examples include plastics of every type, foams, paints and varnishes, paint thinners and removers, waxes, asphalt, clothing and carpet fibers, pharmaceutical products, food additives, agricultural chemicals, and synthetic rubber, vinyls, and leathers. The list seems endless.
