PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY

The petrochemical industry has started to develop in the second half of the 20th century and has become one of the foundation stones of the modern economy in the last fifty years due to its extremely wide product range and application field. Thousand of petrochemical products utilized by consumers, became an indispensable part of human life and the developments in the petrochemical industry raised the living standard significantly.

Petrochemicals are chemical products derived from petroleum. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane Petrochemistry is a science that can readily be applied to fundamental human needs, such as health, hygiene, housing and food.

The two most common petrochemical classes are olefins and aromatics Olefins ; including ethylene and propylene Aromatics; including benzene, toluene and xylene isomers

PETROCHEMICAL WORLD

The petrochemical industry uses petroleum and natural gas based feedstocks such as naphtha, LPG, gas oil to produce plastics, rubber and fiber raw materials and other intermediates which are consumed by several sectors such as packaging, electronics, automotive, construction, textile and agriculture

The current market value of the petrochemical industry is about 500 billion dollars. This value equates to about 8% of world trade and about 30% of the total chemical market. In the world petrochemical sector, the low profitable period starting with the Asian crisis at the end of 1997 has been continuing. A new profitable period, which will start with a fundamental recovery in 2004 and will peak in 2005, is expected in the sector.

Petrochemical industry is open to global competition and raw material, market and technological advantages play significant roles in this competition. For the new investments, certain regions having feedstock advantages and large/rapidly growing markets are being preferred by the petrochemical companies. In the next years, most of the new investments will be realized in the Middle East and Asia (particularly in China).

Olefins are the building blocks of many petrochemicals. The developments in the olefin markets reflect the general performance of the petrochemical industry. Ethylene is the most important olefin and the largest produced basic petrochemical.

The petrochemical industry that entered to Turkey in 1960s has demonstrated a great development within a very short time. Petkim was established in 1965 to start and develop a petrochemical industry in the country.

The demand for petrochemical products in Turkey has been increasing faster than that of the developed countries and world average level. On the other hand, domestic supply does not increase at the same rate. Apart from Petkim, the other some petrochemical companies in Turkey are ;

 SASA ( tons/year DMT)  TÜPRAŞ ( tons/year PS)  Başer Petrokimya ( tons/year PS).

It is seen that Turkish petrochemical industry has a big potential for growth, having considered the factors such as the level of industrialization in Turkey, rapid population growth and developments in various industrial sectors. The most significant advantage of Turkish petrochemical industry, despite the close proximity of feedstock rich countries with big petrochemical producers, is the level of domestic demand, which allows the establishment of production facilities in world scale capacities.

LAWS AND REGULATION

Operators should have report the developments that have been done in facility to prevent the air pollution. All operators have to get Environmental allowance to operate facilities. The requirements of air quality must be provided by operators. All of the molecules maximum emission values should provide the values that have been set by Environmental and Health Ministry.

EPA Owners or operators may petition and be granted permission by the Technical Secretary to terminate ambient air quality monitoring provided two calendar years air quality data has been generated in the area under the influence of the source's emissions to verify compliance with the Tennessee Ambient Air Quality Standards.

The first petrochemical complex of Petkim was established at Yarımca and started up in Due to the rapidly growing domestic demand, Yarımca Complex had started to become insufficient to meet the increasing demand although the production capacities of most of the plants that exist in Yarımca Complex were expanded by 100 %. The second complex of Petkim was established at Aliağa by using optimum capacities and modern technologies of those days and started up in 1985.

Petkim, as the sole producer of basic petrochemicals and the biggest producer of thermoplastics and intermediates, is the leader company of Turkish petrochemical industry.

PETKİM AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Petkim try to build a sustainable and institutional environmental consciousness and environmental training courses are offered to all personnel continuously.

They aim to be a model “environmental friendly company” by environmental protection facilities like responsible care  Program applications,  Waste treatment plants,  Pollution monitoring and controlling facilities,  Energy and resource conservation,  Waste reduction,  Environmental investments,  Inside and outside environmental training activities and supporting the national and international studies on sustainable development ıssues.

PETKİM AND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARDS

PETKIM is admired for its environmental investments and projects. Petkim abrogated the chlorine production with mercury and modified the process for membrane technology. By this clean production technique, the environment can be protected from the worse effects of mercury as well as significant amount of energy can be saved. In 2000, Petkim was awarded as a most environmentally beneficial company that provides the most energy saving. The other prize was achieved in 2001 with the project named "Increasing the Burning Efficiency of Heavy Fuel-Oil" in the category of "The Most Environmentally Friendly Energy Saving Project".

ACCIDENT IN PETKIM

Because of electrical surges that happened in Aliağa facility of PETKİM, accident have occured and result of that air pollution have observed. The unit of ethylene had out of service and incomplete combustion of ethylene have occured. Raw materials have released from chimney. The smoke have clothed large area. After an hour of repair work the problem have resolved.

 Dilek KARAPINAR  Ayşegül KURTULAY  Şeyma SINPARİ