Can we make plastic without oil?

Question

Can we make plastic without oil?

Answer 1

Yes and some excellent examples provided.  By plastics I presume you mean ploymers either thermo setting or thermo plastic.

There are plenty of natural ones, rubber, celulose starch. Then all of those can be modified quite easily to make a variety of different plastics, nitro celulose, acetate, rayon, hard rubber, soft rubbber, etc.

But as polymers are just organic chemicals, its not to hard to make them from any starting materials that contain the necessary atome. You do need energy though. Also some materials are simpler to use and so result in a cheaper product.

Polyethylene and poly propylene are generally made by starting with ethene and propene, both available from natural gas. In fact a lot of the common plastics actually have their source in natural gas rather than oil. (gas is cheaper and easier to separate into relatiely pure starting materials)

Coal can also be used as a starting material but the process is a bit more complex, but that is made up for by the coal being so cheap in the first place.

Sugar, starch and other renewable starting materials work as well, but generally these have higher value as food sources so are not so often used.

There is nothing special about crude oil as a starting material, except that it is cheap, abundant and rich in a whole range of chemicals.

Answer 2

Of Course, cellophane and other cellulose based plastics are made from wood

Answer 3

don't think so but you can use veg oil.

Answer 4

Plastic without the petroleum

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posted 11:39am EST Mon Jan 24 2005 - submitted by Matthew

NEWS

Researchers at Cornell University have managed to kill two birds with one stone by creating plastic that doesn't use petroleum derivatives but does use carbon dioxide as an ingredient. The orange-based plastic is possible due to the compound limonene, which makes up 95% of the oil from orange peel and whose main use has been for adding that orange smell to household cleaners.

A derivative of limonene called limonene oxide is made to react with carbon dioxide with the help of a catalyst to produce the carbon polymer polylimonene carbonate. The plastic created is very similar in form to polystyrene, which we see mainly used in packaging, e.g., the white styrofoam your monitor was slotted in when you took it out of the box.

The Cornell team's discovery means that a plastic can now be created from a renewable source that is easy to get a hold of. The use of carbon dioxide is also being investigated further, with the possibility of cardon dioxide-producing industries storing the gas for reuse rather than pumping it into the atmosphere.

The team's findings will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Answer 5

some plastic bags were made from cornstarch and therefore were biodegradable.  There were problems:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pb...