ABSTRACT
Since the oil crises of the 1970s, the idea of deriving essential chemical feedstocks from renewable resources (renewable feedstocks) in a sustainable manner has been frequently suggested as an alternative to producing chemicals from petroleum-based feedstocks imported, under agreement, from unstable political regions with the accompanying geopolitics that go with such agreements. In addition to the geopolitics, the common petrochemical feedstocks that are derived from natural gas and crude oil are, in spite of discoveries of natural gas and crude oil, in tight formations (Chapter 2) and are depleting, such as petroleum and natural gas. 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.
