Research For Industry

Appl Petrochem Res (2012) 1:12
DOI 10.1007/s13203-011-0001-3
EDITORIAL
Research for industry

Arno de Klerk Soliman Al-Khowaiter
Published online: 21 June 2011

The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Introduction nature, Applied Petrochemical Research is home to multi-

and inter-disciplinary research dealing with petrochemi-
Petrochemical production accounts for a 6% of global cals, as well as single discipline studies that are of a more
energy consumption. Although this seems like a small applied nature.
percentage, in absolute numbers it is close to 30 EJ, i.e.
3 9 1019 J. Consequently, industrial application of petro-
chemical research has a meaningful impact on the global What is petrochemical research?
economy and on the environment.
Although the justification for petrochemical research in It is difficult to separate petrochemical production from
both industry and academia is clear, one may rightfully fuels refining. Petrochemicals are produced mainly from
ask: why do we need yet another journal? The answer lies crude oil, either downstream from fuels refining, or inte-
in the name: Applied Petrochemical Research. There are grated with fuels refining. Petrochemical products can range
journals dealing with the many disciplines that support from large volume products such as plastics, lubricants and
petrochemical research, such as catalysis, conversion solvents to speciality and fine chemicals such as cosmetics,
chemistry, chemical engineering and material science. flavourants and pharmaceuticals. In most cases, the prod-
There are also journals dealing with the products from ucts are synthesized from a much smaller group of inter-
petrochemical research, such as polymers, lubricants and mediate commodity chemicals. Based on production
pharmaceuticals. However, applied petrochemical research volume, the main commodity chemicals that are employed
requires integration across disciplines and products, even as building blocks are ethylene, propylene, butenes, ben-
though studies may focus on only specific aspects. Applied zene, toluene, xylenes, methanol and ethanol. Petrochemi-
studies do not have the same resolution of detail as disci- cal research encompasses feedstock production, conversion
pline specific studies, but the relevance of applied studies is processes and petrochemical products (Table 1).
immediately apparent to practitioners that want to translate
the research into actual processes and products. By its
Topics of specific interest
The breadth of petrochemical research that falls within the

A. de Klerk (&) scope of Applied Petrochemical Research, makes it diffi-
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering,
cult to enumerate the topics that are of potential interest.
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2V4, Canada
e-mail: [email protected] The topics that are being highlighted are aspects of petro-
chemical research where we hope to stimulate specific
S. Al-Khowaiter interest and hope to encourage potential authors to consider
National Nanotechnology Research Center (NNRC),
submissions to the journal:
King AbdulAziz City for Science and Technology (KACST),
P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia (a) There is considerable diversity in petrochemical
e-mail: [email protected] production. The scope of research relevant to petrochemical
123
2 Appl Petrochem Res (2012) 1:12
Table 1 A selection of typical topics in petrochemical research

Feedstock production Conversion processes Petrochemical products
Olefins (ethylene, propylene, butenes, etc.) Cracking Polymers and plastics

Aromatics (benzene, toluene, xylenes, etc.) Reforming and aromatization Synthetic rubber
Oxygenates (methanol, ethanol, propylene oxide, etc.) Isomerisation Agrochemicals
Paraffins (n-alkanes, waxes) Dimerization and polymerization Lubricants
Hydroprocessing Speciality and fine chemicals
Aromatic alkylation Pharmaceuticals and health care
Oxidation Solvents
Detergents
production is vast and the need for up to date information to Advantages of publishing in Applied Petrochemical
avoid duplication of effort is acute. Technology reviews of Research
areas that are pertinent to petrochemical production are
welcomed. For example, sources of propylene, ethylene There are some specific advantages of publishing in
polymerization technology, overview of lubricants, etc. Applied Petrochemical Research, which is an open access
(b) The breadth of topics in petrochemical research journal made possible by the generous sponsorship by the
naturally dilutes the research effort in any one field com- King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology (KACST)
pared to that in fuels refining. It is not always clear whether in Saudi Arabia:
a specific direction of investigation is viable. Although it is (a) The author retains copyright on the manuscript. The
customary to report only on successes in research, we hope material may therefore be freely duplicated and distributed.
to also attract scientifically reasoned reports on failed (b) The journal is provided free of charge and no sub-
petrochemical applications. scription is needed. The readership is consequently not
(c) Unlike energy applications, where non-carbon energy restricted.
sources (e.g. hydroelectric and nuclear power) can be (c) Publication is managed by Springer. Manuscripts are
employed as alternatives to carbon-based fuels, petro- professionally typeset to the same standard as all other jour-
chemicals are by definition based on carbon. Around 10% nals published by Springer. The journal is also automatically
of current global fossil fuel (i.e. carbon) consumption included in journal packages supplied to libraries, thereby
is directed towards petrochemical production and most ensuring wide dissemination and promotion of the work.
petrochemicals are produced from conventional crude oil. (d) It is an international journal. Manuscripts are subject
Sustainability is clearly an important issue and different to full peer-review and the journal is indexed by major
pathways for the production of petrochemicals may have scientific databases and search engines.
to be developed to ensure sustainability. More carbon-
efficient petrochemical production from crude oil, as well as Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, dis-
petrochemical production other carbon-based feed materi- tribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original
als (e.g. biomass, coal, waste, natural gas) is of interest. author(s) and source are credited.
123

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Appl Petrochem Res (2012) 1:12

Research for industry

Published online: 21 June 2011

Introduction nature, Applied Petrochemical Research is home to multi-

The breadth of petrochemical research that falls within the

Table 1 A selection of typical topics in petrochemical research

Olefins (ethylene, propylene, butenes, etc.) Cracking Polymers and plastics

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