Analysis of the “circular plastics economy” phenomena and its long-term implications for demand for petroleum market

Abstract

In recent years, the problems of polymer pollution and carbon footprint have stirred up an active debate around the future of the plastic industry, which over the past 50 years has been a signi cant driver of global oil demand. It is assumed that the transition to a "circular plastic economy" should resolve environmental issues for the industry, but so far neither at the state level nor in the business and expert environment there is a common understanding of this concept or its implementation. In this work the authors attempted to untangle the discussion around the "circularity of plastics" and assess the current state and prospects of the impact of this phenomenon on the market of liquid hydrocarbons.Even in the Moderate scenario of the calculations, the "circular plastics economy" does become an important factor in demand for hydrocarbons in plastics industry, reducing it by 5-10% of the Buisiness-as-Usual case by 2050 and greatly slowing down demand growth rates after 2045, and the more drastic scenario even sees hydrocarbon demand peak by 2040. These ndings indicate the importance of taking into account the "circularity" when making long-term forecasts of global oil market.

Recent Progress on Sustainable 2,5-Furandicarboxylate-Based Polyesters: Properties and Applications

“…Plastic consumption has globally increased in different regional markets such as Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, as shown in Figure a. − According to this survey, we studied the biggest market in Europe. Simultaneously, we also observed and possibly forecasted that the global future demand for plastics has increased in terms of annual market value around the world, as shown in Figure b. − As is well known, terephthalic acid (TPA) has been extensively employed as a material in different homopolyesters like polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), and polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) and copolyesters such as polyethylene coisosorbide terephthalate (PEIT), polyisosorbide furanoate- co -azelate (PISFAz), and polyisosorbide azelate homopolyester (PISAz). , 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid (2,5-FDCA) is a renewable and biobased alternative to TPA due to their structural similarities .…”