[Moneyverse] Ubiquitous Petrochemicals

Ethylene helps fruits ripen and protects plants from bacteria. Bananas, avocados, kiwis, and apples emit ethylene on their own. When the ethylene concentration increases around these fruits, the ripening process accelerates.

This principle can be applied in everyday life. If you buy a large quantity of firm bananas and avocados to eat over time, but want to ripen some of them sooner, simply place the desired amount in a paper bag. The ethylene released will remain inside the bag and speed up the ripening of these fruits.

Fruit import and distribution companies have long used ethylene for this purpose. Considering the time required for transportation and customs clearance, they must import fruits before they are fully ripe. Then, they use ethylene to bring the fruits to a medium level of ripeness before shipping them out. The ethylene sprayed in ripening facilities is produced through petrochemical processes. As for ethylene feedstock, naphtha—mainly obtained by refining crude oil—is typically used.

Recently in Japan, the Middle East crisis has led to a shortage of naphtha, resulting in reduced ethylene supply. According to the Sankei Shimbun, this has caused importers of bananas, avocados, and kiwis to face difficulties in shipping their products. In Korea, however, the impact of the naphtha shortage has not spread this far.

The use of ethylene for commercial fruit ripening represents only a tiny portion of the applications for petrochemical products. Nevertheless, this example is highlighted to emphasize how closely products derived from petroleum are woven into our daily lives.

Petrochemical materials are virtually everywhere—they are truly ubiquitous. The petrochemical industry provides essential materials for everything from various plastic bags, vinyl gloves, clothes, bags, shoes, home appliances, kitchenware, office supplies, desks, chairs, medical supplies, artificial organs, flooring, mobile phones, computers, semiconductors, displays, power facilities, construction materials, to automobiles.

Petroleum has continually found new uses, from kerosene for lighting to fuel for internal combustion engines, and now as petrochemical materials. If we were to classify civilizations by their foundational materials—like the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age—modern civilization would be known as the Petrochemical Age. While there are many renewable fuels, petroleum is difficult to replace, and there are few viable alternatives for petrochemical products. In Brazil, ethanol is produced in large quantities from sugarcane, but most of this ethanol is used as biofuel rather than being converted into ethylene. Compared to naphtha, biofuels yield far fewer types of petrochemical products, are difficult to scale up in supply, and are more expensive.

The chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, who discovered the periodic table, is quoted as saying the following about petroleum: "This substance is too precious to burn. When we burn it, we are burning money. This material should be used as a raw material for chemical synthesis."

The message contained in this quote is even more relevant today. Among all raw materials, nothing matches crude oil in terms of diversity and cost-effectiveness. The call to accelerate the move away from plastics is admirable in its intent but not practical. In light of the Middle East crisis, what we need to reconsider and improve is diversifying our sources of crude oil and naphtha to maintain a stable supply chain.

Baek Woojin, Economic Columnist

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.