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A comment on How an Oil Refinery Works. Parent comment

Re:How an Oil Refinery Works by deepsun on Thursday April 30, 2026 @04:51PM (#47968069)
That's why plastic bags are so cheap -- ethanol is a byproduct, but you earn more if you discard it and sell only oil.

But the burned up ethanol would be perfectly suitable for products.

Nowadays there are some regulations to prevent that, so they may sell up ethanol at negative prices sometimes.

UPDATE: Ethene, not ethanol.

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Re:How an Oil Refinery Works by nayuki on Thursday April 30, 2026 @05:32PM (#47968492)
You wrote ethanol (C₂H₆O), but do you mean ethylene/ethene (C₂H₄)? Polyethylene (PE) is a very common plastic, such as HDPE, LDPE, PET.
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Re:How an Oil Refinery Works by deepsun on Thursday April 30, 2026 @05:57PM (#47968758)
You're right, sorry, I thought of ethene.

Like here is a good review https://youtu.be/325HdQe4WM4

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