APPE - Association of Petrochemical Producers in Europe

SAN: See Styrene-acrylonitrile
SBR: See Styrene-butadiene rubber
SHE: Safety, Health and Environment
SIAM: SIDS Initial Assessment Meeting - See HPV Programme
SIAP: SIDS Initial Assessment Profile (SIAP) - See HPV Programme
SIAR: SIDS Initial Assessment Report (SIAR) - See HPV Programme
SIDS: Screening Initial Data Set Dossier - See HPV Programme
SIRC: Styrene Information and Research Council (USA)
SME: Small and medium-sized enterprise
Solvent: A solvent is a liquid that has the ability to dissolve, suspend or extract other materials, without chemical change to the material or solvent. Solvents make it possible to process, apply, clean or separate materials. Water is an inorganic solvent. Organic solvents include hydrocarbon solvents, oxygenated solvents and chlorinated solvents. Visit the dedicated website.
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SPI: Society of Plastics Industry (USA)
Stabiliser: A stabiliser is a substance added to another substance to prevent an alteration of its physical state. Stabilisers are added to plastics so as to allow them to have a long and useful life in any application, by keeping their properties stable.
Steam cracking-Steam cracker: Steam cracking, a further application of thermal cracking, is a petrochemical process used to produce olefinic raw materials (e.g. propylene, ethylene) from various feedstocks for petrochemicals manufacture. The feedstocks range from ethane to vacuum gas oil, with heavier feeds giving higher yields of by-products such as naphtha. The most common feeds are ethane, butane, and naphtha.
Styrene: Styrene is a clear, colourless liquid that is derived from petroleum and natural gas by-products, but which also occurs naturally. Styrene is used to create plastic materials used in a wide range of strong, flexible, and lightweight products. It is used in everything from food containers and packaging materials to cars, boats, and computers.
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Styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN): SAN is a transparent, rigid styrenic plastic offering high chemical resistance, used mainly in the automotive, electrical and electronics industry, as well as in household applications and building products..
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Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR): SBR is a rubber manufactured from styrene. Because of its excellent abrasion resistance, it is widely used in automobile and truck tyres, as well as for carpet backing and paper coating. Other applications are in belting, flooring, wire and cable insulation, and footwear..
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Styrenic plastics: Plastics based on resins made by the polymerization of styrene or co-polymerization of styrene with other unsaturated compounds the styrene being in greatest amount by weight. Styrene plastics are easy to process and offer excellent price/performance ratios. Polystyrenes are used everywhere: as packaging materials or containers, and in a wide range of appliance and equipment housings..
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Substance: The word "substance" is used to mean chemical elements and their compounds in the natural state or obtained by any production process, including any additive necessary to preserve the stability of the product. In the European legislation, only the word "substance" is used.
Superabsorbents: Polymers of acrylic acid, superabsorbent material is widely-used in personal care products to absorb fluids. It comes in the form of large particles, about the size of table salt, that are enclosed in the interior of the product, and helps to keep skin healthy and consumers comfortable. Superabsorbent material can absorb 100 times its weight in water.
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Surfactant: Surfactants are products used as detergents, dispersing agents, emulsifiers, wetting agents, foaming or anti-foam agents, and solubilisers. They also constitute the raw material for the formulation of household products such as fabric detergents, shampoos, housecleaning products, as well as industrial auxiliary products for facilitating work in the manufacture of textile, flotation agents for ore, metal working, etc. They are used in other sectors of industry such as food processing, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals and public works.
Sustainable development: Humanity's ability "to make development sustainable, i.e. to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". The European chemical industry supports this position, as defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development established by the United Nations.
Synthesis-Synthetic: The production of a substance by the union of chemical elements, groups, or simpler compounds, or by the degradation of a complex compound.
Synthetic rubbers: Synthetic rubbers are made of raw material derived from petroleum, coal, oil, natural gas, and acetylene. Many of them are copolymers, i.e., polymers consisting of more than one monomer.

Glossary