Environmental Technology in the Oil Industry

A. AHNELL and H. O''LEARY 1.1 Environmental technology Perhaps the place to start this book is with definitions of the two key words [1]: • Technology - the scientific study and practical application of the industrial arts, applied sciences, etc., or the method for handling a specific technical problem. • Environmental - all the conditions, circumstances and influences surrounding and affecting the development of an organism or group of organisms. Environmental technology is the scientific study or the application of methods to understand and handle problems which influence our surround­ ings and, in the case of this book, the surroundings around oil industry facilities and where oil products are used. Traditionally the phrase has meant the application of additional treatment processes added on to industrial processes to treat air, water and waste before discharge to the environment. Increasingly the phrase has a new meaning where the concept is to create cleaner process technology and move towards sustainabili ty. 1.2 The beginning As we begin our discussion of environmental technology, it is important to take a few moments to remember how we became so involved with this substance, oil. Regardless of our opinions about its use, oil is, and has been, the key resource in the twentieth century. From humble beginnings as a medicine and a lamp oil, oil has become the energy of choice for transport and many other applications and the feedstock for a major class of the material used today, plastic.