Refinery Feedstocks

Over the last several decades, the petroleum industry has experienced significant changes in resource availability, petro-politics, and technological advancements dictated by the changing quality of refinery feedstocks. However, the dependence on fossil fuels as the primary energy source has remained unchanged.

Refinery Feedstocks addresses the problems of changing feedstock availability and properties; the refining process; and solids deposition during refining. This book will take the reader through the various steps that are necessary for crude oil evaluation and refining including the potential for the use of coal liquids, shale oil, and non-fossil fuel materials (biomass) as refinery feedstocks.

Other features:

• Describes the various types of crude oil and includes a discussion of extra heavy oil and tar sand bitumen
• Includes basic properties and specifications of crude oil and the significance in refinery operations

This book is a handy reference for engineers, scientists, and students who want an update on crude oil refining and on the direction the industry must take to assure the refinability of various feedstocks and the efficiency of the refining processes in the next fifty years. Non-technical readers, with help from the extensive glossary, will also benefit from reading this book.

Dr. James G. Speight has doctorate degrees in Chemistry, Geological Sciences, and Petroleum Engineering and is the author of more than 75 books in petroleum science, petroleum engineering, and environmental sciences. He has more than fifty years of experience in areas associated with (i) the properties, recovery, and refining of reservoir fluids, conventional petroleum, heavy oil, and tar sand bitumen, (ii) the properties and refining of natural gas, gaseous fuels, (iii) the production and properties of petrochemicals, and (iv) the properties and refining of biomass, biofuels, biogas, and the generation of bioenergy. His work has also focused on safety issues, environmental effects, remediation, and safety issues as well as reactors associated with the production and use of fuels and biofuels. He is the author of more than 70 books in petroleum science, petroleum engineering, biomass and biofuels, environmental sciences.

Although he has always worked in private industry which focused on contract-based work, he has served as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical and Fuels Engineering at the University of Utah and in the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Wyoming. In addition, he was a Visiting Professor in the College of Science, University of Mosul, Iraq and has also been a Visiting Professor in Chemical Engineering at the following universities: University of Missouri-Columbia, the Technical University of Denmark, and the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Dr. Speight was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1996 and awarded the Gold Medal of Honor that same year for outstanding contributions to the field of petroleum sciences. He has also received the Scientists without Borders Medal of Honor of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2001, the Academy also awarded Dr. Speight the Einstein Medal for outstanding contributions and service in the field of Geological Sciences.