Refinery Feedstocks and Operations

Products from refinery feedstocks, such as the various types of petroleum (including heavy crude oil), the various viscous feedstocks (such as extra heavy oil and tar sand bitumen), and unconventional sources such as liquids from coal (coal liquids), oil shale (shale oil), and biomass (bio-oil) are important aspects of current and future energy sources. In addition, it is projected with some degree of speculation that the continued use of fossil resources at current rates will have serious and irreversible consequences for the global climate, although other natural effects are also in play ( Speight, 2020d ). Whatever the rationale and however the numbers are manipulated, the supply of petroleum, which is the basic feedstock for refineries and for the petrochemicals industry, is finite and, in this context, the dominant position of petroleum will become unsustainable as supply and demand issues erode the economic advantage of petroleum over other alternative feedstocks.