Uncertainties in the social, economic, and natural environment are changing workplace behaviors and are setting new demands, especially laws that govern business and society in general. Chapter One discusses this trend in relation to the oil and gas industry. Chapter Two provides a review on the mechanisms and interactions leading to loss of cement integrity, and presents approaches that have tested successfully under the reservoir condition to enhance the resistance of cements when it is exposed to supercritical CO2. Chapter Three deals with the pollution of surface and groundwater by oil products, i.e., prevention of their spreading, integrated approach to modeling of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in an oil refinery, impact assessment of effluent discharge on receiving water and removal of selected oil substances by ozonation and O3/UV processes. Chapter Four gives an overview of the emerging technologies for biomass conversion, hydrocarbon chemistry and sugar and sugar-derivative chemistry. Herein, bio-crude production and characterization; model catalytic cracking, the hydrocracking of ketal-compounds and new results concerning the fluidized catalytic cracking of model ketal-compounds are also described.
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