ABSTRACT
In spite of claims to the contrary that are based on the concept of peak oil (Hubbert, 1962), the world is not on the verge of running out of petroleum, heavy oil, or tar sand bitumen (Chapter 1; BP, 2015). However, in spite of the current volatility of petroleum, cheap petroleum may be difficult to obtain in the future as recent price fluctuations have indicated-the causes vary from petroleum being more difficult to obtain from underground formations, especially tight formations (Chapter 1), to the petropolitics of the various oil-producing nations (Speight, 2011a). However, with the entry into the twenty-first century, petroleum refining technology is experiencing great innovation driven by the increasing supply of heavy oils with decreasing quality and the fast increases in the demand for clean and ultraclean vehicle fuels and petrochemical raw materials. As feedstocks to refineries change, there must be an accompanying change in refinery technology. In addition, there will be a need to control the effects of possible changes in crude oil slate on the emissions of carbon dioxide (MathPro Inc., 2013). This means a movement from conventional means of refining heavy feedstocks using (the currently typical) coking technologies to more innovative processes (including hydrogen management) that will produce the ultimate amounts of liquid fuels from feedstocks and maintain emissions within environmental compliance (Penning, 2001; Davis and Patel, 2004; Speight, 2008, 2014a; Farnand et al., 2015).
