Science and Engineering of Sustainable Petroleum

Book excerpt: We are facing a crisis that threatens the sustainability of the entire planet. Civilisation has been defined up to now by how efficiently we handle our energy needs; nevertheless, today we are bombarded by proposals for alternative technologies that are more energy-intensive than whatever preceded. Engineering has come to mean more processing, greater profit margin, and yet more implosive outcome. Covering up this failure to develop sustainable alternatives highlight only short-term gain. The focus on short-term and tangibles obscures the true vision of technology users. Perpetual justifications of progressively less efficient technologies has become a rampant source of the profoundest disinformation. No sector has fallen bigger victim to this disinformation campaign than the petroleum industry. Today, the most efficient naturally processed fuel (fossil fuel) production is synonymous with unsustainability and compatibility with nature and the environment. Accompanying this slogan is the environmentalists drumbeat about renewable energy.Everywhere people are sold on the idea that even genetically altered vegetable oil is sustainable and efficient whereas natural crude oil exploitation is not. With this slogan, it has become fashionable to replace the agricultural industry with renewable energy production and try to replace fossil fuel energy with nuclear energy. The industry that single-handedly served mankind a globalisation panacea on a silver platter has now become a villain worthy of being replaced with the makers of nuclear bombs and DDT. Similarly, carbon dioxide -- the essence of life and energy, through photosynthesis -- has become the other villain that must be sequestered and possibly replaced by hydrogen and even radioactive nuclear spent fuel.