'Fascinating revelations' Max Hastings, Sunday Times 'An immensely valuable guide to a great and terrible industry' The Economist 'The book I have long been waiting for... Essential reading' Michael Klare Petroleum has always been used by humans: as an adhesive by Neanderthals, as a waterproofing agent in Noah's Ark and as a weapon during the Crusades. Its eventual extraction from the earth in vast quantities transformed light, heat and power. A Pipeline Runs Through It is a fresh, in-depth look at the social, economic, and geopolitical forces involved in our transition to the modern oil age. It tells an extraordinary origin story, from the pre-industrial history of petroleum through to large-scale production in the mid-nineteenth century and the development of a dominant, fully-fledged oil industry by the early twentieth century. This was always a story of imperialist violence, economic exploitation and environmental destruction. The near total eradication of the Native Americans of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio has barely been mentioned as a precondition for the emergence of the first oil region in the United States. The growth of Royal Dutch-Shell involved the genocidal subjugation of people of the Dutch East Indies and the exploitation of oil in the Middle East arose seamlessly out of Britain's prior political and military interventions in the region. Finally, in an entirely new analysis, the book shows how the British navy's increasingly desperate dependence on vulnerable foreign sources of oil may have been a catalytic ingredient in the outbreak of the First World War. The rise of oil has shaped the modern world, and this is the book to understand it.

Petroleum refining and the petrochemical industry play an important role in the current world economy. They provide the platform to convert basic raw materials into many essential products, ranging from transportation fuels (such as gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, and gas oil) to basic and intermediate materials for petrochemical industries and many other valuable chemical products. Advanced Catalysis Processes in Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential comprehensive research publication that provides knowledge on refining processes that could be integrated by the petrochemical industry and discusses how to integrate refining products with petrochemical industries through the use of new technologies. Featuring a range of topics such as biofuel production, environmental sustainability, and biorefineries, this book is ideal for engineers, chemists, industry professionals, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and petrochemical companies.