Insights into the Fundamentals and Principles of the Oil and Gas Industry: The Impact of Nanotechnology

Globally, crude oil is an invaluable source of energy and raw materials for major industries that are related to daily life. However, the oil and gas industry is facing a significant number of environmental, technical, and industrial challenges that require the development of different technologies to meet production goals, as well as industrial and environmental regulations. This chapter introduces a description of the petroleum industry from exploration up to petrochemical production and highlights the impact of nanotechnology in different but related processes. The oil and gas industry can be divided into three main categories: the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors, which are also known as the refining process. The upstream and midstream sectors include oil exploration, production, and transportation. In these sectors, nanotechnology may contribute in developing more efficient, less expensive, and more environmentally sound technologies than those which are readily available, such as developing unique nano-based sensors for the oil well exploration process and synthesizing nanomaterials with a hydrophobic surface for scale inhibition in oil production tubes. The downstream sector and its related oil refinery processes include crude distillation, thermal cracking, fluid catalytic cracking, hydrofluoric acid alkylation, hydrotreating, hydrocracking, catalytic reforming, and the isomerization process. In the downstream sector, the contribution of nanotechnology is focused on developing catalysts with a high level of stability and performance that can be used in different catalysis processes in refinery plants, such as the fluid catalytic cracking and hydrotreating processes.