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Altarog, Abdalrawof (2023) Development of environmental management framework towards sustainability in oil and gas industry in Libya. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

Energy sources such as gas, oil and coal are significantly used due to worldwide energy consumption. Such use could be increased by 37 per cent in 2035. This increase comes from population growth, reaching 25 % in the next 20 years.

In order to apply sustainability systems in these institutions, an account of economically affordable and with minimum impact to the environment and technological viability must be considered. There are stringent regulations and scrutiny in the environment of using oil refining industries to be more sustainable worldwide.

Oil refining sectors produce huge amounts of waste that must be treated. This makes Waste management responsible for challenging the impacts of such waste on the environment and the high treatment costs.

This study reviews previous research and studies that have been carried out to investigate and address several issues regarding sustainability, especially the management of raw materials and waste, relying on management methods such as Lean six sigma. Furthermore, this study explores the difficulties that hinder oil companies and oil refineries from being more sustainable.

DMAIC, a component of the Six Sigma problem-solving approach, is one of the many methodologies used for quality improvement. This thesis demonstrates the empirical implementation of Lean, Six Sigma, and DMAIC for lowering the number of manufactured product faults inside the blending and filling of the mineral oils plant at the Zawia Oil refinery. This thesis employs the SPC approach to determine the factory's present performance, followed by the DMAIC methodology to examine faults and underlying causes and give solutions and suggestions for reducing or eliminating these problems. The SPC approach demonstrates that the factory's process is out of control and needs at least 22% improvement to achieve Quality standards. DMAIC and Lean &Six Sigma investigations indicate that obsolete machinery, bad material specifications, Lack of calibration of machines, and insufficient training have affected the number of faults and defects.

Also, the organic Rankine cycle is a well-established method for converting thermal energy from biomass combustion, geothermal reservoirs, and industrial waste heat. Nevertheless, its economic viability for petroleum applications has not yet been shown. This thesis investigates the feasibility of employing organic Rankine cycle devices to recover waste heat from the refinery chimney. This study mainly focuses on the refinery's problems: waste production and waste heat. The research contributes to solving this important environmental issue as a case study of the Libyan oil and gas industry.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Darkwa, Jo Calautit, John
Keywords:	Petroleum industry; Gas industry; Environmental aspects; Waste products; Organic Rankine cycle devices; Sustainability
Subjects:	T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Engineering > Built Environment
Item ID:	76804
Depositing User:	Altarog, Abdalrawof
Date Deposited:	09 Feb 2024 13:50
Last Modified:	09 Feb 2024 13:50
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/76804

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