Bioregions and future state visioning: a visually integrative approach to the presentation of information for environmental policy and management.

This thesis explores the comparatively new philosophy of bioregionalism to see what it might have to offer the environmental management process. The foundations of bioregional philosophy stretch back into the early part of last century with roots in the thinking of the early 'anarchist geographers' such as Peter Kropotkin. Input also comes from contemporaneous regionalist planners such as Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford. However, it was not until the early 1970s that Alan van Newkirk coined the phrase 'Bioregion'. Since then there has been steady growth in bioregional literature that clearly aligns it to ecocentric philosophies that are embraced by social movements like Deep Ecology. However, the most important part of bioregionalism is the bioregions construct. Whatever the philosophical inclinations of bioregionalist authors, the bioregion is presented as an identifiable entity, which is suited to be the basis for the formulation of strategy and planning and it is this that is of interest to this thesis. The basis for the study is the hypothesis that the need for a holistic approach to environmental management and planning requires more than the incremental approaches currently used, if tragedies like Easter Island are not to be repeated on a larger scale. The idea of future state visioning is taken from industry and commerce and given an environmental perspective to provide the visionary dimension required by such a holistic process. However, a visionary process is best served by a visualization tool, particularly where non-expert, community participation is deemed essential. The process of mapping bioregions is just such a tool. The proposal that bioregional mapping is suitable as a tool requires that bioregions, as a construct, are demonstrable entities, as claimed by the literature. Tberefore, a mapping exercise that allowed the testing of this principle was undertaken for Scotland as the test area. A methodology was developed, using a Geographical Information System to assist in the mapping and analysis. Statistical analysis of the resultant theoretical bioregional model showed that the bioregions had good agreement with other methods of dividing Scotland into regions. They also showed better agreement with these other regionalisations than politically defined regions. The notion that watersheds can be substituted for bioregions was rejected. Therefore, it was shown that bioregions are demonstrable entities,albeit sensitive to scale. The bioregions produced from first principles were compared to an independent qualitatively developed model, The results of this comparison reinforces a suggestion that a 'science of quantities' needs to be tempered by a 'science of qualities' when stakeholder participation and interpretation is important. The dramatic story of the social and environmental collapse of Easter Island is a metaphor for the situation facing the Earth, as a whole on the one hand, and to introduce the arguments of sustainability and regionality on the other. Easter Island is isolated, with almost no external inputs, like the Earth, but on a different scale. However, it is also a part of the Earth. From many sources, there is agreement that the natural environment of the Earth is under threat, not just on the local scale but on a global scale as well. Bioregions are proposed as a holistic way of mapping the environment to inform the future state visioning process, which is offered as a tool at the level of strategic management. Bioregional mapping and environmental future state visioning were proposed as vehicles for stakeholder participation and the recognition of cultural factors in environmental management and planning. Future work should include investigating future state visioning solutions to more localised and community focused environmental management problems. Scotland, as the subject for analysis, provides a manageable compromise between the extreme isolation and singularity of Easter Island and the multiplicity of the regions of the world. Scotland is an area that has good data on its various forms of regionality, including cultural and biogeographic regions

The effect of composition and structure of crude-oil models on fouling phenomena using a stirred batch reactor

Fouling of crude oils in the heat exchangers of the refinery preheat train (PHT) is a common problem. The varying composition and complex phase behaviour of crude oils presents significant challenges when processing at high temperatures. Precipitation of asphaltenes from the oil and corrosion fouling at high temperatures results in the build-up of deposits on heat exchanger wall surfaces, reducing heat and momentum transfer. This results in significant economic and environmental impact. Studying this phenomenon from a physicochemical perspective remains challenging as crude oil compositions vary widely. In particular, asphaltenes, the heaviest oil fraction, exhibits phase behaviour which is highly dependent on temperature and blend composition. This work augments existing understanding of fouling behaviour of crude oils at high temperature by focusing on their compositions by blending, fractionation (into asphaltenes and maltenes) and recombination with model solvents. Synthetic asphaltene model-compound solutions were developed to study fouling in a repeatable and controlled manner, and their fouling characteristics were validated against those of naturally occurring crude oils. Fouling experiments for crude oils were conducted in a purpose – built laboratory scale system described in this work. This apparatus simulated the hydrodynamic conditions found in latter stage PHT heat exchangers. These studies formed the basis of comparison for later experiments, testing both fractionated oil solutions and synthetic asphaltene solutions utilising high boiling-point solvents (n-dodecane and 1-methylnaphthalene). Commissioning experiments revealed that fouling behaviour was influenced by several factors. Not only was the production of deposits highly dependent on the process conditions, blend composition and preparation of the test fluids, but also the cleaning procedure of the system. Traces of residual deposits were believed to act as nucleation sites for further deposit production and activity of the heated wall surface was subject to cycling passivation. When fractionated oil solutions were used, solution stability at process conditions was the primary driver of fouling; high concentrations of asphaltenes were relatively stable in 1-methylnaphthalene, but low concentrations were highly unstable in solutions containing large proportions of n-dodecane, an incompatible solvent. Maltene fouling was similarly dependant on its solution stability. Solutions of synthesised model asphaltenes based on alkylpyrene and perylene diimides, exhibited very different behaviour under process conditions. A long alkyl-chain perylene diimide (PDI-C12) alone exhibited strong fouling behaviour at process conditions. It exhibited marginal solubility in 1-methylnaphthalene and high thermal lability, resulting in significant insoluble deposits which also caused corrosion of the steel wall surface.Open Acces