Environmental brought

The land under the facilities may also have to be reconditioned if pollutants have been allowed to escape during operation. The return of industrial sites to green field conditions has proved very expensive for many companies in the USA, and a number of law suits are currently outstanding, brought by local authorities and environmental groups. 

The primary driver ia sulfur recovery appHcations is not economic potential, but rather environmental regulation. The capital investment required for sulfur recovery faciHties is significant. Increasing pressure to maximize recovery and throughput at minimum investment is constantiy being brought to bear on the chemical process iadustry. 

In-house or outside environmental experts should be brought into the study at an early stage. By having these people in "on the ground floor, feasibility analysis, cost estimates, and environmental impact studies will be more accurate with fewer surprises later in the project. 

Significant capital expenditure usually represents a substantial commitment of the resources of a business, both financially and in terms of man-hours. It is therefore incumbent upon management to ensure that proposals for such outlays receive proper and full consideration of all the relevant implications before implementation. Once policies as to levels of authorization and commitment are laid down, there should follow the formal appraisal of the financial effects of the proposal. These can be formulated only after detailed discussion with the appropriate departments as to all the physical, technical and environmental factors involved in making the final decision. There will also be brought into consideration, where pertinent, the marketing and sales effects. 

Ecosystem services can be considered as being the goods and services provided by coupled ecological and social systems. They provide our material needs and quality of life, and we all depend on the sustainable use of ecosystems services. The Millennium Ecosystems Assessment has brought the continual capacity for coupled ecological-social systems to deliver eco-systems services into public attention. It states that the ability of many systems to deliver valuable services has been compromised by over-exploitation of several resources and environmental degradation. 

Synthetic-based muds are mineral oil muds in which the oil phase has been replaced with a synthetic fluid, such as ether, ester, PAO, or linear alkylbenzene, and are available from major mud companies. The mud selection process is based on the mud s technical performance, environmental impact, and financial impact. Synthetic muds are expensive. Two factors influence the direct cost unit or per-barrel cost and mud losses. Synthetic muds are the technical equivalent of oil-based muds when drilling intermediate hole sections. They are technically superior to all water-based systems when drilling reactive shales in directional wells. However, with efficient solids-control equipment, optimized drilling, and good housekeeping practices, the cost of the synthetic mud can be brought to a level comparable with oil-based mud [1308]. 

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