desiccants, cattle and sheep dips, and dyestuffs is necessarily synthetic or artificially processed. Today, arsenic continues to be widely used in agriculture, in glass and ceramics, as a metal alloy, and in semiconductors and other electronic devices – all causing irreparable harm to the environment. It is no surprise that the entire branch of toxicology deals with only artificial type of arsenic products (Hughes, 2002).
2.2.5 Refining Techniques
In terms of processing of petroleum crude, Al-Rāzī’s work is likely the oldest complete reference available today. In his Kitāb al-Asār, Al-Rāzī described two methods for the production of kerosene, termed naft abyad (white petroleum), using an apparatus called an alembic. Picture 2.1 shows this device. The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts (Bearman et al., 2012):
1 the “cucurbit” (Arabic, qar‘; Greek, βίκος, bikos), the still pot containing the liquid to be distilled
2 The “head” or “cap” (Arabic, al-anbīq; from Greek ἄμβιξ, ambix, meaning `cup, beaker`) fits over the mouth of the cucurbit to receive the vapors,
3 A downward-sloping “tube” (Greek σωλήν, sōlēn), leading to the “receiver” (Arabic, kābīlā, Greek ἄγγος, angos, or φιάλη, phialē) container.
This set up is often reduced to one retort, used for distillation. This setup, however, uses open fire and the material used in different parts is entirely sustainable, it has no artificial material in it. The original process was used to prepare rose water.
One method used clay as an absorbent, whereas the other method used ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac). The distillation process was repeated until most of the volatile hydrocarbon fractions had been removed and the final product was perfectly clear and safe to burn. It is not clear from the literature what was the most used source for producing kerosene, but the word naft implies a petroleum source. However, it is conceivable similar technique was used to refine olive oil, which would in fact produce gases that are beneficial to human health (Islam et al., 2010). During the same period, kerosene was also produced during the same period from oil shale and bitumen by heating the rock to extract the oil, which was then distilled.
Picture 2.1 The refining technique used by the Alchemists.
Similarly, Avicenna wrote volumes on plants and their uses. His instruction manual also contained refining processes. His improvement of the cooling system within the distillation apparatus is most noteworthy (Waines, 2010).
Today, such distillation processes are all be eliminated. Perhaps the closest to retaining the original sustainable refining technologies is the perfume industry, for which extracting essential oils from plants is the biggest technological challenge. The advantage of distillation is that the volatile components can be distilled at temperatures lower than the boiling points of their individual constituents and are easily separated from the condensed water. For the perfume industry, the use of water is desirable as water is the most ubiquitous material and does not alter the original aroma. Such fascination for water is absent in the chemical industry, particularly the ones dealing with petroleum fluids. In fact, in considering petroleum waste disposal, water is considered to be an undesirable by-product of the petroleum operation that need to be removed in order to ensure proper functioning of the refining process.
Similarly, the process of expression, also referred to as cold pressing, is popular in the perfume industry. Numerous essential oils are routinely extracted through cold pressing. In particular, citrus essential oils, such as tangerine, lemon, bergamot, sweet orange, and lime employ the process of expression. In older times, expression was done in the form of sponge pressing. The zest or rind of the citrus would first be soaked in warm water to make the rind more receptive to the pressing process. A sponge would then be used to press the rind, thus breaking the essential oil cavities, and absorb the essential oil. Once the sponge was filled with the extraction, it would then be pressed over a collecting container, and there it would stand to allow for the separation of the essential oil and water/juice. The essential oil would finally be siphoned off. Centuries ago, less labor-intensive processes have been employed. One such process, termed the Écuelle à piquer, involves a prodding, pricking, sticking action to release the essential oil. During this process, the rind of the fruit is placed in a container having spikes that will puncture the peel while the device is rotated. The puncturing of the rind will release the essential oil that is then collected in a small area below the container. While it is not commonly understood, the material used in those puncturing spikes would affect both the quality of the essential oil and the sustainability of the process (Khan and Islam, 2016). Today, the majority of modern expression techniques are accomplished by using machines using centrifugal force. The spinning in a centrifuge separates the majority of essential oil from the fruit juice.
2.3 Beginning of the Petroleum Culture
Captain Edwin L. Drake, a career railroad conductor who devised a way to drill a practical oil well, is usually credited to have drilled the first-ever oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. Curiously, initial “thirst” for oil was for seeking a replacement of natural oils (e.g. from whales) as a lubricating agent. Recall the need for such oil owing to a surge of mechanical devices in mid 1800s. Even if one discards the notion that petroleum was in use for thousands of years, there is credible evidence that the first well in modern age was drilled in Canada. Canadian, Charles Nelson Tripp, a foreman of a stove foundry, was the first in North America to have recovered commercial petroleum products. The drilling was completed in 1851 at Enniskillen Township, near Sarnia, in present-day Ontario, which was known as Canada West at that time. Soon after the “mysterious” “gum bed” was discovered, first oil company was incorporated in Canada through a parliamentary charter. Unlike Captain Drake’s project, this particular project was a refining endeavor in order to extract fuel from bitumen. Tripp became the president of this company on December 18, 1854. The charter empowered the company to explore for asphalt beds and oil and salt springs, and to manufacture oils, naphtha paints, burning fluids. Even though this company (International Mining and Manufacturing) was not a financial success, the petroleum products received an honorable mention for excellence at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1855. Failure of the company can be attributed to several factors contributed to the downfall of the operation. Lack of roads in the area made the movement of machinery and equipment to the site extremely difficult. And after every heavy rain the area turned into a swamp and the gum beds made drainage extremely slow. This added to the difficulty of distributing finished products. It was at that time that need for processing petroleum products in order to make it more fluid surfaced.
In 1855, James Miller Williams took over the business of refining petroleum in Lambton County from Charles Nelson Tripp. At that time, it was a small operation, with 150 gallon/day asphalt production. Williams set out during a drought in September 1858 to dig a drinking water well down-slope from it but struck free oil instead, thereby becoming the first person to produce a commercial oil well in North America, one year before Edwin Drake. Also of significance the fact that he set up Canada’s first refinery of crude oil to produce kerosene, based on the laboratory work of Abraham Gesner. Interestingly, Gesner was a medical doctor by training (from London) but took special interest in geology. He is the one credited to have invented kerosene to take over the previous market, saturated with whale oil - a wholly natural product. It was this Gesner, who in 1850 created the Kerosene Gas Light Company and began installing lighting in the streets in Halifax and other cities. By 1854, he had expanded to the United States where he created the North American Kerosene Gas Light Company at Long Island, New York. Demand grew to where his company’s capacity to produce became a problem, but the discovery of
