Written by an author with over 38 years of experience in the chemical and petrochemical process industry this handbook will present an analysis of the process steps used to produce industrial hydrocarbons from various raw materials. It is the first book to offer a thorough analysis of external factors effecting production such as: cost availability and environmental legislation. An A-Z list of raw materials and their properties are presented along with a commentary regarding their cost and availability. Specific processing operations described in the book include: distillation thermal cracking and coking catalytic methods hydroprocesses thermal and catalytic reforming isomerization alkylation processes polymerization processes solvent processes water removal fractionation and acid gas removal.