The research institute of petroleum industry of Iran has long been engaged in scientific-research activities for identifying, quality control and application of petroleum mulch, as well as improving their environmental aspects.
A summary of these activities and researches are as follows:
1- Quality control and compilation of specifications for petroleum mulches produced by domestic refineries in the past years.
2- Performing researches in the field of production and application of heavy petroleum mulches, in order to improving the quality of produced mulch in the domestic refineries.
3- Carrying out investigations on improving the quality of petroleum mulch, in order to quantitative and qualitative consideration of environmental impacts of using petroleum mulch in the sand dune stabilization on any water, soil, plant and animal resources and socio-economic status of the sites.
4- Co-operation in the field application of mulch.
5- Carrying out investigations on the performance of bitumen emulsions for use as mulch, in the laboratory-scale. Due to its greater penetration in the soil, better coating, better fluidity, easy and safe execution, less energy consumption, in site production and water based structure, which is more useful for plant seeds, bitumen emulsion mulches could be more suitable than petroleum mulches.
It should be noted that in 2018, at the request of the Forests, Range & Watershed Management Organization, an agreement was reached to cooperate in the field of monitoring, quality control and research on petroleum and emulsion mulches, which was unfortunately stopped.
The Research Institute of Petroleum Industry of Iran with several years of experience in the field of petroleum mulch, specialized manpower and well equipped laboratories, has the technical knowledge of the production of heavy petroleum mulch and is ready to cooperate and carry out scientific researches in order to improve the quality of these products.
