College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science

School of Engineering
Discipline of Chemical Engineering

ENCH4PP: Petroleum and

Synthetic Fuel Processing

Report

October 2018

An Overview of Oil Sand (Tar Sand) Extraction and Processing

Prepared by: Yajna Oodith

Supervisor: Professor Amir H. Mohammadi

Submission Date: 23/10/2018

 Executive Summary

Oil sands also known as tar sands are naturally occurring deposits. The constituents of
oil sand are sand, silt/clay particles, heavy oils, minerals and water. The heavy or thick
oil is known as bitumen. Bitumen can be described a viscous dark brown to black solid.
They are desirable due to the bitumen which can be used in construction products such
as roads or roofs and they can be used to produce crude oil. The process of oil sands
basically consists of extraction (either by open-pit mining or in-situ), upgrading and
refining. The processing and refining to lighter hydrocarbon and more desired products,
make use of bifunctional catalyst in hydrocracking units and metal catalysts in catalytic
cracking units. Each plant maybe set up differently due to different compositions of
bitumen extracted. The economics of oil sand processing are determined by the
composition and demands by end users. The economics play an important role since the
products from oil sands are used to generate electricity. There are many environmental
concerns associated with the oil sands processing due to land disturbance, greenhouse
gas emission and water consumption. New techniques are investigated to reduce
environmental concerns.
1. Introduction

Oil sands also known as tar sands are one of naturally occurring unconventional oil
reservoirs. The constituents of oil sand are sand, silt/clay particles, heavy oils, minerals and
water. The heavy or thick oil is known as bitumen. Bitumen can be described a dark brown to
black solid. The bitumen is heavy and can therefore not flow or be pumped without being
heated or diluted. Bitumen is comprised of mainly different hydrocarbons. Bitumen can be
broken down into four main components, asphaltenes, resinous components (polar aromatics),
naphtene aromatics (non-polar aromatics) and saturates (Raha Bitumen, 2016). At ambient
temperatures bitumen exists as a thermoplastic solid or semi-solid, upon heating the viscosity
of the bitumen reduces.

The lighter fractions of bitumen can be refined into liquid petroleum gas, petrol and
diesel from heavy crude oil. Majority bitumen is used in construction as a binder for roads and
paving. The various products from refined bitumen make sand oil process valuable. It is one of
the earliest used materials in industry as an adhesive. Majority of the oils are in the form of oil
sands, approximately more than 2 trillion barrels although some of these are not recoverable
due to depth and structure of the deposit.

The global demand for energy is ever-growing due to an increase in population and
advancements in technology. The demand for energy increases by ~26% each year
(International Energy Agency, 2015). Energy can be sourced from fossil fuels which dominate
generation of electricity; these are naturally occurring and are generally non-renewable sources
such as coal or oil (Future Energy Africa, 2018). Non-fossil fuels are solar or wind power. Coal
and conventional oil as a source of fuel are depleting and can no longer satisfy the demand for
energy. Therefore, other methods have become extremely important to industry such as
unconventional oil as a source of fuel. Oil provides 23% of the energy in Africa as compared
to 14% for coal and 14% for gas (Future Energy Africa, 2018). Oil sands are seen as a stable
source of energy for the future.

Sand oils are advantageous since they satisfy environmental and economic concerns
unlike coal (Shell, 2014). There is an abundance of oil sand reserves found in Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela with Canada having the world’s third largest oil reserves (Shell, 2014). Currently
not all oil is produced from oil sands. Canada is one of the only reservoirs to produce oil from
oil sands due to the large scale industry of oil sands. Canada produces approximately 40% of

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its oil from oil sands (Ostseis, 2012). Extraction processes for sand oil include drilling and
mining, depending on the depth and position of the deposit. Open-pit mining techniques are
employed for bitumen found within 70m of the surface and in situ drilling techniques are used
for deeper deposits.

Most of the oil sands are recovered using the in-situ drilling technique~80%. The in-
situ operation makes use of steam that is pumped underground to heat the bitumen liquefying
it, so it can be pumped to the surface. The disadvantage of drilling is that the process is energy
intensive however this process has a smaller footprint on the environment. Direction drilling
can be used to reduce the footprint. Around the world the heavy oil sands amount to 9 trillion
barrels over 280 basins, this has environmental concerns (Liggio et al., 2016). The process is
energy and water intensive and has environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions,
disturbance of mining land, and leads to air and water pollution. In an attempt to solve
environmental issues the upstream greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands has decreased over
the years. From 2009 till 2017 emissions dropped by 21% per a barrel of bitumen produced
(OGJ editors, 2018).

2. Composition and properties of oil sands

Oil sands/ Tar sands are a type of fossil fuel. These deposits are formed from organic
matter which decays according to specific temperatures and pressure. The light hydrocarbons
are consumed by microbe bacteria leaving behind the heavy fractions including sulphur. They
consist of sand, heavy oil, water, minerals and silt/clay. The sand oil deposits can be found
deep underground as well as on the surface. They are naturally formed over years and reside in
wells. The valued product is the heavy oil also known as bitumen which contains the heavy
hydrocarbons found in crude petroleum. The amount of bitumen contained in a well, ranges
from 1% to 20% (Fuel Chemistry, 2006). The heavy oil can be described as a black to brown
semi-solid at ambient temperature. The mixture is known to soften upon heating; usually steam
is injected underground to liquefy the sand oils so they can be transported to the top. This is
one of the methods that employ in situ techniques. Bitumen is comprised of 83.2% carbon,
10.4% hydrogen, 0.94% oxygen, 0.36% nitrogen and 4.8% sulphur (Fuel Chemistry, 2006).
Bitumen can be broken down into four main components, asphaltenes, resinous components

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(polar aromatics), naphtene aromatics (non-polar aromatics) and saturates (Raha Bitumen,
2016).

Figure 1: Oil sands to bitumen.

3. Oil reserves

There are multiple sand oil reserves around the world. With Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela having the largest oil reserve (Oil & Gas Journal, 2012) but Canada has the largest
sand oil reserve in the world (Alberta). Canada is the only country in the world to produce most
of its oil from oil sands, approximately 40% oil.

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 Figure 2: Oil reserves around the world.

Figure 3: Oil sand reserves around the world.

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4. Products

There are many products that can be manufactured from the heavy oil (bitumen)
recovered. Canada produces approximately 40% of its oil from oil sands (Ostseis, 2012).
Adhesives are the main products of bitumen and can be made to any emulsion according to the
customer needs. In South Africa the bitumen is mainly used for the construction of roads and
paving. Other products include fuels such as petrol and diesel. These are the most valued
products and can only be obtained from the lighter fractions of the bitumen. To produce crude
oil products the bitumen must be upgraded by chemical treatment to reduce the sulphur content
and the viscosity of the oil. The heavy product is known as dilbit or dilutes bitumen which has
high sulphur content (sour heavy crude) and the light fraction is known as light synthetic crude
oil which can be further refined to gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other light fuels. Gasoline is the
major product derived from crude oil, approximately 42.7% of the crude oil with diesel at
27.4% (Oil Sands Magazine, 2018).

5. Extraction of bitumen

The processing of oil sands can be divided into 3 parts. The first part is extraction which
involves the removal of sand, water and fine clay from the bitumen, the second part is
improving the quality of the bitumen and the final step is refining of the crude oil to products.

The mining is a preliminary step to the extraction process. There are two main types of
mining that can be used to extract the oil sands. Open-pit mining/ surface mining and in-situ
mining are techniques used. The open-pit mining/ surface mining is used for surface oil sands
and in-situ mining is used for oil sands found deeper 70km. Open-pit mining involves trucks
digging up the oils sands from the surface and transporting them to the plant (refer to figure 8).

As mentioned earlier, surface mining is a method which is used to

extract bitumen from oil sands where the oil sands deposits are found quite near to the surface.
If the reserves are sufficiently shallow, heavy duty equipment can dig out the oil sand for
further processing. These oil sand deposits must lie within 75 meters of the surface in order for
it to be mined in this manner. The resources which are recoverable using this type of extraction
method are estimated to be 65 billion barrels in Alberta (Government of Alberta, 2015).
Currently, around 500 square kilometers of the oil sands deposit in Northern Alberta is

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undergoing surface mining, which is only 3% of total oil sands (Alberta Energy, 2015). To
unearth the oil sand, large vehicles such as trucks make use of scoops which collect the oil sand
and transfer it to a cleaning facility. These trucks and scoops are huge in size. This collection
step is known as extraction. In total, 2 tonnes of oil sand must be received and processed with
2-4 barrels of water (as an estimate) to produce one barrel of crude oil in its synthetic form
(Alberta Energy, 2015). After extraction, the sand must be removed from the bitumen before
the bitumen itself can be upgraded and thereafter refined. The first step in this separation is
known as conditioning. This step involves breaking down the large pieces of oil sand after
which the oil sand is mixed with water. Hydro-transport pipelines agitate the mixture and
transfer it to the extraction facility. This results in the breaking of bonds which are holding the
bitumen, water, and sand together.

The second step is referred to as separation which involves feeding the hot water and
the water-oil sand mix into a vessel where the three components separated. Within this vessel,
there is usually some kind of diluting chemical which is present (Alberta Energy, 2015). Three
layers form with bitumen froth that floats on top, sand sinking to the bottom and an
amalgamation of bitumen, sand, clay, and water in the middle. This process takes about 20
minutes and removes the thick bitumen from the sand (Government of Alberta, 2015). The
component that does not consist of bitumen which remains is composed of sand, water, fine
clays, and minerals. This remaining component is referred to as tailings and is thereafter sent
to tailings ponds which allows the sand to settle out. This mixture is then sent to tailings ponds.

The secondary separation thereafter occurs and air is introduced into the middle
component in a floatation tank. This stimulates the creation of more bitumen froth to obtain
more bitumen. This froth is heated and the air bubbles are removed to allow pumps to operate
efficiently.

The next step involved in the process is froth treatment where the solids and water are
removed from the bitumen froth. The bitumen is then diluted with naphtha and sent to a series
of settlers and centrifuges to allow particles to settle and be removed completely. There are two
types of centrifuges which are utilized, the first is known as the scroll centrifuge which
removes larger particles and the disc centrifuge which removes finer material (Government of
Alberta, 2015). This material is sent to tailings ponds. At this point in time, the bitumen has a
low water content and consists of few solids and the extraction is complete. It can now be
upgraded and

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Figure 4: Oil sand extraction via surface mining (open-pit Mining) (Government of Alberta,
2015).

The in-situ technique is more complex and requires drilling into the ground (refer to
figure 9). Oil sands deposits located in-situ are actually deposits of oil sand which are found

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below the ground, as mentioned earlier. The amalgam of the in-situ oil sand is still the same as
the oil sand which is obtained through surface-mining. The difference is most in situ deposits
are buried more than 350-600 meters below the ground (Alberta Energy, 2015). These oil sand
deposits are buried much more deeper than the traditional oil sands deposits which are usually
75 meters deep, as mentioned earlier. There are several specific alternative options used to
extract resources from in situ deposits. Irrespective of the type of extraction method that is
used, it has to be able to reduce the viscosity of the bitumen in order for it to flow freely and it
has to provide a way to recover the bitumen from the deposit (Government of Alberta,
2015)). Commonly, the three methods which can be utilized to reduce the viscosity of the
bitumen are the steam addition, use of solvents, or use of thermal energy (Alberta Energy,
2015). In Alberta, 80% of the oil sands are found in these underground deposits and methods
such as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD: the frequent method utilized in in-situ
extraction) are required to gain access to these deposits (Government of Alberta, 2015).

Steam assisted gravity drainage begins with a pair of horizontal wells that are drilled
into the formation in order for the bitumen to be extracted from the ground. Typically these
wells are situated at least 5 m apart and 300 to 600m in depth. The length of the wells stems
about 1000 to 1500m. The minimum stem temperature is 200C with a pressure >3000kPa.
Since at 200C the bitumen has a viscosity similar to water and can therefore be pumped easily.
Within these horizontal wells are 2 parallel horizontal pipes with one of them located 4-6
meters above the other (Government of Alberta, 2015). The upper part of this arrangement is
referred to as a steam injection well whereas the bottom part is referred to as the production
well (Athabasca Oil Corporation, 2015). The water is converted into steam at a nearby plant
and is transferred to the place where the drilling is taking place. Steam is passed through the
upper well and into the reservoir which consists of the oil sand. The steam then leaves the upper
well whilst extend outwards into the formation in all directions. The heat from the steam is
then conveyed to the bitumen.

Warming of bitumen results in the reduction of its viscosity to allow it to flow more
easily. Since the viscosity was decreased drastically, it is now able to flow freely downward
under the force of gravity into the production well (Government of Alberta, 2015). The process
of draining of the bitumen is referred to as gravity drainage. From the production well, the fluid
bitumen is pumped to the surface. The steps consisting of steam injection and bitumen
production happen simultaneously and continuously. The final bitumen product and condensed

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steam emulsion is transferred via pipelines to the plant where it is distilled and treated. The
excess water from this process is recycled for generating more steam.

One such benefit of this technique of erecovery is that tailings ponds are not required
as the sand remains within the ground together with the fact that less water is utilized to produce
the oil. A single barrel of crude oil in its synthetic form only requires ½ a barrel of water.

Figure 5: A SAGD setup to extract bitumen from an oil sand deposit (Geology.com, 2017).

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 Figure 6: Overview of in-situ extraction (Alberta Energy, 2015)

6. Other in-situ extraction types

As mentioned earlier, the mining process can be open-pit mining or in-situ drilling; the
type of mining chosen is based on the depth of the oil sand deposit.

Advantages Disadvantages
-It is a cheap method. -There exists a lot of land
Open-pit Mining -More simplified. disruption after mining.
-Labour intensive process.
-There little land disturbance. -This is an expensive process
-The is more oil sand deposits since it requires a lot of steam
below 70km. and equipment.
- The aquatic life is disturbed
In-Situ
due to the large quantity of
water used.
- The emission of greenhouse
gases are more.

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There are other types of in-situ mining processes namely in-situ combustion (ISC), cold heavy
production with sand (CHOPS), Vapour-assisted petroleum extraction (VAPEX) and or cyclic
steam stimulation (CSS).

Advantages Disadvantages
-Effective Process -Excessive water usage
SADG
-Does not require much time -Water vapour emissions
-No heat loss as with steam, uses -Still in experimental stages
ISC
oxygen to burn the bitumen -Higher temperatures >400C
-Used for smaller deposits -Used in shallow areas
CHOPS -Cheaper process doesn’t require
water or solvents
-Reduce greenhouse gas emissions - Still in experimental stages.
VAPEX
-More economical than SADG
-Simple process -Time consuming takes over a year
CSS -Economical for high quality
bitumen

In overall, the extraction process involves a water-based gravity separation. The oil
sands slurry is sent to a conical vessel. The bitumen needs to be separated from the sand grains
which results better separation (refer to figure 10 below). This can be achieved when sending
the oil sand slurry to the extraction plant by hydro-transport. This involves high flowrate
(turbulent flow) for the slurry in a large diameter pipe, the impact then provides mechanical
shear to separate the bitumen from the sands. The liberation of bitumen from the sand depends
on velocity and temperature of the slurry, higher flowrates and temperatures are favoured.
However the disadvantage of this process is that it is time consuming and is costly.

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 Figure 7: Bitumen layer on the sand particle.

The liberated bitumen slurry is then sent to a primary extraction unit. Bitumen is
considered to be hydrophobic (fear of water), this property allows for the bitumen to attach
itself to air bubbles that are liberated to the surface. The clay, free bitumen and other particles
are suspended in the middle with the larger density sand particles sinking to the bottom as
tailings. The middlings are then sent to a secondary extraction vessel to remove the remaining
bitumen which is recycled back to the primary extraction unit. The overflow, middlings and
underflow comprises of approximately 60%, 4% and <1% respectively. The overflow from the
primary extraction unit is pumped to the Froth Treatment Unit for further cleaning. The forth
treatment unit makes use of the addition of a light hydrocarbon solvent which is used to remove
the water and fine solids present. Paraffin or naphthene can be used as solvents; paraffinic froth
treatment produces a higher quality of bitumen.

7. Transportation of bitumen

Bitumen on its own is not mobile and is not pipeline transportable. The frequent method
that is used for the transportation of bitumen is to add diluents so that its viscosity is reduced
and so that it becomes mobile. A pipeline specification has to be adhered to before the industry
will accept the bitumen and its blend (Banerjee, 2012). In the country of Canada, this
specification is established by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) in

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consultation with Enbridge who is known as the major carrier of crude oil from Canada to the
U.S. market (Banerjee, 2012).

The key factors for pipeline specifications include the following (Banerjee, 2012):

• Density-minimum API gravity of 19° or maximum density of 940 kg/m3

• Viscosity-maximum value of 350 cSt at pipeline temperature

• maximum limit of 0.5 wt% of water and sediment content

• Reid vapor pressure needs to have a maximum value of 14.5 psi

• Olefin content need to be less than 1 weight percent

• The chlorine must be less than 1 ppm in the blend

Whenever a pipeline stream is analyzed and evaluated, the test method should be
available, and an ASTM method should be specified for comparison.

It is absolutely necessary to change the bitumen into a substance of higher API gravity
and lower viscosity in order to meet the pipeline requirements. The commonly used technique
is the addition of condensate derived from natural gas. Condensates consists of lighter
hydrocarbons (in the range of C5–C12), and above 55°API (Banerjee, 2012). A substantial
amount of condensate is needed in order to meet the pipeline specification. Because of the
rising production of bitumen in Canada, the demand for condensate is increasing significantly
resulting in the industry facing many serious challenges (Banerjee, 2012):

• The cost of condensate is dependent on the market price of natural gas.

• The cost of condensate is more than 25% higher than the cost of light crude oil.

• With the increasing demand for condensate, there will be a shortage of availability of the
diluent, and that drives the cost high.

• Condensates are not acceptable by refineries.

• A return pipeline is needed to recycle the condensate.

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 Considering the shortage of condensate in the future and to meet the aforementioned
challenges, producers have begun searching for an alternate option of upgrading the bitumen
at the field. This involves the bitumen being either partially or fully upgraded to synthetic crude
oil or syncrude. The extent to which the bitumen should be upgraded is an economical decision.
The decision to upgrade the bitumen at the field resolves some of the above problems
associated with the condensate as follows (Banerjee, 2012):

• The cost of the syncrude is independent of the price and availability of the natural gas.

• Syncrude is not worth more than the light conventional crude.

• Syncrude is acceptable to the refineries.

• There is no need for a return pipeline.

Figure 8: Types of bitumen blends for pipeline transportation (Banerjee, 2012).

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DilBit

In order to meet the pipeline specifications, the bitumen can be diluted with
naphtha/condensate. The bitumen that is diluted is then sold in the market as DilBit. The
volume of diluent needed is in the range of 25%–30% which depends on the API gravity of the
diluent used (Banerjee, 2012). A higher API gravity leads to lower volumes of diluent that
would be required for blending to meet the targeted API value. The diluent contains
hydrocarbons in the range of C5–C12 and is blended with bitumen that has hydrocarbons
greater than C30 (Banerjee, 2012). Hence, there are no hydrocarbons between C12 and C30
which are present in DilBit. This type of blend is commonly referred to as dumbbell crude.
Examples of DilBit blends include Cold Lake Blend and various Lloyd blends.

Syncrude/SynBit

An alternative option for producers is to upgrade the bitumen into synthetic crude oil
that meets pipeline requirements. It is a costly option but it eliminates the need to buy a diluent
and it is independent of the cost of natural gas. This increase in production may lead to a
shortage of diluent in the future. Depending on the upgrading technology which is used, the
API gravity of syncrude could vary. If a coker is used then the API gravity may be around 25–
30° and if hydrogenation is used then the API gravity could be 35–40° (Banerjee, 2012). The
operators have two choices when the bitumen is upgraded at the field:

1) Sell the syncrude to the refiners directly

2) Blend the syncrude with bitumen so that an API gravity of 19° can be achieved. (i.e., crude
suitable for pipelining).

SynDilBit

It is a major challenge for many refiners to accept the several grades of pipeline blends
available such as DilBit, SynBit, or syncrudes. All the products are not the same, hence refiners
need to have a good knowledge on the detailed assays of each crude blend before they are
allowed to be processed in the refinery or even before purchasing the crude. To eliminate the
huge varieties of synthetic blends in the market and to achieve consistency for the refiners,

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EnCana (Canadian Oil company) in consultation with other companies decided to market a
special blend that meets a consistent assay so that the refiners will not worry about the variation
of crude blend quality every time. This blend consists of 65 vol% bitumen and 35 vol% of a
mixture of condensate, synthetic crude, and some conventional crude (Speight, 2013). This
blend is referred to as SynDilBit because it resembles a mixture of SynBit and DilBit. The
targeted assay of SynDilBit is as follows (Banerjee, 2012):
• API gravity, 19–22°
• Sulfur content, 2.8–3.2 wt%
• TAN value, 0.7–1.0 mg KOH/g sample
• CCR, 7.0–9.0 wt%

Figure 9: Composition of various types of blends (Banerjee, 2012).

8. Oil Sand Upgrading and Refining

Upgrading

The quality of the bitumen is improved to lighter, or intermediate crude products which
are valuable. Not all plants have this step since the bitumen is good enough to be sent to straight
to refining. The diluted bitumen is sent for upgrading the hydrogen to carbon ratio. It then
proceeds to fractional cracking and then the removal of impurities such as lowering the sulphur
content. The final step of upgrading is product blending. This process produces synthetic crude

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oil from dilute bitumen. Approximately 40% of the dilute bitumen is converted to synthetic
crude oil.

As mentioned earlier, the first process in upgrading is to separate the light fractions
from the bitumen. This is achieved in a distillation column “’under vacuum conditions’’. The
lighter fractions of the bitumen are easy to liquefy as the distillate product but the heavier
fractions pose a problem. The column typically operates from <535C for the distillate to
>535C for the residual. For the thermal cracking operations, different conditions exists based
on the process. Visbreaking process the temperature of the furnace 400 to 450C and has a
residence time of 1 to 5 minutes. “Coking is the most used commercial process’’, which
operates at high temperatures and has a longer residence time. The delayed coker is where all
unwanted material is sent to. It operates for 24 hours, 400 to 450C at 30 to 60 psig. Most
companies have two delayed cokers that work for 12 hours each. An alternative to the delayed
coker is a fluid coker which runs continuously at higher temperature. The hydro-processing
unit is essential for the refining process, which most impurities are removed. The hydro-
processing units range from fixed-bed hydrocracker, moving bed, ebullated-bed and a slurry
phase hydrocracker.

Refining

The following process is the polishing step in which the crude oil from the upgrading
process is manufactured into its final products. Gasoline, lubricants and diluents are some
products that can be manufactured. This process can be done by the distillation column with
lighter fractions removed from the top. Cracking is the second part of refining in which breaks
down heavier fractions to produce highly valued light products. The product manufactured
differs in different plants depending on the composition of the synthetic crude oil available.
These products are then transported to various customers.

The refining process is mainly performed by Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) typically
consists of 3 basic units namely, the reactor which is considered the heart of the process,
distillation column and the catalytic regenerator. For the FCC process to be efficient all
impurities found in the bitumen must be removed by step 2. The FCC is responsible for
converting the synthetic crude to oil to the official products such as diesel, jet fuel etc.

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Figure 10. Systemic diagram of oil sand processing.

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 The last treatment unit is used to remove any fine particles and water from the bitumen
product. This process can be done by paraffinic or naphthenic solvent. The type of solvent
chosen depends on the quality of product desired. Naphthenic solvent was the first used solvent.
The paraffinic is advantageous since it can produce a higher quality of bitumen. The bitumen
enters at 60% concentration leaves the circuit of froth treatment at greater concentration (Oil
Sands Magazine, 2018).

Advantages Disadvantages
-Produces high quality bitumen. -Due to the low boiling point the
-The process becomes less power paraffin is more volatile.
intensive and low maintenance since -To keep the light solvent in liquid
there are fewer emulsions, cyclones phase high pressures are required,
and filters required. therefore costly.
Paraffinic
-The solvent recovery requires less -The amount of paraffin required is
heat since the boiling point of double that of naphthenes.
paraffin is low. There is a general -The precipitated asphaltenes plug,
decrease in greenhouse gas foul and cause foaming issues in
emissions. vessels.

Upgrading is an important step in the processing of bitumen as it is source of valuable

income. There is much importance chosen in the type of equipment selected. The equipment
type is based on the composition of the bitumen extracted and the amount of impurities it
contains. Therefore, a choice between hydrogen addition and carbon rejection needs to be
made. Cost of catalyst and equipment are one of the most important factors to consider when
the type of equipment is chosen. Direct comparisons between the types of technologies cannot
be made due to the fact that each technology is suited for a specific feedstock. The following
figure 12 can be used as a guide to select the type of process best suited to the feedstock
conditions (Banjeree, 2012).

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Figure 11: Type of upgrading process to use based on feedstock.

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Figure 12: Typical capacities and different technologies used at different plants.

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9. Economics

Oil sands play a twofold role in the economy. The first is that it can be used to produce
electricity (Future Energy Africa, 2018). This is an ever growing high demand due to the
improvements in technology and upgrades in society. The second is that the fuel sources and
different construction products produced from the oil sands are used to run smaller businesses
which in turn increase the economy. Sand oils are advantageous since they satisfy
environmental and economic concerns unlike coal (Shell, 2014). The deeper economics are
present in the plant details. The equipment and methods used to recover the oil sands.

The economics associated with the oil sands is complex and varies from different oil
sand sites. The composition of the oil sands vary therefore needing certain processing only.
The economics also depends on the demand of the market for the products. For instance, not
all plants include upgraders, since only approximately 40% of the bitumen is upgraded. To
decide on whether the upgrading is feasible the following is examined (Oil Sands Magazine,
2018):

1. Product Quality – Depending on the sulphur, heavy metal and corrosive salt content the
bitumen is assessed whether upgrading is needed or not. The end user demand for clean crude
oil is higher since this will not cause any complications in their processing units. The synthetic
crude oil contains 0.1% sulphur and the diluted bitumen contains 4%. Therefore, a large
processing unit is needed to remove this small amount of sulphur.

2. Marketability – Bitumen that isn’t upgraded can cause limits on the marketability. Some
refineries have the capability of producing high quality products from the diluted non-upgraded
bitumen. The cost associated with a high-conversion refinery may out weight the cost
associated with the upgrader.

3. Sale Price – The synthetic crude oil (upgraded oil) sells at a much higher price. The demand
of the end user is high for quality products.

A balance needs to be established between the costs to run the upgrader and the demand
for the products. The future decision is headed towards dilute bitumen as feed stock to high-
conversion refineries due to the high demand and low grade bitumen extracted. The upgrader
unit can no longer handle the high demands and the process of upgrading consists of many sub
steps such as dilute recovery, H:C ratio upgrading, heavy to light conversion, impurity removal

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and product blending. These sub steps have a high cost and altogether make the upgrading unit
one to think about.

Figure 13: The amount of upgraded and non-upgraded bitumen produced by Canada over the
years.

10. Environment

The mining process causes land disruption and affects the living organisms on land.
The main environmental concerns are associated with the disturbed ground by open-pit mining
technique and tailings (Oil Sands Magazine, 2018). Open-pit mining usually causes more land
disturbance than in-situ. In Alberta the oil sands ranges over 142000 km2 , with only 3% being
within 70 km range for open pit mining techniques (Oil Sands Magazine, 2018). Attempts have
been made to remediate the disturbed land one mining is complete. Reclamation is a method
of recovering these disturbed lands and restoring it to the previous state. This process is difficult
and challenges arise when chemicals are present in the tailings.

The in-situ recovery is easy and does not require as much effort as the open-pit mining
since there are no tailings associated with in-situ. However, in-situ mining also has
disadvantages since it consumed a vast amount of water for every 1 barrel of bitumen produced
it requires 3 barrels of water, even though the water required for the process is recycled it still
has an effect on the aquatic life. The in-situ recovery comprises of ensuring the well is drained
23
of any contaminants and the top soil replaced. The vegetation process is then started and the
period of reclamation is approximately 6 years (J.M.K.C. Donev et al, 2018). The open-pit
mines take approximately 15 years to restore due to all chemicals and large land that needs
attention. Regular inspections and testing of soil and vegetation is carried out to ensure the
recovery.

Other environmental concerns include the emission of greenhouse gases to the

atmosphere during extraction and processing of oil sands. These gases bring about climate
change by adding to global warming. The gas emissions from the oil sand process are 60 mega
tonnes of greenhouse gas released per year (Oil Sands Magazine, 2018). About 80% of this is
emitted from the combustion of the final product and only 20% for the actual processing.The
emissions of gases are therefore carefully monitored (Oil Sands Magazine, 2018).

The aquatic life is also endangered by the excessive amount of water required for the
extraction of oil sands. This water eventually ends up contaminated and can poison the aquatic
life if released into the environment untreated. The contaminants from the tailings can be
carcinogenic if it seeps through to the water body underground it can contaminate the entire
water cycle entering our drinking water.

Figure 14: Before and after reclamation of an oil sands mine in Alberta, Canada.

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11. Summary and Conclusion

Oil sands are a valued commodity in the world. The importance of oil sands to the
economy and social structure of the world is imperative. This conclusion can be drawn due to
the fact that fuel can be manufactured from oil sands, leading to it being a strong source of
energy (Future Energy Africa, 2018). This is due to the source of coal slowly depleting. Oil
sands compete with coal since it is more environmentally friendly and economical and can be
used as a source of future energy (Shell, 2014). In terms of the environment there has been
straight laws enforcing minimal damage to the environment (Oil Sands Magazine, 2018). The
open-pit mining requires remediation of the land and the in-situ process must have a recycle
water stream for minimal use of water. There have been new developments in technologies
taking into account the excessive water use for in-situ methods such as the addition of a suitable
solvent.

There new emerging technologies and oil sand processing has come a long way. Oil
sands contain valuables in the bitumen which can be processed into lighter fractions of
synthetic crude oil. Therefore an improvement in the upgrading process is common and there
is a variety of processes to select. The exactly comparisons cannot be made since the upgrading
process depends on the type of feed stock used. The exact reactions of upgrading are unknown
and mainly generalised due to the constant change in the bitumen composition. These changes
occur due to environment pressures and temperatures. The overall process is successful and
economical and can be seen as becoming more dominate in the market due to its wide uses.
Canada is currently the most successful full-scale plant producing the most valuable product
from the bitumen. Canada extracts 40% of synthetic crude oil from the bitumen. The other 60%
is not wasted and is a major contributor in the construction industry. Therefore all produces of
bitumen have value and are in demand.

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