Rethinking the oilsands : new technologies target fuel use, upgrading efficiencies

The Oil Sands Technology Roadmap has plans for the industry to produce 5 million barrels a day of bitumen production by 2030. The volume is in line with the size of the reserve of 175 billion barrels of recoverable oil using known technology. Currently the industry produces 1 million barrels per day and is prepared to raise production to 2 million barrels per day by 2012. However, while thermal recovery technologies open up more of the oil sands for production, they also come with the added cost of fuel for steam generation. Much of the research in the oilsands sector is focused on finding alternative fuels for power and steam and alternate sources of hydrogen for upgrading. A number of upgrading challenges were identified in the roadmap, such as reducing costs, improving the quality of synthetic crude and reducing the increasingly unsustainable use of natural gas consumption for both recovery and upgrading. Upgrading processes were reviewed in this article, with details of coking procedures, primary and secondary upgrading, as well as synthetic crude fractions and refining difficulties. Plans to use oil sands residues as an alternate energy source were discussed, in relation to the advantages of hydro-cracking and higher quality distillates. Details of a project using this procedure at the Nexen/OPTI Long Lake Project were presented. The project is designed to produce its own electricity and fuel, resulting in significant operating cost reductions. Suncor is also currently looking at gasification of by-products. Deer Creek's Joslyn oilsands project is currently testing Multi-Phase Superfine Atomized Residue (MSAR), which is a fuel designed to replace natural gas and is comprised of 70 per cent bitumen and 30 per cent water, with trace amounts of surfactants. Quadrise Canada Fuel Systems owns the rights to the new technology. MSAR is currently much cheaper than natural gas and there is an endless supply. It was suggested that delays in the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline have contributed to the search for alternate energy sources. MSAR is currently only economically viable for large-scale operations. Due to price increases, smaller producers are investigating lessening their reliance on diluents by employing field upgrading including visbreaking and deasphalting. 2 figs