Athabasca oil sands

Scott AA, MD Mackinnon, PM Fedorak (2005) Naphthenic acids in Athabasca oil sands tailings water are less biodegradable than commercial naphthenic acids. Environ Sci Technol 39 8388-8394. 

In the laboratory of Professor R.G. Moore at the University of Calgary, kinetic data were obtained using bitumen samples of the North Bodo and Athabasca oil sands of northern Alberta. Low temperature oxidation data were taken at 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150"C whereas the high temperature thermal cracking data at 360, 397 and 420"C. 

In Figures 18.18, 18.19 and 18.20 the experimental data and the calculations based on model I are shown for the high temperature cracking at 360, 397 and 420 T of an Athabasca oil sands bitumen (Drum 20). Similar results are seen in Figures 18.21, 18.22 and 18.23 for another Athabasca oil sands bitumen (Drum 433). The estimated parameter values for model I are shown in Table 18.3 for Drums 20 and 433. 

Table 18.3 Estimated Parameter Values for Model l for High Temperature Cracking of Athabasca Oil Sands Bitumen...

Figure 18.18 Experimental and calculated concentrations of Coke (COK) "a ", Asphaltene (ASP) "o and Heavy Oil -i Light Oil (HO+LO) " at 360 °C for the high temperature cracking of Athabasca oil sands bitumen (Drum 20) using mode /.

Materials. Samples of dewatered crude oils were obtained from the Athabasca oil sands of the McMurray formation by extraction using the commercial hot water process (Suncor Inc.) the Bl uesky-Bu11 head formation at Peace River, Alberta by solvent extraction of produced fluids the Clearwater formation at Cold Lake, Alberta by solvent extraction of core material and the Karamay formation in Xing-Jiang, China. A summary of the physical and chemical properties of the crude oils, including chemical composition, and density-temperature and viscosity-temperature relationships, is given in Table I. 

Athabasca oil sands using an existing German pilot plant and negotiations are currently underway with Lurgi for such a test ... 

The oil sands from the Athabasca deposits are a mixture of sand grains, water, and high-viscosity crude hydrocarbon called bitumen. At room temperature, bitumen is a semisolid, but will convert to a viscous liquid at about 300°F (149°C). Sand grains are about 0.075 to 0.25 mm in diameter with small amounts of attached clay. The grains are all in direct contact and wet with a thin continuous sheetlike layer of water. Bitumen fills the void between the wetted sand grains and forms a continuous phase through the pores. Bitumen is about 17% to 18% of the mass. The composition of Athabasca oil sand bitumen is provided in TABLE 12-6. 

After hot water extraction, crude bitumen is upgraded into synthetic oil fractions by either delayed coking or fluidized coking. A representative product yield from direct coking of Athabasca oil sand bitumen is provided in TABLE 12-7. 

W. N. Hamilton and G. S. Mellon, in M. A. Carrigy and J. W. Kramers, eds., Guide to the Athabasca Oil Sands Area, Information Series No. 65, Alberta Research Council, Alberta, Canada, 1978. 

Of these deposits, the Athabasca deposit has received the most attention from scientists and commercial developers since it is the largest and fortunately also has the shallowest overburden thus permitting surface mining. Again, because of the shallow overburden, the Athabasca oil sands deposit is the only deposit in the world to have attracted large-scale commercial development. Smaller developments have taken place in Venezuela, Trinidad, Albania, Rumania and in the U.S.S.R. 

The first white man to see the Athabasca oil sands was fur trader Peter Pond in 1778. In 1889 the chronicler of the government sponsored Laird expedition wrote "That this region is stored with a substance of great economic value is beyond all doubt, and, it will, I believe, prove to be one of the wonders of Western Canada."... 

Porphyrins The Position of the Athabasca Oil Sands, in the K. A. Clark Volume, pp. 75-100, Research Council of Alberta, Canada, 1963. 

Fifty years have elapsed since the first major surge occurred in the development of the Athabasca oil sands. The main effort has been devoted to the development of the hot water extraction process 13 significant projects utilizing this process are reviewed in this paper. However, many other techniques have also been extensively tested. These are classified into several basic concepts, and the mechanism underlying each is briefly described. A critical review of K. A. Claries theories concerning the flotation of bitumen is presented, and his theories are updated to accommodate the different mechanisms of the primary and secondary oil recovery processes. The relative merits of the mining and in situ approaches are discussed, and an estimate is made of the probable extent of the oil sand development toward the end of this century. 

Any report of the Athabasca oil sands requires some discussion of the magnitude of the deposit. The importance of the oil sands can be shown in their relation to two major Canadian resources—oil and minerals. Figure 1, a graphical representation of data from the Oil and Gas Journal (3), compares the oil sands with the conventional world petroleum reserves. Canada has less than 2% of the known reserves excluding the oils sands when the latter are included, her share of the reserves increases to 36%. This comparison is biased in that the many other oil... 

Sulfur compounds in the gas oil fractions from two bitumens (Athabasca oil sand and Cold Lake deposit)> a heavy oil (Lloydminster) from Cretaceous reservoirs along the western Canada sedimentary basin, and a Cretaceous oil from a deep reservoir that may be mature (Medicine River) are investigated. The gas oil distillates were separated to concentrates of different hydrocarbon types on a liquid adsorption chromatographic column. The aromatic hydrocarbon types with their associated sulfur compounds were resolved by gas chromatographic simulated distillation and then by gas solid chromatography. Some sulfur compounds were further characterized by mass spectrometry. The predominant sulfur compounds in these fractions are alkyl-substituted benzo- and dibenzothiophenes with short side chains which have few dominant isomers. 

Board of the Province of Alberta for the Approval of a Scheme or Operation for the Recovery of Oil or a Crude Hydrocarbon Product from the Athabasca Oil Sands, Feb., 1963. 

Tetreault, G.R., McMaster, M.E., Dixon, D.G. and Parrott, J.L. (2003) Physiological and biochemical responses of Ontario slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus) to sediment from the Athabasca oil sands area, Water Quality Research Journal of Canada 38 (2), 361-377. 

Long progressions of alkyl benzo- and dibenzothiophenes have been detected in the aromatic fraction of Athabasca oil sand bitumen, along with some higher aromatic thiophenes. 

Schramm, L.L. Stasiuk, E.N. MacKinnon, M. Surfactants in Athabasca Oil Sands Slurry Conditioning, Flotation Recovery, and Tailings Processes in Surfactants, Fundamentals and Applications in the Petroleum Industry, Schramm, L.L. (Ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2000, pp. 365 130. 

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