Utah bitumens

The data available are generally for the Athabasca materials, although workers at the University of Utah (Salt Lake City) have carried out an intensive program to determine the processibiUty of Utah bitumen and considerable data have become available. Bulk properties of samples from several locations (Table 3) (9) show that there is a wide range of properties. Substantial differences exist between the tar sands in Canada and those in the United States a difference often cited is that the former is water-wet and the latter, oil-wet (10). 

Recently, studies have been made to determine the properties of Utah bitumens (I, 2). Others (3-9) have studied the properties of Athabasca bitumens. The analyses of the bitumens have generally included physical properties, elemental analyses, distillation, and infrared... 

An attempt has been made to develop the hot-water process for the Utah sands (Fig. 10) (20). With od-wet Utah sands, this process differs significantly from that used for the water-wet Canadian sands, necessitating disengagement by hot-water digestion in a high shear force field under appropriate conditions of pulp density and alkalinity. The dispersed bitumen droplets can also be recovered by aeration and froth flotation (21). 

Tar Sands Canadian tar sands are strip-mined and extracted with hot water to recover heavy oil (bitumen). The oil is processed into naphtha, kerosene, and gasoline fractions (which are hydrotreated), in addition to gas (which is recovered). Tar sands are being developed in Utah also. 

A number of types of bituminous material exist and terminology is still somewhat confusing. The term bitumens in its widest sense includes liquid and solid hydrocarbons but its popular meaning is restricted to the solid and semisolid materials. The bitumens occur widely in nature and may be considered to be derived from petroleum either by evaporation of the lighter fraction under atmospheric conditions or by a deeper seated metamorphism. The purer native bitumens are generally known as asphaltites and include Gilsonite, extensively used for moulding, which occurs in Utah. 

A. Zandona, 0. J. Busch, L. E. Hettinger, W. P., Jr. "Reduced Crude Conversion Symposium on Production, Characterization and Processing of Heavy Oils, Tar Sand Bitumens, Shale Oils and Coal-Derived Liquids", University of Utah, 1981. 

The largest tar sand deposits are in Alberta, Canada, and in Venezuela. Smaller tar sand deposits occur in the United States (mainly in Utah), Peru, Trinidad, Madagascar, the former Soviet Union, Balkan states, and the Philippines. Tar sand deposits in northwestern China (Xinjiang Autonomous Region) also are large at some locations, the bitumen appears on the land surface around Karamay, China. The largest deposits are in the Athabasca area in the province of Alberta, Canada, and in the Orinoco region of east central Venezuela. 

Bitumen derived from the Asphalt Ridge deposit in Utah was responsive to catalytic cracking, which provided higher quality products at similar yields when compared with coking. Good reactivity to catalytic cracking is predicted from consideration of the high content of alkyl and... 

Properties of Utah and Athabasca Tar Sand Bitumens, Fuel, 1979, 58(3), 183. 

Factors on Primary Processing of Utah Tar Sand Bitumen, Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Fuel Chem., Prepr. 1978,23(4), 98-109. 

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