Clinton News-Record, 1986-09-10, Page 24The mighty power o
In northern Alberta, the earth rumbles
with the sound ,of mighty machines wresting
precious oil-bearing tar sand from vast
deposits.
The fight is far from over once the sands
have been lifted from the earth. The process
to separate the bitumen from the sand and
upgrade it is complex and difficult. The
resulting product is so chemically different
from regular crude oil that it is called 'syn-
thetic' crude. apparent
As early as the 1960s it became app
that Canada's store of conventional light
•
crude oil in southern Alberta was dwindling.
The Great Canadian Oil Sands Company,.
now known .as Suncor; began wringing oil
out of the tar sands in 1967 and today both
Suncor and' Syncrude Ltd. are joined in the
battle. The bitumen in the western oil sands
has the potential to supply Canadian energy
needs well into the future.
The equipment used to mine the oil sands
is impressive. A tall person is dwarfed by
the tires on massive trucks. Bucket -wheel
excavators 34 m high and 69 m long scrape
out Lite sands with a 9 m diameter digging
wheel ringed with mammoth -toothed
buckets.
These huge machines scoop out more than
a cubic metre of sand with each bite. The
two excavators in , operation mine 120,000
tonnes a day. The sand is highly abrasive,
sticky in summer and rock -hard in winter.
Bulldozers and trucks only last half of their
normal life working in the tar sands.
Digging out the sand, however, is only the
beginning of the battle. Conveyor belts
carry the sand to a treatment plant where
CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 10, 1986—Page 3A
tomorrow's energy
chemicals separate the bitumen from the
sand. The bitumen is then thinned with a sol-
vent and centrifuged to remove water and
clay. Finally, the bitumen is ready for fur-
ther processing to turn it into synthetic oil.
The term `synthetic' is derived from this
intermediate processing step. Both bitumen
and conventional crude are compounds of
carbon and hydrogen. However, bitumen is
high in long carbon chains, which must be
broken into lighter hydrocarbons and waste
carbon, or coke.
The coking process subject bitumen to ex-
treme heat and pressure to form lighter oils.
The resulting liquid must then be stripped of
sulphur and other impurities before ship-
ment by pipeline to a refinery.
All crude oils are a mixture of different
hydrocarbons. Each has unique chemical
characteristics and requires specific refin-
ing techniques to yield useful products. Oil
refineries first separate crude oil into
several naturally occurring hydrocarbons,
or fractions. Unusable fractions are chang-
ed into more useful hydrocarbons by break-
ing large molecules into smaller ones, join-
ing small molecules together to form larger
ones, or altering the structure of a molecule
while not affecting its size. Various frac-
tions are then blended to produce
marketable fuels. Efficient processes leave
little or no waste.
Refineries today are usually designed to
handle conventional crude, and the
chemical difference between synthetic and
conventional crude results in production of
lower -quality fuels in some instances. For
example, synthetic oil yields large volumes
of transportation fuels, but the diesel fuel
produced has a much lower cetane rating.
Therefore, refiners produce mostly gasoline
fractions from synthetic crude.
This creates a problem in the
marketplace because demand for diesel fuel
is increasing but this situation can be ,over-
come by building new refineries and modi-
fying existing plants.
.7
1*
FUEL FOR
THOUGHT
Energy, Mines and
Resources Canada
Hon. Marcel Masse,
Minister
From the time humans first learned to walk, we have constantly
been looking for new and better, means of mobility — and.
new sources of energy to make our mobility even more efficient.
For example, at Expo 86 in Vancouver this year, you can
see Canada's first magnetically powered rapid transit system.
You can also find out more about alternative fuels for your car, such
as propane, natural gas, and even alcohol. And an entire fleet
of electrically powered vehicles will visit Expo 86.
Find out what's next.
Keep informed and up to date on current technology and
the future of transportation energy.
Write: Fuel for Thought CANADA
ENERGY, MINES AND RESOURCES
580 Booth Street
Ottawa, Ontario
0E4
You'll be surprised to find out what's coming...perhaps sooner
than you might think.
It pays to be informed.
Energie, Mines et
Ressources Canada
LHon. Marcel Masse,
Ministre
Canada