How is bitumen extracted from oil sands?
There are two ways to extract bitumen from the oil sands: either mine the entire deposit and gravity separate the bitumen, or extract the bitumen in-place (or in-situ) using steam without disturbing the land. The technique used depends on the depth of the deposit.
What is the difference between oil sands and bitumen?
Oil sands, sometimes referred to as tar sands, is a mixture of sand, clay, other minerals, water, and bitumen. The bitumen is a form of crude oil that can be separated out from the mixture. In its natural state, it is very dense and highly viscous.
What is oil sands production?
Oil sand is a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay or other minerals, water, and bitumen. Bitumen can be extracted using two methods, depending on how deep the deposits are below the surface. Find out more about various oil sands extraction processes.
How are oil sands processed?
Open Pit Mining Currently, 20% of oil sands reserves are accessible via mining techniques. Large shovels scoop the oil sand into trucks which then move it to crushers where the large clumps of earth are processed. Once the oil sand is crushed, hot water is added so it can be pumped to the extraction plant.
How is bitumen produced?
Bitumen is produced through the distillation of crude oil and also occurs naturally. It is known for its waterproofing and adhesive properties. Composed of complex hydrocarbons, bitumen contains elements like calcium, iron, sulfur, and hydrogen.
How do you separate bitumen from sand?
Extraction involves the separation of bitumen from sand using water-based gravity separation. Although plant configurations vary across the operators, a Primary Extraction Cell or Vessel is the heart of the circuit.
What products are made from oil sands?
There are actually only three marketable crude oil blends derived from the oil sands: Dilbit, Synbit and Synthetic Crude. Dilbit is a relatively clean bitumen (containing less than 0.5% water and solids) diluted with condensate, in the order of 20 to 40% by volume.
How much bitumen is in oil sands?
A typical oil sands deposit contains about 10% bitumen, 5% water and 85% solids. However, the bitumen content can be as high as 20% in some areas.
How is bitumen formed?
How do you refine bitumen?
To do that, the bitumen is mixed with a diluent to make a lighter ‘bitumen blend’ that will flow through a pipeline. This diluted bitumen is (imaginatively) called “dilbit”. When the “dilbit” arrives at the refinery, the diluent is separated out and the bitumen is refined.
Where is bitumen produced?
bitumen, dense, highly viscous, petroleum-based hydrocarbon that is found in deposits such as oil sands and pitch lakes (natural bitumen) or is obtained as a residue of the distillation of crude oil (refined bitumen).
How is bitumen made step by step?
Bitumen Production Process
- Production processes. Residues from the distillation of meticulously selected crude oils provide the base materials for bitumen production.
- Distillation.
- Solvent de-asphalting.
- Oxidation.
- Blending.
Which chemical is used for bitumen extraction?
Benzene is frequently used to extract collected bitumen fumes from personal sampler substrates.
What is the difference between crude oil and bitumen?
What makes bitumen different from regular or conventional oil? Conventional crude oil is a liquid that can be pumped from underground deposits. It is then shipped by pipeline to refineries where it’s processed into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. Bitumen is too thick to be pumped from the ground or through pipelines.
What is bitumen oil used for?
By far most refined bitumen is used in paving asphalt and roofing tiles, as is a large amount of natural bitumen. However, most of the bitumen extracted from Canada’s oil sands is upgraded into synthetic crude oil and sent to refineries for conversion into a full range of petroleum products, including gasoline.
Where is bitumen made?
How is bitumen turned into crude oil?
Upgrading is a process by which bitumen is transformed into light/sweet synthetic crude oil (SCO) by fractionation and chemical treatment, removing virtually all traces of sulphur and heavy metals. About one-third of Alberta’s bitumen is upgraded into SCO before being sold to downstream refineries.
What are the raw materials for bitumen?
The most common raw material for bitumen production is oil tar or deasphalting asphalts (asphalt and resinous substances). In some literature they are referred to as “deposited bitumens”.
How do you manufacture bitumen?
Is bitumen refined from crude oil?
How is bitumen mined in oil sands?
Mined oil sands normally contains from 7 to 13% bitumen by weight. The oil sands is trucked to the Ore Preparation Plant using large heavy haulers. A typical truck load is about 350 to 400 tonnes. Each truck dumps the oil sands load into hopper, feeding into a crusher or sizer. Oil sands mining operations run 24/7.
What is the recovery rate of bitumen in oil sands?
When primary production is used in the Venezuelan oil sands, where the extra-heavy oil is about 50 degrees Celsius, the typical oil recovery rates are about 8–12%. Canadian oil sands are much colder and more biodegraded, so bitumen recovery rates are usually only about 5–6%.
How are large pipelines used to extract oil from the oil sands?
These large-diameter pipelines can be several kilometres long, providing the additional time and shear required to break down the lumps of mined oil sands. As the oil sands breaks down, bitumen is liberated and attaches to free air bubbles, allowing for subsequent recovery in Extraction.
How is Cold Lake bitumen different from other Alberta oil sands?
The Cold Lake bitumen contains more alkanes and less asphaltenes than the other major Alberta oil sands and the oil is more fluid. As a result, cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is commonly used for production. The Cold Lake oil sands are of a roughly circular shape, centered around Bonnyville, Alberta.
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