ECONOMIC ENHANCEMENT OF TAR SANDS BY EXTRACTION OF HIGH-VALUE PRODUCTS

ENHANCEMENT OF TAR SAND ECONOMICS REQUIRES TECHNOLOGY LEADING TO HIGH-VALUE PRODUCTS. A NATIVE PRODUCTS EXTRACTION (NPX) STRATEGY IS PROPOSED FOR SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION OF NATURALLY OCCURRING CONSTITUENTS OF BITUMEN WHICH ARE KNOWN TO HAVE HIGH MARKET VALUE. THE SEPARATION TECHNIQUES ARE OF LOW COST IN COMPARISON TO THE INCREMENTAL VALUE ADDED TO THE PRODUCT SLATE. AN ESTIMATED 50% OF BITUMEN MAY BE SEPARATED FOR ITS COMMODITY AND SPECIALTY CHEMICAL VALUES. ECONOMIC ENHANCEMENT OF $26/BBL OVER COSTSIS PROJECTED. NATIVE COMMODITIES, CO-PRODUCED WITH ASPHALT,WILL EXPAND THE SCALE AND PROFITABILITY AND WILL SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE RESOURCE RECOVERY AND UTILIZATION. IN PHASE I RESEARCH WE WILL PREPARE DISTILLATE FRACTIONS FROM WHOLE BITUMEN AND WILL EXTRACT REPRESENTATIVE HIGH-VALUE PRODUCTS FROM THESE CUTS. YIELDS AND PRODUCT QUALITY DATA WILL BE USED TO DEVISE A CONCEPTUAL PROCESS. COST AND PROFITABILITY ESTIMATES WILL BE MADE AND THE TECHNICAL, MARKET AND ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY WILL BE ESTIMATED. THE PHASE I RESEARCH IS DESIGNED TO DEMONSTRATE THE TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF THE NPX CONCEPT, ESTABLISH THE BASIS FOR ENGINEERING RESEARCH FOR PROCESS DEVELOPMENT (PHASE II) AND TO ASSEMBLE DATA FOR IMPROVED TECHNOLOGY VALUE REQUIRED TO ATTRACT PRIVATE INVESTMENT (PHASE III).