BIOL-103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Asphalt, Synthetic Crude, Surface Mining
3 Oct 2018
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Oil (tar sands): sandstone containing bitumen thick, high-sulfur, tar-like liquid. It"s (cid:373)ore like tar than oil, because oil is more syrup. Bitumen is really thick: government and industry calls it oil sands, while environmentalist call it tar sands (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause it"s tar, a(cid:374)d tar is dirt(cid:455). Largest deposit: athabaskan river basin, northern alberta, almost 1. 8 trillion barrels identified, reserves of 169. 3 billion barrels, 2009 production: 1. 5 million barrels/day. ~60% of crude bitumen was upgraded in alberta into synthetic crude oil and then it can be refined here or shipped elsewhere for refinement, just as it is used for shale and conventional crude oil. It takes 250 cubic feet of natural gas to heat up that much water. The (cid:449)ater (cid:272)a(cid:374) (cid:271)e reused (cid:271)ut ulti(cid:373)atel(cid:455) it (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t (cid:271)e used up (cid:272)o(cid:373)pletel(cid:455) so the(cid:455) al(cid:449)a(cid:455)s need more, fresh water from somewhere else. In-situ production - 2 main types: cyclic steam stimulation, steam assisted gravity drainage.
