Environmental impact and economics of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and bitumen transportation are among the major challenges of oil sands operations. We propose and assess a new approach to address these important challenges by using diluted bitumen (DilBit)…
A continuous increase in the global demand for liquid fuels has led to increased reliance on unconventional sources of fossil fuels such as bitumen. The extraction, midstream transportation, and ultimate processing of heavy oils presents a…
How oil sands bitumen is produced (through mining or in situ methods) and how the crude is processed (either upgraded to synthetic crude oil, SCO, or diluted to produce dilbit) result in a range of crude properties with distinct downstream emissions.…
Anticipation of alternative road binder to replace petroleum derived bitumen requires a deep understanding of relationships between the chemical composition of bitumen and their physical properties, especially rheological ones. The vast number of the…
The role of archipelago asphaltene structure in the reactions of petroleum asphaltenes was investigated by comparing yields of products from the conversion of archipelago-rich heavy oils and bitumen to the yields from a sample with predominant…
Igneous intrusions in sedimentary basins can influence basin-scale fluid flow and petroleum systems in various ways. They may act as barriers, preferential pathways or even reservoirs for fluids. The fracture networks of intrusions usually represent…
The Government of Canada has implemented measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a carbon tax and its proposed Clean Fuel Standard. Alberta's Oil Sands industry, arguably one of Canada's largest and most energy intensive industries,…
Solvent bitumen extraction processes are alternatives to thermal processes with potential for improved economic and environmental performance. However, solvent interaction with bitumen commonly results in in situ asphaltene precipitation and…
Crude oil refining processes generate a large amount of petroleum sludge (PS) in petroleum industries. Globally, PS has gained widespread attention to ensure its effective waste management. This study investigated the suitability of PS to provide an…
The asphaltene aggregates are made of a well-packed and stable in benzene (toluene) solution core and a loose-packed periphery, which can respectively occlude and adsorb the other oil fractions. Previously (Liao et al. Energy Fuels 2005, 180), it was…
The physical chemistry of the brine-crude oil interface is immensely complex as a result of the complexity of the crude oil itself, and access to the detailed phenomena occurring at this interface is extremely difficult. Understanding these phenomena…
Predictions by the International Energy Agency (IEA, 2018) showed that as the world's energy system is being decarbonised, the demand of fossil fuels, especially from the petrochemicals and transportation sectors which do not have any alternative,…
Recent analytical advances have provided evidence that groundwater affected by oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) is reaching the Athabasca River at one location. To understand and discriminate the toxicological risks posed by OSPW-influenced…
Strandings of semi-solid to solid asphaltic bitumen along the coastline of South Australia have been reported as far back as the late 1800s. Hitherto only a single variety, now referred to as asphaltite, has been attributed to seepage from the nearby…
Producing bitumen using SAGD requires a significant amount of water and energy, resulting in a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, reducing the steam-oil ratio (SOR) in SAGD is critical to make the oil recovery process profitable and…
The increasing exploitation of the unconventional bitumen-derived oils from Alberta (Canada) have raised new environmental concerns because they are inherently different than conventional oils. Previous studies mainly focused on diluted bitumen, but…
Negative-ion electrospray ionization (ESI) enabled the direct mass spectrographic analysis of phenols, naphthenic acids, and neutral nitrogen compounds in petroleum fractions without prefractionation
Nowadays, there is a significant increase in the share of unconventional oil reserves such as heavy and extra-heavy oils as well as natural bitumen among the total balance of extracted petroleum feedstock. In this regard, one of the most important…
The Government of Canada has implemented measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a carbon tax and its proposed Clean Fuel Standard. Alberta's Oil Sands industry, arguably one of Canada's largest and most energy intensive industries,…
Igneous intrusions in sedimentary basins can influence basin-scale fluid flow and petroleum systems in various ways. They may act as barriers, preferential pathways or even reservoirs for fluids. The fracture networks of intrusions usually represent…
The basin–mountain transition zone is an important area for hydrocarbon exploration. To better understand the process and mechanism of hydrocarbon accumulation in this area, the middle Permian Qixia Formation at the piedmont of the Longmenshan…
The basin–mountain transition zone is an important area for hydrocarbon exploration. To better understand the process and mechanism of hydrocarbon accumulation in this area, the middle Permian Qixia Formation at the piedmont of the Longmenshan…
The increasing exploitation of the unconventional bitumen-derived oils from Alberta (Canada) have raised new environmental concerns because they are inherently different than conventional oils. Previous studies mainly focused on diluted bitumen, but…
The basin–mountain transition zone is an important area for hydrocarbon exploration. To better understand the process and mechanism of hydrocarbon accumulation in this area, the middle Permian Qixia Formation at the piedmont of the Longmenshan…
The growth in bitumen and synthetic crude oil (SCO) production in the Canadian oil sands industry has superseded pipeline capacity growth in recent years, leading to the increased interest in the transport of crude oil by rail to desired markets.…
How oil sands bitumen is produced (through mining or in situ methods) and how the crude is processed (either upgraded to synthetic crude oil, SCO, or diluted to produce dilbit) result in a range of crude properties with distinct downstream emissions.…
The increasing exploitation of the unconventional bitumen-derived oils from Alberta (Canada) have raised new environmental concerns because they are inherently different than conventional oils. Previous studies mainly focused on diluted bitumen, but…