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)…
North America is experiencing a boom in crude oil supply, primarily due to growing production in the Canadian oil sands and the recent expansion of shale oil production from the Bakken fields in North Dakota and Montana as well as the Eagle Ford and…
Viscosity reduction by emulsification would greatly facilitate the exploitation and pipelining transportation of heavy oil, as well as oil sands/sludge washing. However, the final demulsification process to achieve separation of oil and water is…
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.…
In this study, 20 diesel fractions were obtained by co-hydroprocessing blends of low-grade canola oil and Canadian oil sand bitumen-derived heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) at different canola oil/HVGO blending ratios, reaction temperatures and pressures,…
Distinct naphthenic acid (NA) species were isolated from oil sands process water (OSPW) into 20 fractions via silver-ion solid phase extraction, prior to treatment using potassium ferrate(VI). Untreated and treated fractions F1F20 were characterized…
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,…
Power ultrasound, as an emerging green technology has received increasing attention of the petroleum industry. The physical and chemical effects of the periodic oscillation and implosion of acoustic cavitation bubbles can be employed to perform a…
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…
This paper presents a detailed study of the SAGD dilation start-up technology, including the fundamental mechanism, numerical model, field operations, and well performance in PetroChina's Karamay "super" heavy-oil reservoir. Rock dilation refers to a…
Crude oil spills near oilfields, a continuous threat to the surrounding soil security and ecological environment, are attracting increased environmental monitoring and protection. There is an urgent need to improve the existing methods for…
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…
Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) methods have been widely applied in oil-sands exploitation globally. SAGD processes are effective only after thermal and hydraulic communication between the injector and producer has been established during the…
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…
Adopting nature-based solutions for the bioremediation of oil sands process water (OSPW) is of significant interest, which requires a thorough understanding of how bacterial communities behave within treatment systems operated under natural…
The Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD) receives a mixture of hydrocarbons from biogenic, pyrogenic, and petrogenic processes. Source apportionment in the PAD has focussed on polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), which are ubiquitous in the environment and…
Xinjiang oil field is at the heart of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and special technologies like hydraulic fracturing treatments and thermally enhanced oil recovery technology were applied for unconventional petroleum productions in the…
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,…
We investigated the spatio-temporal trends of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) deposition in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) between 2008 and 2017, and applied source apportionment tools to assess sources using snowpacks. Estimated PAC mass…
Much of the research from Canada's oil sands region (OSR) shows contaminants of concern (CoCs) throughout the ambient environment surrounding the industrial facilities. While there are some well-established sources of the CoCs, there is also spatial…
Petroleum coke is a potential source of vanadium (V), nickel (Ni), and molybdenum (Mo) to water resources in Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) of northern Alberta, Canada. Large stockpiles of this bitumen upgrading byproduct will be incorporated into…
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…
Petroleum coke is a potential source of vanadium (V), nickel (Ni), and molybdenum (Mo) to water resources in Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) of northern Alberta, Canada. Large stockpiles of this bitumen upgrading byproduct will be incorporated into…
Arsenic (As) is a toxic trace element with many sources, including hydrocarbons such as oil, natural gas, oil sands, and oil- and gas-bearing shales. Arsenic from these hydrocarbon sources can be released to the environment through human activities…
Large water demands by the mining industry are of increasing concern around the world. The cost of a specific water management regulation is studied for an oil sands mining operation in Canada, where restrictions on water withdrawals vary with…
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…
After construction and aerospace, oil and gas are perhaps the biggest proponents of project management, with upstream exploration and production projects that typify the inexorable linkage of these two sectors. Upstream oil and gas megaprojects, with…
Fluid fine tailings (FFT) are a by-product of the oil sands bitumen extraction process and are composed of sand, fines (silts and clays), water, and residual bitumen. FFT can take decades to settle without intervention due to the small size of…
Power ultrasound, as an emerging green technology has received increasing attention of the petroleum industry. The physical and chemical effects of the periodic oscillation and implosion of acoustic cavitation bubbles can be employed to perform a…
Solvent-based technology has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use. However, evaluations of the techno-economic feasibility of solvent-based technology are scarce. In this study, a techno-economic model was developed for the…
Arsenic (As) is a toxic trace element with many sources, including hydrocarbons such as oil, natural gas, oil sands, and oil- and gas-bearing shales. Arsenic from these hydrocarbon sources can be released to the environment through human activities…