FOSSIL FUELS IV Tar Sand and Oil Shale Alternate Oils
Jan 19, 2018
FOSSIL FUELS IVTar Sand and Oil Shale
Alternate Oils
Tar Sands – Oil Sands Tar sands are sands or partly
consolidated sandstone that contains a petroleum product called bitumen.
Bitumen (asphalt) is a viscous form of petroleum that must be treated in order to convert it into a crude oil before it can be refined to produce gasoline and other products.
(The stuff on roads is asphalt concrete)
Oil sand occurs in more than 70 countries.
Largest deposits– Alberta, Canada– Orinoco, Venezuela– Russia
Bulk is found in three regions of Alberta
Estimated Canadian oil sands exceeds conventional world reserves
World Oil Reserves
World Oil Sands Reserves
Bitumen is about 10% - 12% of the actual oil sands found in Alberta.
Alberta’s proven reserves are estimated at 177 billion barrels.
This comparable to Saudi Arabia.
Oil Sand
World Oil Sands
Alberta Oil Sands
Surface Tar Sand Deposit
Surface Deposits 20% of the Alberta oil sands are
surface deposits. Surface deposits are either exposed
or covered by minimal overburden. In Alberta open-pit mining is used for
extraction Overburden is removed and oil sand
scooped into 400 ton heavy hauler trucks.
Surface Deposits Surface mining leaves toxic tailings
ponds– Acids, benzene, residual bitumen
Land needs to be reclaimed after production ends.
This is about 2.5% of the surface area involved in oil sand production.
Deep Tar Sand Extraction
Deep Deposits 80% of the Alberta & all Venezuelan
oil sands are deep deposits. Alberta: 97.5% of oil sand surface
area. Oil must be produced by in-situ
extraction. Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand
(CHOPS). Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS). Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
(SAGD).
Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand
Cyclic Steam Stimulation
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
Downside The first step of tar sand extraction is
estimated to result in gasoline that carries a burden of "at least five times more carbon dioxide" than would conventional "sweet crude" oil production.
Large amounts of land need to be reclaimed after production ends.
Large amount of water used Surface mining SAGD
Should production from oil sands be encouraged?
A. YesB. No
Yes No
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Keystone XL Pipeline Canada is largest oil importer to US > 1 MBbls/day Transported by railroad
– Canadian National– BNSF
Keystone XL would transport 500,000 – 700,000 Bbls/day
Should Keystone XL pipeline be built?
A. YesB. No
Yes No
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Do you prefer oil transportation by pipeline or
by rail/truck?A. PipelineB. Rail/truck
Pipeline
Rail/truck
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Oil Shale Oil shale is a combination of the rock
shale (very fine grained) and the solid petroleum product kerogen
When kerogen is heated to 800F it breaks down into a liquid similar to crude oil.
Total world resources of oil shale are conservatively estimated at 2.6 trillion barrels. (unproven reserves)
Good shale produces 25-35 gallons (0.6 barrels) of shale oil per ton of rock processed.
Even modest production requires processing a lot of rock.
Estimates of 500-1,000 billion barrels in US alone. (More than Saudi Arabia).
Oil Shale Reserves in US
World Oil Sands Reserves
Shale Oil Pyrolysis
US Average Rainfall
Production requires a lot of people and water. Both are rare in the regions of the deposits.
What do you do with the left over rocks?
Oi Shale Video
Should we develop oil shale deposits in the US?
A. YesB. No
Yes No
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