Question

1. About 80% of the oil sand reserves in Alberta are buried too deep below the surface for open pit mining. Using pictures and/or diagrams prepare a report (4 pages minimum, 6 pages maximum) describing, explaining and discussing in detail conventional (mechanical) surface mining and the Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage method for extracting the Alberta oil sands. (15 points)

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Answer 1

The Athabasca oil sands, otherwise called the Athabasca tar sands, are enormous stores of bitumen or incredibly overwhelming unrefined petroleum, situated in northeastern Alberta, Canada – generally fixated on the boomtown of Fort McMurray. These oil sands, facilitated principally in the McMurray Formation, comprise of a blend of unrefined bitumen (a semi-strong stone like type of raw petroleum), silica sand, mud minerals, and water. The Athabasca store is the biggest known supply of unrefined bitumen on the planet and the biggest of three significant oil sands stores in Alberta, alongside the close by Peace River and Cold Lake stores (the last extending into Saskatchewan). The oil sands have for some time been alluded to as "tar sands"; be that as it may, moderate gatherings question this name because of its negative natural affiliations.

Together, these oil sand stores lie under 145,000 square kilometers (54,000 sq mi) of boreal backwoods and muskeg (peat marshes) and contain about 1.7 trillion barrels (270×109 m3) of bitumen set up, practically identical in extent to the world's all out demonstrated stores of ordinary oil. The International Energy Agency (IEA) records the financially recoverable stores, at 2007 costs and present day whimsical oil creation innovation, to be 178 billion barrels (28.3×109 m3), or about 10% of these stores. These add to Canada's complete demonstrated stores being the third biggest on the planet, after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela's Orinoco Belt.

By 2009, the two extraction strategies utilized were in situ extraction, when the bitumen happens further inside the ground, (which will represent 80 percent of oil sands advancement) and surface or open-pit mining, when the bitumen is nearer to the surface. Just 20 percent of bitumen can be removed utilizing open pit mining techniques, which includes huge scope exhuming of the land with immense pressure driven force scoops and 400-ton substantial hauler trucks. Surface mining leaves dangerous tailings lakes. Conversely, in situ utilizes increasingly specific systems, for example, steam-helped gravity seepage (SAGD). "80% of the oil sands will be thus created from this reserve in situ which represents 97.5 percent of the all out surface zone of the oil sands district in Alberta." In 2006 the Athabasca store was the main huge oil sands supply on the planet which was appropriate for enormous scope surface mining, albeit the vast majority of this repository must be delivered utilizing all the more as of late created in-situ innovation.

Since Great Canadian Oil Sands (presently Suncor) began activity of its mine in 1967, bitumen has been separated on a business scale from the Athabasca Oil Sands by surface mining. In the Athabasca sands there are exceptionally a lot of bitumen secured by little overburden, making surface mining the most effective technique for separating it. The overburden comprises of water-loaded muskeg (peat lowland) over top of dirt and infertile sand. The oil sands themselves are commonly 45 to 70 meters (140 to 210 ft) profound, sitting on level limestone rock. Initially, the sands were mined with draglines and pail wheel excavators and moved to the preparing plants by transport lines.

These early mines had a lofty expectation to absorb information to manage before their bitumen mining strategies got effective. In the interceding years, progressively compelling in-situ creation systems were grown, especially steam helped gravity waste (SAGD). In-situ techniques turned out to be progressively significant on the grounds that just about 25% of the Athabasca oil sands were sufficiently shallow to recoup by surface mining, and the SAGD strategy specifically was extremely proficient at recuperating a lot of bitumen at a sensible expense.

As of late, organizations, for example, Syncrude and Suncor have changed to a lot less expensive scoop and-truck activities utilizing the greatest force scoops (in any event 100 short tons, 91 t) and dump trucks (400 short tons, 360 t) on the planet. This has held creation expenses to around US$27 per barrel of engineered unrefined petroleum notwithstanding rising energy and work costs.

After removal, heated water and burning pop (sodium hydroxide) is added to the sand, and the subsequent slurry is channeled to the extraction plant where it is upset and the oil skimmed from the top. Given that the water science is fitting to permit bitumen to isolate from sand and dirt, the mix of boiling water and disturbance discharges bitumen from the oil sand, and permits little air pockets to connect to the bitumen beads. The bitumen foam buoys to the highest point of partition vessels, and is additionally treated to evacuate leftover water and fine solids.

Around two short tons (1.8 t) of oil sands are required to deliver one barrel (1⁄8 short ton, 110 kg) of oil. Initially, generally 75% of the bitumen was recouped from the sand. Be that as it may, late improvements to this technique incorporate Tailings Oil Recovery (TOR) units which recoup oil from the tailings, Diluent Recovery Units to recuperate naphtha from the foam, slanted plate pilgrims (IPS) and circle axes. These permit the extraction plants to recoup well over 90% of the bitumen in the sand. After oil extraction, the spent sand and different materials are then come back to the mine, which is inevitably recovered.

Alberta Taciuk Process innovation removes bitumen from oil sands through a dry answering. During this procedure, oil sand is traveled through a pivoting drum, splitting the bitumen with heat and creating lighter hydrocarbons. Albeit tried, this innovation isn't in business use yet.

The first procedure for extraction of bitumen from the sands was created by Dr. Karl Clark, working with the Alberta Research Council during the 1920s. Today, the entirety of the makers doing surface mining, for example, Syncrude Canada, Suncor Energy and Albian Sands Energy and so on., utilize a variety of the Clark Hot Water Extraction (CHWE) process. Right now, minerals are mined utilizing open-pit mining innovation. The mined metal is then squashed for size decrease. Heated water at 50–80 °C (122–176 °F) is added to the metal and the shaped slurry is shipped utilizing hydrotransport line to an essential detachment vessel (PSV) where bitumen is recouped by buoyancy as bitumen foam. The recuperated bitumen foam comprises of 60% bitumen, 30% water and 10% solids by weight.

The recuperated bitumen foam should be cleaned to dismiss the contained solids and water to meet the necessity of downstream updating forms. Contingent upon the bitumen content in the metal, somewhere in the range of 90 and 100% of the bitumen can be recuperated utilizing present day high temp water extraction procedures. After oil extraction, the spent sand and different materials are then come back to the mine, which is in the long run recovered.

Steam-helped gravity seepage

Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is an improved oil recuperation innovation for delivering overwhelming raw petroleum and bitumen. It is a propelled type of steam incitement wherein a couple of even wells are penetrated into the oil repository, one a couple of meters over the other. High weight steam is ceaselessly infused into the upper wellbore to warm the oil and diminish its consistency, making the warmed oil channel into the lower wellbore, where it is siphoned out to a bitumen recuperation office. Dr. Roger Butler, engineer at Imperial Oil from 1955 to 1982, imagined steam-helped gravity waste (SAGD) during the 1970s. Head servant "built up the idea of utilizing level sets of wells and infused hot steam to build up specific stores of bitumen thought about unreasonably profound for mining."

All the more as of late, in situ techniques like steam-helped gravity-waste (SAGD) and cyclic steam incitement (CSS) have been created to separate bitumen from profound stores by infusing steam to warm the sands and lessen the bitumen thickness with the goal that it very well may be siphoned out like customary raw petroleum.

The standard extraction process requires immense measures of flammable gas. Starting at 2007, the oil sands industry utilized about 4% of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin petroleum gas creation. By 2015, this may build over two overlap.
As per the National Energy Board, it requires around 1,200 cubic feet (34 m3) of petroleum gas to deliver one barrel of bitumen from in situ extends and around 700 cubic feet (20 m3) for coordinated activities. Since a barrel of oil comparable is around 6,000 cubic feet (170 m3) of gas, this speaks to a huge addition in energy. That being the situation, almost certainly, Alberta controllers will diminish fares of gaseous petrol to the United States so as to give fuel to the oil sands plants. As gas holds are depleted, be that as it may, oil upgraders will most likely go to bitumen gasification to create their own fuel. Similarly as bitumen can be changed over into engineered raw petroleum, it can likewise be changed over into manufactured flammable gas.