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Home , Athabasca oil sands, Karl Clark (chemist)

A More Sustainable Way to Win Oil from

Richard Schlosberg Schlosberg Consulting LLC, Highland Park, Illinois USA

Received June 04, 2013; Accepted December 09, 2013

Abstract: Along with and , has one of the world’s major hydrocarbon resource. The Canadian resource, estimated to contain as much as 1.7 trillion barrels of heavy oil or bitumen is largely found in the province of in the form of oil sands. Oil sands are a mixture of sands and other rock materials and contain crude bitumen. Currently about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day are generated from Canadian oil sands and after primary upgrading, much of that is transported to the for additional upgrading to fi nal products. The majority of the oil sands processing is a combination of strip mining and a water-based extraction. Hugh quantities of water (2–4 barrels per barrel of oil) are required to win a single barrel of oil from the oil sands. Oil sands companies are currently held to a zero-discharge policy by the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (1993). Thus, all oil sands produced water (OSPW) must be held on site. This requirement has resulted in over a billion cubic meters of water held in containment systems. Ultimately, the companies are responsible for reclaiming this water and fi nding a way to release it back into the local environment. Despite extensive programs that have led to signifi cant improvements including up to 90+% use of recycled water, the tailings ponds and build up of contaminants in the recycled water and in tailings ponds represent what is fundamentally a non-sustainable process. Waterless approaches using hydrocarbon solvent extraction technology are being developed. These approaches offer a pathway to winning oil from oil sands that is potentially low energy, water free, and environmentally superior to the current technology.

Keywords: Oil sands, low impact, water free, solvent extraction

1 Introduction - Oil Sands As A Hydrocarbon Resource Oil Sands are defi ned as: “sand, clay or other minerals saturated with bitumen. Defi ned in the Mines and Minerals Act as “(i) sands and other rock materials

*Corresponding author: [email protected] DOI: 10.7569/JSEE.2013.629520

286 J. Sustainable Energy Eng., Vol. 1, No. 4, January 2014 Richard Schlosberg: A More Sustainable Way to Win Oil from Oil Sands containing crude bitumen, (ii) the crude bitumen contained in those sands and other rock materials, and (iii) any other mineral substance (except natural gas) associated with the above-mentioned crude bitumen, sands or rock materials and includes a hydrocarbon substance declared to be oil sands under section 7(2) of the Oil Sands Conservation Act” [1]. Among the useful hydrocarbon sources in the world one lists natural gas, both conventional and extra heavy oil, coal and oil sands. The world supply of oil sands is estimated 5.5 trillion barrels of oil equivalent by the U.S. Geological Survey [2]. A vast amount of oil sands is found in Alberta, Canada. A comparable amount of extra heavy oil (EHO) is found in Venezuela. According to a Government of Alberta, Canada document, “As world demand for crude oil continues to grow, the oil sands deposits of represent one of the few reliable, long-term sources of supply. The oil sands reserves are larger than the reserves of Iran, Iraq or Russia, and are second only in size to those of Saudi Arabia.” The Alberta oil sands resource is estimated to contain as much as 1.7 trillion barrels of bitumen. The reserves - the amount that can be recovered economically with existing technology - are estimated to hold 170 billion barrels of recoverable bitumen, which would be enough to produce three million barrels per day for over 150 years. The oil sands are contained in three major areas of northern Alberta beneath approximately 142,200 km2 - an area similar in size as the state of New York, or twice the size of New Brunswick. can only be used in a 4,800 km2 area within the - an area similar in size to the state of Rhode Island or smaller than the size of the Greater Toronto Area” [3]. Today approximately 1.5 million barrels per day of oil from Canadian oil sands are being produced. We will discuss the technologies involved and sustainability efforts therein in section 3 below. A smaller, but signifi cant amount of oil sands are located in the continental United States. It is estimated that there are 12–19 billion barrels of recoverable oil from oil sands in Eastern Utah (Uinta). There is no current commercial production of oil from American oil sands. 2 Some Characterization Details of Oil Sands A great deal of work has been performed to characterize various oil sands. The bitumen (oil) content of oil sands varies widely, but for commercially important oil sands, the bitumen content typically is ~seven or eight to ~15% or higher. From a hydrocarbon recovery perspective, the higher the bitumen content the better. Some of the general features of oil from oil sands are: The fact that Athabasca (Canadian) oil sands are water-wet while US oil sands are oil-wet has enormous impact on processability. The majority of oil currently produced from Canadian oil sands is achieved using a hot water/caustic treat to

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J. Sustainable Energy Eng., Vol. 1, No. 4, January 2014 287 Richard Schlosberg: A More Sustainable Way to Win Oil from Oil Sands create a froth from which the bitumen can be separated from the clays and sand. The so-called Clark process, named after Dr. , established the basis for the oil sands industry in Canada. Canadian Patent # 289058 (April, 1929) discloses Clark’s technology. The fi rst claim in this patent is illustrative: “A process of sepa- rating bitumen from sand, silt or clay which consists in mixing the compound with a reagent, introducing the mixture to a large body of hot water to effect separation, introducing an electrolyte to the water to prevent coalescence in the wash of the separated bitumen with the sand, silt or clay, and recovering the bitumen from the surface of the wash water” [5]. American oil sands which are oil-wet rather than water-wet do not respond favorably to the Clark process approach. The API gravity of both Canadian and US oil from oil sands is quite low, in fact too low to enable facile transportation without dilution. Thus, to bring the API gravity to >20 or so, a such as a naphtha cut is added to the bitumen. This blend is then able to be pipelined or otherwise transported to a facility for upgrading. The atomic ratio of hydrogen to carbon atoms (Hydrogen/Carbon ratio or H/C) is indicative of the kind of molecules present in the stream. In general, the higher the H/C, the more paraffi nic and waxlike. While compositions vary (light vs. heavy crudes, etc.), a fairly typical H/C for a petroleum crude might be ~1.75 +/– 0.1. Comparing that value with what is shown in Table 1 where H/C varies from 1.44 (Canadian) to 1.56 (US), it is clear that the oil in oil sands is hydrogen poor. In terms of generating the hydrogen rich products of value such as

Table 1 Chemical Properties of Some Oil Sands Bitumens [4].

Oil Sands Source Athabasca US - Utah US - Kentucky

Wettability Water-wet Oil-wet Oil-wet

Gravity, oAPI ~7–10 ~10 ~8–9

Viscosity, cp 640 1000 520

Hydrogen/Carbon ratio 1.44 1.56 1.56

% Sulfur ~4.9 ~0.5 ~1.6

% Nitrogen ~0.4 ~0.9 ~0.6

Ni + V, ppm ~350 ~150 N.D.

Total Acid Number, TAN, ~2-3 ~4 ~4 mgKOH/g

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288 J. Sustainable Energy Eng., Vol. 1, No. 4, January 2014 Richard Schlosberg: A More Sustainable Way to Win Oil from Oil Sands mogas, diesel and jet, one must therefore add hydrogen or reject carbon from the oil found in oil sands. The sulfur content of Athabasca bitumen is in excess of 4 wt. % and thus causes this material to be labelled as a sour crude, requiring the use of substantial amounts of hydrogen to remove the sulfur as H2S. The American bitumens are much lower in sulfur. The amounts of metals ( and vanadium) are not remarkably different from what is seen in many crude oils. The acidity of oil from oil sands is >1, thus making these high TAN streams. The acids are largely naphthenic acids of varying molecular weights.

3 Sustainability Initiatives - Commercial Oil Sands Activities There are multiple sustainability challenges in the processes used to separate bitumen from sand, clay, water and minerals in the oil sands. In this paper we will concentrate on the challenges associated with the use of water in the process beginning with strip mining, followed by hot water froth fl otation, etc.. A 2010 paper states: “Oil is extracted from surface-mined oil sands by use of the Clark hot (79–93 °C) water process that uses caustic soda to separate bitumen from other con- stituents such as clay, sand, dissolved metals, and organic compounds, including PAHs and naphthenic acids (NAs). The resultant oil sands process water (OSPW) is stored in on-site tailings ponds [6]. Currently, two to four barrels of water are required to extract one barrel of oil, and four cubic meters of OSPW are produced for each cubic meter of oil sands processed [7]. The is the source of fresh water. Although recycling of OSPW reduces the demand for freshwater, the process has affected water quality by concentrating the organic and inorganic con- stituents within recycled OSPW; this process, in turn, has implications for water treatment and reclamation [8]. Oil sands companies are currently held to a zero-discharge policy by the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (1993). Thus, all OSPW produced must be held on site [9, 10]. This requirement has resulted in over a bil- lion cubic meters of tailings water held in containment systems [11]. Ultimately, the companies are responsible for reclaiming this water and fi nding a way to release it back into the local environment; this mandate presents a major chal- lenge for the industrial and academic communities. The vast quantity of OSPW has led to public criticism and more recently to proposed targets for a reduction in the amount of liquid tailings by the Energy Resources Conservation Board of Alberta [12, 13]. Thus, the water related problems related to sustainability include: (1) the build up of tailings water that must be held in containment systems until the water can be suffi ciently processed to be released back into the local environ- ment; (2) the lengthy time constant for the fi nes in the water to fully separate and thus enable reclamation; and (3) the build up of undesirable organic and inor- ganic constituents.

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The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP.ca 2012) indicated that in 2011 about 2.7 barrels of fresh water were employed per barrel of bitumen produced via the water based process. While > 80 % of the water was recycled, the total fresh water use was 156 million m3. Major companies running the current oil sands operations include CNRL, Shell, Suncor and and each has invested in technology activities designed to mitigate the water based challenges. For example: Suncor states: “Our mining oper- ations mix oil sands with water to separate out the bitumen. The cleaned sand and water are then sent to tailings storage ponds where the sand settles out and the water is recycled back to the extraction process. Approximately 78% of the water used by our mining and extraction operations is recycled tailings water. The primary source for the rest is the Athabasca River, one of Alberta’s largest river basins. Suncor is licensed to withdraw approximately 66 million cubic metres of water annually from the Athabasca — about 0.3% of the river’s annual average fl ow. We continue to oper- ate well below our water licence even as production levels increase. In 2011 Suncor withdrew 27.7 million cubic metres of water from the Athabasca, while releasing 2.8 million cubic metres of treated water back into the river. Compared to 2010, Suncor reduced the water used and retained on site by 16% and 2011 marked our lowest net withdrawal since 2001” [14]. and ExxonMobil Canada are just starting up the massive Kearl Project. They state: “The plans for Kearl include a major commitment to progres- sive , in which land used early in the project will be reclaimed as mining is expanded to new areas. The project will also rely on advanced tailings technologies to recycle process water, reduce water demand, and reduce the size and scale of tailings ponds” [15]. in their literature (Ref. Royal Dutch Shell plc Sustainability Report, 2010) links water management with tailings management as shown below:

“Water Separating bitumen from oil sands uses water. While Shell has permits to with- draw about 0.6% of the Athabasca River’s average annual fl ow, we used less than 0.1% in 2010. During the year, 74% of the water used in the bitumen extraction process at the Muskeg River and Jackpine mines was recycled. No process water is discharged into the external environment. We are involved in work with abo- riginal groups, NGOs, government and other oil sands operators to reduce the combined impact of the industry on the Athabasca River. This approach encour- ages new ways to manage water use, particularly during winter low-fl ow periods.

Tailings and Land Reclamation Processing oil sands generates tailings, a mixture of water, sand, clay and resid- ual hydrocarbons that remain once the bitumen has been removed. They are

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290 J. Sustainable Energy Eng., Vol. 1, No. 4, January 2014 Richard Schlosberg: A More Sustainable Way to Win Oil from Oil Sands stored in tailings ponds until we can dry them out for use in land reclamation. In late 2010, Shell and a number of other companies agreed to work together to improve tailings management. We have shared our tailings research and technol- ogy with these companies and will collaborate on future research to make earlier reclamation possible. The tailings ponds at the Muskeg River and Jackpine mines cover an area of 24 km2. Tailings contain concentrated naturally occurring chemicals that are toxic so we continually monitor, assess and manage them to protect the surrounding ground and surface water. We also operate a radar-based system, similar to that used at commercial airports, to detect fl ocks of migratory birds and deter them from landing on the tailings ponds. When dried, tailings are used in the process of reclaiming the mined area. Normally this process takes several years. But we have invested more than C$100 million in research that has led to a new technology to speed up the drying of tailings from years to weeks. This involves adding chemical additives to tail- ings on a sloped surface to improve water extraction, with the water then being recycled. In 2011, we expect this pilot project to produce 250,000 tonnes of sand and clay suitable for use in reclamation” [16]. Progress is also being made to reduce the time constant for effective separation of fi nes to enable reclamation. In turn this will reduce the number of required tail- ings ponds. For example, Suncor states: “The TROTM process is a new approach Suncor has developed for managing tailings at its oil sands mining operations near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Like all mines, oil sands mines generate tailings – left over material produced through the extraction process. Suncor’s TROTM process is expected to result in signifi cant improvement in the speed of tailings reclamation. Suncor believes the TROTM process will help it meet new provincial regulatory requirements and, just as importantly, the changing expectations of stakeholders. Suncor plans to invest more than $1 billion to implement its TROTM process, which the company expects will reduce tailings reclamation time by up to two decades as compared to its current methods” [17]. It is fully expected that continuous improvement will occur in the water man- agement aspects described above through increased use of recycle water, etc. Any advances, however, need to be understood in the context of increasing production. Kearl, for example, at full production is designed to add almost 500,000 barrels per day of diluted bitumen to the amount of oil sands derived bitumen. At the claimed 0.25 barrels of fresh water requirement per barrel of bitumen produced, the amount of fresh water that Kearl will use at full production will be ~30 million barrels of fresh water per year. The third element is the build up of contaminants in the water. In this paper we will focus on the napthenic acid component. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (McNaught and Wilkinson, 1997) recognizes the term “naph- thenic acids” and provides the following defi nition: “acids, chiefl y monocarbox- ylic, derived from naphthenes” [18]. From the same reference, the defi nition of

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J. Sustainable Energy Eng., Vol. 1, No. 4, January 2014 291 Richard Schlosberg: A More Sustainable Way to Win Oil from Oil Sands naphthenes is “cycloalkanes especially cyclopentane, cyclohexane and their alkyl derivatives.” Naphthenic acids infl uence the community structure of aquatic microorgan- isms at concentrations beginning at 6–20 mg/L. In the Athabasca region, the main source of naphthenic acids is the production of oil sands. In natural surface waters in the Athabasca region, naphthenic acids are found at a concentration of 1–2 mg/L. In oil sands talings, naphthenic acids can exceed 100 mg/L [19]. Environment Defence, a Canadian environmental group has asked the govern- ment to add naphthenic acids to their National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) [20]. Their argument for listing naphthenic acids is summarized. “As a result of a judicial review of the Canadian Government’s NPRI (National Pollutant Release Inventory) program, mines are now required to report on the quantity and con- centration of NPRI substances disposed of in tailings in addition to direct release to air, water and land. This includes oil sands mines. Following the change in reporting requirements, oil sands facilities report on a range of NPRI substances found in tailings, including polycyclic aromatic hydro- carbons, ammonia, zinc and (Environment Canada, 2009). However, because it is not currently listed as an NPRI substance, the facilities are not required to report naphthenic acids. Yet Alberta Environment has acknowledged that naphthenic acids are the “pri- mary source of toxicity” in oil sands tailings [21], and Environment Canada has also identifi ed naphthenic acids are a primary source of toxicity in oil sands tail- ings [22]. It is therefore important that tar sands facilities be required to report naphthenic acids. Below is a more detailed rationale for the addition of naphthenic acids to the NPRI according the decision factors outlined by Environment Canada.

a. Does the substance meet NPRI criteria 1. Is the substance manufactured, processed or otherwise used (M,P,O) in Canada? Naphthenic acids are a byproduct of oil sands extraction and, as such, are manufactured, processed or otherwise used in Canada. There are currently 840 million cubic metres of oil sands tailings (Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, 2010) stored in massive lakes in northern Alberta that cover 170 square kilometres. While there is no cumulative assessment of the amount of naphthenic acids stored in the tailings lakes, tailings have been reported to contain naphthenic acids at concentrations of 80–100 mg/L. [19] The problem is also growing quickly. Two-hundred million litres of oil sands tailings are produced each day, and the volume of tailings will increase by an estimated 30% between now and 2020. [23] 2. Is the substance of health and/or environmental concern? Naphthenic acids have been identifi ed as an environmental and health concern. Environment Canada has identifi ed them as the primary source

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of toxicity in tar sands tailings, as has Alberta Environment. Many scientifi c studies have demonstrated the environmental impacts of oil sands tailings, and point to naphthenic acids as the main source of toxicity. [24–30]

There are available methods to selectively eliminate naphthenic acids from water columns. One reference of note is Naphthenic acids speciation and removal during petroleum-coke adsorption and ozonation of oil sands process-affected water [31]. One result noted in their abstract is that the naphthenic acid (NA) con- tent was reduced by 84% and the oil sands process-affected water (PSPW) toxicity was reduced from 4.1 to 1.1 toxicity units as a result of a combination of petroleum coke absorption and ozonation. This is likely a costly approach and one that will render oil production from oil sands less competitive. Thus, in summary, the current process scheme that requires substantial use of water to effect separation of bitumen from oil sands brings about multiple envi- ronmental and sustainability issues. Chief among them are (i) the requirement to build and maintain and treat massive tailings ponds; (ii) the contamination of the water in the tailings ponds by both inorganics and organcs (including naphthenic acids) leading to (iii) cost and time required to enable the water to be reused and the tailings to be reclaimed. Each of these requires considerable cost and resources to be expended.

4 Alternative and More Sustainable Approaches to Separate Oil from Mined Oil Sands Due to the environmental concerns in extracting and transporting bitumen from oil sands as discussed in Section 3 above, replacement of the water-based Clark type extraction process with hydrocarbon-based solvents has been investigated. The attractive nature of using a hydrocarbon-based solvent is that little if any water would be needed in such a process resulting in the elimination of tailings ponds and process water contamination issues. Patent application WO2009/146722 to KOREA TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY, CO., LTD [32] describes an oil extraction process that uses an extraction cham- ber and a hydrocarbon solvent to extract the oil from oil sands. The solvent is sprayed or otherwise injected onto the oil-bearing product (the sand) to leach oil out of the solid product resulting in a mix of oil and solvent. This mixture is sent to an oil-solvent separation device. U.S. Patent No. 4,347,118 to Exxon Research & Engineering Company uses a low boiling solvent to extract tar sands [33]. The solvent is mixed with the tar sands in a ratio of between 0.5:1 and 2:1. This mixture is sent to a vessel where bitumen and inorganic fi nes are separated from extracted sand and the sand then goes to a fl uid-bed drying zone that is fl uidized by heated solvent vapors to remove unbound solvent from extracted solvent. These approaches while reducing environmental impact through the advan- tage that water is not used, remain diffi cult to manage. For example, the degree of

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J. Sustainable Energy Eng., Vol. 1, No. 4, January 2014 293 Richard Schlosberg: A More Sustainable Way to Win Oil from Oil Sands extraction of the oil from the oil sand has been diffi cult to control. Also, the ability to effi ciently separate the solid material from the solvent and extracted oil Such processes are often relatively slow thus making a commercial scale design diffi - cult. Additionally, the earlier described processes typically relied on solvents that are substantially pure hydrocarbons. As there is at least some solvent loss during extraction, make up quantities of the solvent must be supplied externally adding signifi cantly to the cost. Earlier approaches have sought to extract substantially all of the available bitumen, thus generating a crude oil product that is extremely viscous, hydrogen poor and containing signifi cant amount of metals and having high asphaltene content. The EPIC Oil Extractors company has an approach that addresses these limi- tations in previous attempts at hydrocarbon extraction of oil sands [34, 35]. The EPIC Oil process approach generatess a crude oil composition from oil sands employing a solvent comprised of a hydrocarbon mixture. The process is run under mild conditions so that only a portion of the bitumen in the oil sand is separated. The specifi c operating conditions and the specifi c composition of the hydrocarbon mixture can be broadly varied so that the degree of extraction can be adjusted to meet customer needs. In general, the more completely the oil sands bitumen is extracted, the lower the API° gravity, the more viscous the oil, the higher the metals and asphaltene content. The process selects the proper solvent composition using an understanding of the desired Hansen solubility parameters to achieve the desired extract composition. The solvent is further defi ned to have appropriate (low) boiling point ranges thus enabling the solvent molecules to be readily recovered and recycled without the need for extensive external solvent make-up. A typical extraction starts with a sample of oil sand used as the feedstock. For example, a sample of oil sand from Athabasca, Canada with a bitumen content of 13.6 wt. % as measured by the Dean-Stark method is sized so that particles fed to the unit are typically 12–16 mesh. The sized oil sand is sent via a conveyer belt to a feed bin atop the extraction vessel. The extraction vessel used is an auger pump with extended chambers. This is the zone in which solvent interacts with feed. In one example, the hydrocarbon solvent employed was propane gas (99.5% purity). The extraction was run at a temperature in the range of ~65° – ~95° F in a vessel pressurized in a range of ~100 to ~170 psi, with the pressure and temperature controlled so that the solvent was substantially in the vapor phase in the region of the vessel in which the solvent initially contacted the oil sand. The auger turned at a rate such that under the operating conditions, the system feedstock was signifi - cantly in a fl uidized state in the contact zone of the vessel. The feed, extracted oil, solvent and extracted sand were brought through the auger driven extraction vessel. At the back end of the extraction vessel, additional propane gas was introduced as a sweep gas at a pressure and temperature slightly higher than the pressure and temperature within the extraction vessel to strip off remaining oil from the inorganic particles. The inorganic particles emerging

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294 J. Sustainable Energy Eng., Vol. 1, No. 4, January 2014 Richard Schlosberg: A More Sustainable Way to Win Oil from Oil Sands from the extraction vessel are generally free fl owing and dry and are designated as tailings. As they have not seen any water, there is no additional separation step needed and given the very mild extraction conditions, these tailings are suitable for rapid reclamation. The mixture of solvent and extracted oil can be readily separated using any variety of evaporators, fl ash drums or distillation equipment or columns. Herein, the solvent was fl ashed off and the residual solvent was allowed to weather off. In this example a yield of 49 wt % of extracted oil (based on bitumen content measured before and after the run) was obtained. Table 2 describes some of the characteristics of this oil Table 3 shows the results of additional runs and obtained analytical data. For experiments 1 and 2, the procedure was as follows: 200 grams of an Athabasca tar sands sized between 12 and 16 mesh particles was stirred with 100 grams of solvent for two minutes at 69–70°F. The mixture was fi ltered and the solids treated a second time with 100 grams of solvent. After fi ltering, the liquids from the two steps were combined and the solvent was allowed to weather off. Analyses per- formed on the liquids included API° Gravity by ASTM D-5002, % MCRT by ASTM D-4530, Ni and V in parts per million by ASTM D-5708 MOD, Wt. % Sulfur by ASTM D4294. For experiment 3 in Table 3, the liquid product was obtained from a propane extraction of the same Athabasca oil sand used in experiments 1 and 2. Experiment 3 was run in a continuous manner using an auger system to provide constant agitation of solid particles. The temperature was about 80–90°F and the total pressure in the system was approximately 150 psi. The liquid product was collected and the propane was weathered off prior to analysis. The sample desig- nated as sample 4 is taken from the literature (www.etde.org/etdeweb/servierts/

Table 2 Characteristics of EPIC Oil Extract From Athabasca Oil Sand.

Property

% Carbon 87.0

% Hydrogen 13.2

Hydrogen/Carbon Ratio 1.82

% Sulfur 3.06

API° Gravity 15.1

Pentane Insolubles, wt. % 0.04

Microcarbon residue, wt. % 0.04

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Table 3 EPIC Oil Product vs. Clark Process Comparison.

Sample/ Solvent Type API∞ % MCRT wppm Wt. % Expt. 2 Gravity Ni + V Sulfur

1 Pentane 12.9 6.2 92 2.9

2 30/70 Acetone/ 11.6 8.6 167 3.0 Pentane

3 Propane - EPIC 17.0 2.4 8.3 3.2

4 H2O - CLARK ~8 14.1 (as 431 5.7 asphaltenes)

purl/21239492-3CCEvD/). This sample represents a product from the Clark pro- cess employed on an Athabasca oil sand. From a sustainabiity perspective, Tables 1 and 2 clearly demonstrate the advan- tages of the EPIC Oil process product oil versus the Clark process hydrocarbon stream. The EPIC oil stream is lower in metals and asphaltenes as well as sul- fur content. All of these advantages translate into the demand for less hydrogen in hydrotreating steps to generate the product suite of interest to the consumer - motor gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and the like. The EPIC Oil process is a very low intensity extraction process as it runs near ambient temperature and at rela- tively low (< 10 atmospheres) pressures. A most attractive element of the EPIC Oil process is that it is waterless. There are no tailings ponds, there is no deposition of inorganics and organics including polynuclear aromatics (PNAs) and naphthenic acids (NA) into the water system and the tailings seem suitable for rapid reclama- tion. Each of these is a major environmental step forward versus the outcome of the Clark-type process approach. Given that hydrocarbon derived energy will be a major part of our energy mix for decades to come, winning oil from oil sands deposits in a manner that is sus- tainable is a worthwhile goal. As a practical matter, Clark type processing of US oil sands (e.g., in Utah) is currently not practiced at least in part due to the scarcity of available water supplies. Further, US oil sands are oil wet rather than the water wet Canadian oil sands. The water based process step employed in Athabasca does not seem to be readily transferrable to the Utah oil sands. For the US resources, it seems very appropriate to consider water free extraction approaches as depicted by the EPIC Oil process schemes. In Canada, there is a huge industry in place with major expansion underway all employing some version of the original Clark water based process. The environmental impact of this industry cannot be ignored and a fresh look at what can be achieved via a waterless, hydrocarbon solvent extraction approach is warranted.

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