N-Solv’s Oil Extraction Process For Canadian Oil Sands Is 85% Greener

Canada has many huge oil deposits that are yet unexplored. The oil reserves are considered to be large enough to satisfy the demands of the United States for at least a few decades. Then why do the US and the whole of Europe depend on the Middle Eastern oil reserves? The answer is very simple. The Canadian oil deposits are in the form of oil sands and are made up of a thick, tar like substance called Bitumen. It is not an easy job to extract oil from these sands. The process requires great energy and sophisticated machinery to take out the crude oil and the transportation up to the refinery is one more headache. The fossil fuel burnt in the transportation, extraction, and refining stages is considerably higher and ecologists all around the globe claim that such extraction can lead to drastic climate changes. The plans for constructing a pipeline from Canada to USA to transport the crude oil to the refineries are also under the public scanner.

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However, a Canadian conglomerate N-Solv has come up with a brilliant solution for this problem and devised a new oil extraction technology. This technology, they claim is efficient, economical and also eco friendly. It is expected to bring down the greenhouse gas emissions by a whopping 85% compared to the previously used methods. N-Solv received Canadian government’s backing and a huge fund of $10 million for this project. N-Solv is having its headquarters in Alberta. It says that the new technology will allow faster and pollution free oil extraction and will double up the amount of oil that can be extracted from each reserve.

The conventional oil extraction approach requires excavating the shallow, sandy oil filled deposits. After that the sludge like viscous bitumen is processed to extract the crude oil with the help of heat and chemicals. Then the oil is made less viscous so that it can be transported to the refinery via a pipeline. This approach doesn’t work for the deep seated oil sand deposits. And, 80% of the oil deposits lie below this depth! To extract from these deeper levels, the bitumen must be treated while it’s still underground and forced out afterwards through an oil well. For this, generally steam is forced down to make the bitumen melt and come out. Still the oil is not fluid enough to flow through the pipeline and needs a bit of refining. These processes, producing steam and refining the oil require huge amounts of fossil fuels to be burnt. This leads to green house gas emissions.

The method adopted by N-Solv for this new technology is pretty simple and effective. The steam is replaced by a liquid solvent such as propane. The propane is heated to a much lower temperature (about 50º) and forced underground. The result is dissolved bitumen and the oil taken out is much more fluid so no refining is required at this point. The propane that comes up can be easily reused. Also, the energy wasted in heating the water, refining the oil, etc. is saved. Thus, the process is much efficient and less polluting due to lesser burning of fuels. Since the energy requirement is less, the process is cheaper. The machinery required for heating, purifying and reusing propane is very cheap compared to that required for the management of large volumes of water used in the steam process. The earlier technology had led to the oil prices become inflated and reach above $50 to $60 per barrel—as they have been for several years. But the lowered cost of extraction makes it economical even at $30 to $40 per barrel. Till now this has been tried only in laboratory experiments. But, with the initial success the N-Solv is planning to start a pilot project with a starting investment of $ 60 million made by a few private firms. The project will aim to have a daily target of 500 barrels. If this experiment succeeds, then its viability on a larger scale will be proven.

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