ENGG 400: The Practice of the Engineering Profession

1
ENGG 400 The Practice of the Engineering
Profession

• Week 11 Sustainability in the Oil Sands
• Acknowledgement Some of the materials for the
  following presentation were obtained from and
  provided by several sources, including
• APEGGA, American Institute of Chemical Eng.
• The Edmonton Journal, National Post
• National Geographic
• Syncrude Canada Ltd, Suncor Energy Inc.
• Government of Alberta, AB Energy Research Inst.
• Drs. Murray Gray, Eddy Isaacs, Jim Carter

2
ENGG 400 Assignments, Exam, Evaluation

• Assignments Due Today, March 26, 2009 430 pm
• Assignment 1 Employment Survey
• Assignment 2 Program Evaluation
• http//www.engineering.ualberta.ca/ENGG400.cfm
• Final Exam in-class, next week, April 2, 2009
• Evaluation of ENGG 400, in-class, next week,
  April 2, 2009
• APEGGA Professional Practice Workshop on
  Saturday, April 4 (registration at 830 a.m.)
  followed by lunch and the Iron Ring Ceremony

3
APEGGA Environmental Guideline

• Contains concept of Sustainability
• According to the APEGGA Environmental Guideline,
  Sustainability is the Ability to meet the needs
  of the present without compromising the ability
  of future generations to meet their own needs,
  through the balanced application of integrated
  planning and the combination of environmental,
  social and economic decision-making processes.

4
Sustainability
Think globally, act locally
Systems thinking is key to sustainability
Healthy Economy

Integrated planning
Sustain-ability
Healthy Environment
Healthy Society
5
Sustainability and the Oil Sands

• In the past few years, oil sands developments
  have frequently been the topic of both positive
  and negative attention (media, NGOs, Govt, etc.)
• Positives mainly dealing with economic growth
  and benefits to local, regional, national
  communities social benefits for individual
  workers and families
• Negatives economic growth too rapid social
  issues for communities, lifestyles and living
  conditions of workers, aboriginal way of life
  many environmental issues for water, land,
  atmosphere, people, flora and fauna, health
  issues, etc. economic issues for other
  industries (salaries, workers)
• Has an integrated, systems approach been taken?

6
Oil Sands News Articles (Edmonton Journal Jan
9, 2009 and March 1, 2009)

7
Oil Sands News Articles (Edmonton Journal
February 4, 2009)

8
Oil Sands News Articles (Edmonton Journal Feb
22, 2009)

9
Oil Sands News Articles (Edmonton Journal Jan
27, Mar 9, Feb 28, and Feb 14, 2009)

10
Oil Sands News Articles (Edmonton Journal
February 10, 2009)

11
Oil Sands News Articles (Edmonton Journal Feb
28, 2009 and March 11, 2009)

12
Oil Sands News Articles (National Post February
20, 2009 and March 9, 2009)

13
Oil Sands News Articles (Edmonton Journal March
12, 2009 Suncors Turn in the Spotlight)

14
Oil Sands News Articles (National Geographic,
March 2009)

15
Suncor Tailings Ponds and Facilities (National
Geographic, March 2009)

16
Positions Reported in the Media

• Tend to be mainly from only one perspective
• Environmental perspective
• Water, especially the Tailings Ponds
• Land, Land Reclamation, cutting of Boreal Forest
• Air, especially Carbon Dioxide Emissions
• Organisms, birds, fish, animals, people, flora
• Societal/Social Perspective
• Health of People and Communities
• Impact of Development on Communities
• Economic Perspective
• Jobs, Investment, Economic/GDP Growth
• Negative impact on non-energy industries/companies

17
Sustainability
Think globally, act locally
Systems thinking is key to sustainability
Healthy Economy

Integrated planning
Sustain-ability
Healthy Environment
Healthy Society
18
Sustainability and the Oil Sands

• How did we get here?
• Oil sands origins, development and processes
• Economic, Environmental and Social Intersections
• Integrated Planning and a Systems Approach
• Sustainability and the Oil Sands

19
The Origin of the Oilsands(Boreal Sea, early
Cretaceous period, 115 million years ago)
20

Bacteria and Oil

• Oil biodegrades slowly in shallow reservoirs (lt
  600 m)
• Temperatures lt 80 oC allow biodegradation
• Degradation occurs during migration across strata
• Bitumen is highly biodegraded to produce a very
  complex hydrocarbon structure (aromatic rings,
  with cross-linking)

80 µm
Rhodococcus S14He Dorobantu et al., 2004
21
Oil Sands (Bitumen) Deposits in Alberta

• Alberta land area 661,848 sq. km
• Alberta boreal forest area 381,000 sq. km
• Oil Sands deposits area 140,200 sq. km (21 of
  Alberta land area)
• Mineable Oil Sands area 3,500 sq. km
  (approximately 0.5 of Alberta land area located
  mainly north of Fort McMurray)
• Active oil sands mining area 420 sq. km (with
  65 sq. km under active reclamation, approx. 130
  sq.km of tailings ponds)
• 1,700 to 2,500 Billion Barrels of Bitumen
• 173 Billion Barrels of reserves (in sand)
• 315 Billion Barrels ultimately recoverable
• 27 in carbonates not yet commercial
• 25 in thin layers not yet commercial
• 5 intermediate depth, cap rock or gas cap
  limitations not yet commercial

22
Western Canadian Reserves The Unconventional
Reality
Sustainability note long duration of development
over many, many generations for oil sands and
coal points to need for addressing impact
continuously
23

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What are Oil Sands? Technology Oil

• Oil sands combination of
• Bitumen (3-18)
• Water (2-10)
• sand clays (80-85), clay 10 to 30

From Oil Sands
25
The Nature of the Oil Sands Resource
26
Oil Sands Surface Mining

• Surface Mining
• Used for past 40 years limited to 75 m in
  depth
• Mineable area covers about 3,500 square
  kilometers
• Shovel-and-truck operations - shovels (100 tons)
  trucks (400 tons)
• Basic recovery process adds hot water (and
  sometimes NaOH) to the sand and the resulting
  slurry is agitated and the oil skimmed from the
  top.
• Recovery of bitumen as high as 90 or more

27
Bitumen Production
Courtesy of Michael MacKinnon, Syncrude Canada
28
Mining Oil Sands Water Use

• Syncrude Year 2003 2004 2005
  2006 2007
• Thousand bbl oil/day 212 239 214
  288 305
• Athabasca kbbl water/d 557 528 486
  584 621
• Barrel water/Barrel oil 2.63 2.21
  2.28 2.26 2.03
• Tailing Ponds
• Recycle kbbl water/d 3,260 3,937 3,930
  4,043 4,414
• water recycle 86 88
  88 87 88
• Suncor Year 2003 2004 2005
  2006 2007
• Barrel water/Barrel oil 4.20 3.49
  4.04 2.38 2.29

29
Mining Oil Sands Water Use

• Oil Sands plants (3 operating and 3 approved)
  have licenses to withdraw 394 million m3/yr from
  the Athabasca river plus tributaries 12.5 m3/s
  (less than 50 actually typically being
  withdrawn)
• Athabasca River 859 m3/s (April-Nov) 1.5
• Athabasca River 177 m3/s (Dec Mar) 8.8
• Minimum low flow less than 100 m3/s 12.5
• Proposed new plants increase total to 15.5 m3/s
  by 2015-20 (allocation, not necessarily actual
  use), but peak withdrawal rate may be 29 m3/s
• Water withdrawal is now capped between 8 to 15
  m3/s during low flow season

30
Suncor
Syncrude Tailings Ponds And Mines
31
Mining Tailings Ponds a big issue

• Approximately 1 to 1.5 barrels of Mature Fine
  Tailings (MFT) produced for each barrel of oil
• MFT 15 solids (mainly fine clay) by volume, or
  30 by mass not weight bearing, holds water
• Volume of MFT increases with production (time)
• Now approximately 130 sq.km of tailings ponds out
  of 420 sq.km of active area
• 65 sq.km has been reclaimed (first tailings pond
  2010)
• Consolidated tailings technology (mix MFT with
  coarse sand and gypsum)
• Paste technology (add flocculants to bind to
  clay)
• Water capping over MFT in end pit lakes
• Drawbacks for all technologies

32
Tailings Management Current State
Source Natural Resources Canada
33
The Bottom of the Barrel
Athabasca Bitumen

• 50 of bitumen cannot be distilled, even under
  vacuum vacuum residue
• No technologies for complete conversion to
  liquids
• Large amounts of hydrogen needed for upgrading
  (large natural gas usage)

50 distillable
50 residue
34
General Upgrading Scheme
35
Life Cycle Emissions (Dirty Oil or Dirty
Consumers?)
36
Acknowledgements

• Materials for this presentation were obtained
  from and provided by several sources, including
• APEGGA, American Institute of Chemical Eng.
• The Edmonton Journal, National Post
• National Geographic
• Syncrude Canada Ltd, Suncor Energy Inc.
• Government of Alberta, AB Energy Research Inst.
• Drs. Murray Gray, Eddy Isaacs, Jim Carter
• Any errors or omissions are my responsibility
• The following 16 slides were not covered in class
  and will not be included on the final examination

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Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• Syncrude Year 2003 2004 2005
  2006 2007
• Thousand bbl oil/day 212 239 214
  288 305
• Million Tonnes CO2e 10.58 10.99 11.09
  13.49 15.01
• Tonnes CO2e/Barrel oil 0.135 0.124 0.140
  0.141 0.133
• Suncor Year 2003 2004 2005
  2006 2007
• Thousand bbl oil/day 217 227 171
  260 236
• Million Tonnes CO2e 7.80 8.46 7.43
  8.91 9.30
• Tonnes CO2e/Barrel oil 0.097 0.100 0.116
  0.092 0.106
• Emission intensity depends on type of upgrading
  process and mix of mining and in situ production
  (Albian and CNRL not shown)

38
Carbon Capture and Storage

• Alberta Government providing 2 Billion to
  support 50 to 75 of cost of 3 to 5 CCS
  industrial projects for 5 Mt/yr CO2
• Operating costs could be 75 to 150/t CO2
• CCS is one of the most expensive ways of reducing
  CO2 but it is one of the few feasible approaches
  for large industrial sources
• Reducing CO2 emissions by the consumer is much
  more cost effective (can actually make money),
  but requires tax/incentive approach and
  individual action by many consumers

39
Research Needs

• t

Cost of Carbon Capture and Storage versus Other
Alternatives
40
Carbon Capture and Storage

• Is 15/tonne, or 75 to 150/tonne CO2 a lot?
• 1 barrel of oil from oil sands produces 330 kg of
  CO2 plus 130 kg of CO2 produced in order to mine,
  extract, upgrade and transport
• 15/tonne 2 to produce a barrel plus 5 per
  barrel if consumer also pays (7 total)
• 75 to 150/tonne for CCS means a cost of 10 to
  20/barrel for the producer 20 to 40 increase
  in cost of gasoline if oil is 50/barrel (0.15
  to 0.30/litre of gas)
• significant, but gas cost was higher in 2008, and
  much,much higher in Europe

41
Mining Oil Sands GHG Emissions

• 29.5 Megatonnes/yr (Mt) CO2 for 0.67 Mbbl/day in
  2007 for Syncrude, Suncor, Albian oil sands
  mining operations
• In situ oil sands 0.54 Mbbl/day less upgrading
  in Alberta, large CO2 emissions in the US
  refineries
• 250 Mt/yr for Alberta (industryindividual)
• 720 Mt/yr for Canada
• If mining with upgrading doubles, then 60 Mt/yr
• Sundance Transalta Coal Fired Electric Power
  Plant 2,073 MW, 15.4 Mt/yr CO2 (approx. 50 Mt/yr
  total for six large coal-fired power plants in
  Alberta)

42
In Situ Recovery

• Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS)
• Single well - cycles of steam injection, soak,
  and oil production
• Recovery 25
• Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)
• Two horizontal wells drilled one at the bottom of
  the formation and one about 5 metres above it
• Steam is injected into the upper well, the heat
  melts the bitumen which flows into the lower
  well and is pumped to the surface
• Wells are typically drilled in groups off central
  pads and can extend for 1000 ms in all
  directions
• Recovery 50 - 60

43
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)
Courtesy Husky Energy
44
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)(Land
disturbance footprint for SAGD is significant
when multiplied by hundreds, eventually
thousands, of such facilities for example, over
100,000 conventional wells (not SAGD) are
currently producing in Alberta)
45
Oil Sands (Bitumen) Deposits in Alberta

• Alberta land area 661,848 sq. km
• Alberta boreal forest area 381,000 sq. km
• Oil Sands deposits area 140,200 sq. km (21 of
  Alberta land area)
• Mineable Oil Sands area 3,500 sq. km
  (approximately 0.5 of Alberta land area located
  mainly north of Fort McMurray)
• Active oil sands mining area 420 sq. km (with
  65 sq. km under active reclamation, approx. 130
  sq.km of tailings ponds)
• 1,700 to 2,500 Billion Barrels of Bitumen
• 173 Billion Barrels of reserves (in sand)
• 315 Billion Barrels ultimately recoverable
• 27 in carbonates not yet commercial
• 25 in thin layers not yet commercial
• 5 intermediate depth, cap rock or gas cap
  limitations not yet commercial

46
Positions Reported in the Media

• Tend to be mainly from only one perspective
• Environmental perspective
• Water, especially the Tailings Ponds
• Land, Land Reclamation, Boreal Forest
• Air, especially Carbon Dioxide Emissions
• Organisms, birds, fish, animals, people, flora
• Societal/Social Perspective
• Health of People and Communities
• Impact of Development on Communities
• Economic Perspective
• Jobs, Investment, Economic/GDP Growth
• Negative impact on non-energy industries/companies

47
Research Needs

• Canada has a world-scale resource
• Current technology will not allow the oil sands
  to reach their full potential
• Natural gas consumption (steam and hydrogen)
• Water use for in situ and mining methods
• Expedient reclamation of tailings
• Carbon dioxide emissions (capture storage)
• Effective upgrading to value-added products
• Oil sands need new technologies which require
  additional research

48
University of Alberta Activities

49
Alberta Oil Sands 2007 Forecast was too high,
in 2008-09 most projects now deferred or delayed
2007 Forecast All Alberta oil sands related
projects including mines, insitu, upgraders,
pipeline and co-gen plants. 100 all announced
case.
Actual
Forecast
Construction Capital
Operating Costs
Sustaining Capital
Source CAPP, Nichols Applied Management
50
APEGGA Environmental Guideline

• Contains concept of Sustainability
• According to the APEGGA Environmental Guideline,
  Sustainability is the Ability to meet the needs
  of the present without compromising the ability
  of future generations to meet their own needs,
  through the balanced application of integrated
  planning and the combination of environmental,
  social and economic decision-making processes.

51
Sustainability
Think globally, act locally
Systems thinking is key to sustainability
Healthy Economy

Integrated planning
Sustain-ability
Healthy Environment
Healthy Society
52
Acknowledgements

• Materials for this presentation were obtained
  from and provided by several sources, including
• APEGGA, American Institute of Chemical Eng.
• The Edmonton Journal, National Post
• National Geographic
• Syncrude Canada Ltd, Suncor Energy Inc.
• Government of Alberta, AB Energy Research Inst.
• Drs. Murray Gray, Eddy Isaacs, Jim Carter
• Any errors or omissions are my responsibility