Centre for Oil Sands Innovation COSI

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Centre for Oil Sands Innovation (COSI)

• ERLC Video Conference
• February 18, 2009
• Frank Jenkins Art Bauer

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COSI Lesson Development

• Initiated by Alberta Ingenuity (Sandra Robertson)
• Sponsored by Alberta Ingenuity and Imperial Oil
• Operated by CMASTE (Centre for Mathematics
  Science and Technology Education) at the U of A
• Situated in the Faculty of Engineering,
  Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
  at the U of A

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www.CMASTE.ca

• Select Outreach then
• Alberta Ingenuity Resources then
• Centre for Carbohydrate Science,
• Centre for Machine Learning or
• Centre for Oil Sands Innovation
• free downloadable resources/lessons
• also see www.CRYSTALAlberta.ca

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COSI Oil Sands Lessons

• Career Connections 08 (Word)
• Career Connections 08 TR (Word)
• Career Research Team 08 (Word)
• Career Research Team 08 TR (Word)
• STSE Issue Kitchen Table Narrative (Word)
• STSE Issue Perspectives Research (Word)
• STSE Issue Perspectives Research TR (Word)
• Investigations
• Investigations--teacher resource (Word)
• Investigations--preparation (PowerPoint)
• Investigations--preLab (PowerPoint)
• Investigations--student resource (Word)
• Investigations--lab exercises (Word)
• Investigations--postLab (PowerPoint)

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http//alis.alberta.ca
Sample career in oil sands operations. See
careers lesson.
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The Oil Sands Process

• the overburden is stripped from the mineable oil
  sand (lt75 m)
• the oil sand is mined with large shovels and
  trucks
• the oil sand is crushed and mixed with hot water
  and a base (to increase pH) before being
  hydrotransported in a pipe to the extraction
  plant (This starts the extraction of bitumen.)
• the oil sand and water mixture is transferred to
  a large separatory funnel/tankbitumen froth,
  water, and sand are separated
• air is added to help float the bitumen froth to
  the top of the mixture and to be skimmed off by a
  large rotating paddle
• the bitumen is upgraded to synthetic crude oil by
  cracking--large aromatic molecules into smaller
  aromatic and aliphatic ones
• the sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen atoms and double
  bonds are eliminated from the sour synthetic
  crude by hydrotreating separate fractions of the
  cracked bitumen with hydrogen
• the synthetic crude is shipped to a refinery to
  be refined into gasoline and other petroleum
  fractions

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Bitumen to Synthetic Crude Oil (4)

• A1 oil sands mine (lt 75 m)
• overburden stripper
• oil sands shovel
• oil sands truck

• B1 bitumen extraction unit
• hydrotransport
• separation tanks
• naphtha dilution system
• centrifuge

oil
B1.1 tailings pond
water
sand
B2 insitu extraction of bitumen unit (e.g.,
SAGD)
Extraction of bitumen from oil sands
steam
dilbit
dilbit
C1 vacuum distillation unit
C1.3 naphtha recycle system
Upgrading of bitumen to synthetic crude oil
naphtha
CH4(g)
F H2(g) generator
bitumen
H2(g)
E1 distillation unit (e.g., gas, naphtha,
kerosene gas oil)
G1 synthetic crude blender
D1 cracking unit (coker)
F1 hydrotreaters
H2S(g)
NH3(g)
pipe(line)
sourgas
C(s)
H1 refinery further cracking and distillation
F1.2.1 Claus converter
F1.2 amine scrubber
coke
sulfur
S8(l)
H2S(g)
NH3(g)
ammonia
gasoline, diesel, etc.
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Miningtruck and shovel
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Crushing, mixing hydrotransport
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Frothingfloating the bitumen
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Investigating Bitumen Extraction a research
team approach

• Career STSE lessons
• Investigations
• Investigations--teacher resource (Word)
• Investigations--preparation (PowerPoint)
• Investigations--preLab (PowerPoint)
• Investigations--student resource (Word)
• Investigations--lab exercises (Word)
• Investigations--postLab (PowerPoint)

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Research Program/Team

• This series of investigations is aimed at
• testing hypotheses by manipulating one variable
  at a time
• improving the extraction of bitumen from oil
  sandsespecially to reduce energy, water usage
  and environmental impact.
• illustrating a research team approach that is
  common within scientific research programs.

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Partner in Oil Sands Education

• Inside Education
• oil sands for high school kit
• including DVD and lessons
• oil sands assessment bank PDF file
• petroleum virtual field trip DVD
• elementary/JH petroleum education kit
• Visit Inside Education at www.InsideEducation.ca .

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Acknowledgements

• Alberta Ingenuity (Sandra Robertson)
• Andree Koenig (demo)
• Cam McGregor
• Pam Seager
• Dr. Zhenghe Xu
• Dr. Steve Kuznicki
• Dr. Murray Gray
• COSI staff Centre for Oil Sands Innovation
• Dr. Bob Ritter (CMASTE)

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Oil Sands Education Research

• If you are interested in participating in a PhD
  research project on oil sands education, contact
• Art Bauer bauer_at_ualberta.ca

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Contact Information

• Art Bauer
• bauer_at_ualberta.ca
• Frank Jenkins
• fjenkins_at_ualberta.net
• www.CMASTE.ca
• www.InsideEducation.ca