for Bitumen producers ... game changer!This has the potential to be A HUGE GAME CHANGER FOR REACHING NEW MARKETS, BYPASSING the NEED for PIPELINES!
Should a container of TrueCrude ever crack open and end up in the ocean, it would float in one large block that could easily be recovered, the company says. The pure bitumen is heated so it can be poured into modified shipping containers, where it then solidifies when it cools. It is then shipped by train and put onto container ships. When it reaches its destination, the bitumen is heated to allow to flow into a refinery.
Melius is currently building a demonstration diluent recovery plant in Edmonton. Butler said the plants could be built and sold as turn-key operations to oil producers in Alberta.
Melius says transporting bitumen by train and container ship is cost competitive with pipeline and oil tanker transport. For one thing, there are no capital costs associated with the transportation, since the railway lines already exist.
“We’re moving on existing rail lines, it’s a safe product and we can efficiently move volume at scale,” Butler said.
There are also economies of scale associated with moving products by container ship, as opposed to oil tanker, since there are so many containers ships plying the ocean.
https://www.jwnenergy.com/article/2019/9/first-shipment-solid-bitumen-its-way-china/
