RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Will Cenovus Buy Meg? Eigen confused me with the use of the term 'mine',which i thought oilsand mining which is the approved method for mining fort hills. He did not mention solvent process in his first post. VAPEX was invented over 20 years ago.
Fort Hills is an open-pit truck and shovel mine. Its life is expected to be approximately 50 years based on current mine plans.
Of course, many companies tweaked this process and re-patented it under their own brand for fame and glory. The patent that uses propane had expired, so companies are willing to try it. Suncor piloted propane application some 5 years ago??
suncor propand sagd pilot
it was never economical due to high input cost (propane) and lower oil rates than conventional SAGD. However, the current push for low emission oilsand extraction, and more regulation, chance to get new or expansion oilsand project approved now favoring oilsand recovery using propane with much less use of water. Everything is better if one use expensive input. If you want zero emission process, go electric which have been piloted by the major oil producers already but its' very very pricey. If regulation and CO2 emission limit go even more crazy, electric powered recovery would become more favoriable than propane. That is why there are some proposing nuclear power plant in alberta.
Here some titles of old paper that describle solvent assisted recovery in heavy oil and oilsand
Butler, Roger M., and Igor J. Mokrys. “Recovery of heavy oils using vapourized hydrocarbon solvents: further development of the VAPEX process.” Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology 32.06 (1993).
Das, Swapan Kumar. In situ recovery of heavy oil and bitumin using vaporized hydrocarbon solvents. Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, 1995.
Das, Swapan K., and Roger M. Butler. “Mechanism of the vapor extraction process for heavy oil and bitumen.” Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 21.1 (1998): 43-59..
Quintessential1 wrote: Ok then you also mean a lot less carbon dioxide or co2 intensive? Something doesn't read right in this statement:
MOST people DON'T know this but the Fort Hills oilsands MINE is a LOT LESS ENERGY INTENSIVE and therefore CARBON-DIOXIDE (CO2) INTENSIVE per barrel of BITUMEN produced than the SUPERIOR SAGD operations like the industry leading CVE Christina Lake followed closely by MEG Christina Lake !!!
Eigen337 wrote: mrbb - (6/19/2021 3:23:56 PM)
RE:RE:RE:Will Cenovus Buy Meg? you mean alot more energy intensive
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NO, my original statement was CORRECT !!!
Fort Hills MINE PRODUCES LESS CO2e/bbl. of BITUMEN than the BEST IN CLASS SAGD operations - CVE Christina Lake with a NORMALIZED Steam-To-Oil (SOR) of ~ 1.9 under routine operating conditions !!!
However, this is with INJECTED STEAM !!!
NEW injected steam MIXED with SOLVENTS {most likely PROPANE} like the MEG Energy PROPRIETARY eMVAPEX reservoir technology AIMS to DRAMATICALLY CUT both energy use and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) EMISSIONS !!!
Remember that the Fort Hills SHOVEL/DUMP TRUCKS mine operates under the SURFACE OVERBURDEN {maybe 50 meters DEPTH ???} while the SAGD reservoir operations of Chistina Lake (CVE) must be HEATED in the 360 to 420 METERS UNDERGROUND and PUMPED to the surface !!!
This is my opinion only.
Eigen337