The Challenges

It is deceptively simple to separate oil from the oil sands. With only a little ingenuity and persistence, a number of methods have been successful. After a short time working on the problem, both Karl Clark and Robert Fitzsimmons believed they had solved the riddle, and that it should be possible to go into production on a commercial basis. However, it turned out not to be as simple as it seemed. The oil that separates so easily brings a variety of extra ingredients with it. These make the oil hard to handle, in a number of ways, and unsuitable for further processing. So, once the initial problem was solved, a number of additional challenges had to be addressed.

The Question of Grit

The most obvious question was how to make the oil less gritty. Most of the sand could be separated from the oil, but there were minuscule particles of clay and silt, known as fines, that stubbornly refused to settle out. If the gritty oil didn’t grind down the components of the pumps and other moving parts, it clogged up the plant’s pipes and machinery when the fines did eventually settle out. The flip side of this problem was the oil that clung to the particles of sand rejected from the process as tailings. Ten percent or more of the oil could be lost in this way.

Unwanted Elements

Less obvious were components like heavy metals and sulfur. Petroleum engineer Sidney Blair made special note of these in his report as items requiring special attention. Vanadium and nickel are present to varying degrees in the oil sands. These are particularly problematic, as they interfere with refining techniques that rely on catalysts to crack the large hydrocarbons into smaller parts. According to Blair, there is also an “exceptionally high sulphur content in the bitumen.” Sulfur is considered a contaminant in petroleum products. Again, Blair specified that the oil sands oil would need to have this element removed before it could be useful.

Tailings

At various times in the history of the Bitumount plants, and again in the Blair Report, the need to deal with the large quantities of sand tailings produced by the separation process was emphasized. None of the plants at Bitumount implemented a long-term plan to handle the disposal of the tailings. This was due, at least in part, to the fact that none of them operated long enough for the problem to become acute.

Location, Location, Location

No amount of ingenious processing could change the location of the oil sands. As it had from the beginning, geography presented a major challenge. Before the value of the oil sands could be realised, it would be necessary to construct a massive industrial complex at the remote location of the resource. Then, a way to bring the oil to the market had to be found.