A SECOND GENERATION TAR SANDS PLANT
Abstract
The first major Athabasca tar sands production
plant came on stream in 1967 with a throughput
capacity of 45000 bd of high quality synthetic crude
oil. Since that time a second plant has been designed
and scheduled to start production in 1976. This
second generation plant will have a capacity of
80000 bd of synthetic products and will introduce
different basic concepts wherever necessary in order
to optimize each step in the overall operation. In the
mining section, draglines will be substituted for a
scraper-mining wheel combination; in conveying,
trains will replace belt conveyors; in clearing the
primary oil, a thermal dehydration-cyclone arrange-
ment will take the place of a dilution-centrifuge
system; in primary conversion, hydrovisbreaking will
replace delayed coking; and in the second plant,
additional flexibility in the hydrotreating and blending
steps will allow the preparation of a range of synthetic
crudes and related oils.
By stressing a particular combination of engineering
techniques the second generation tar sand plant will
advance the technology to expedite the production of
major quantities of tar sand oil at prices compatible
with other North American conventional oils.
1. INTRODUCTION
Tar sand deposits, often referred to as bituminous
sand deposits, are known in various parts of the
world. Madagascar, Venezuela, Russia, the United
States and Canada are but a few examples.l Though
in many cases exceedingly oil rich, development of
such deposits has been slow. There were a few
instances in earlier y e s s where the raw saturated sand
by F. K. SPRAGINS,
Synclude Canada Ltd.,
807 Baker Centre, 10025-106 Street,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Résumé
La première usine de production majeure de sables
bitumineux de l’Athabasca vint en aval en 1967 avec
une capacité de 45000 fûts par jour, d’une qualité de
pétrole brut synthétique supérieure. Depuis, les plans
pour une seconde usine ont été faits et la production
devra commencer en 1976. Cette second usine de
génération aura une capacité de 80000 fûts par jour
de pétrole synthétique et introduira des indées de base
différéntes en cas de nécessité, s’il y a lieu, de façon
à perfectionner chaque démarche dans l’ensemble de
l’opération. ‘
Dans la section minière, des lignes de dragage seront
remplacées par une combinaison d’écorcheuse-roue
minière; en transport, des trains remplaceront les
bandes transporteuses; pour nettoyer le pétrole
originel, un arrangement de déshydratation--cyclone
thermique remplaçera un système dilution-centrifuge;
en transformation première, hydrovisbreaking rem-
placera la fonte au coke dilatoire; et dans la seconde
usine une flexibilité additionnelle dans les étapes du
mélange et du traitement hydro permettront la
préparation d’un alignement de pétroles brut syn-
thétiques et alliés.
En insistant SLIT une combinaison particulière de
mécanicienstechniques, la seconde usine de génération
de sables bitumineux avancera la technologie à
expédier la production du pétrole de stables bitu-
mineux à des prix compatibles, avec les autres pétroles
conventionnels de l’Amérique du Nord.
-
was mined for use as paving material and limited
amounts of the heavy oil were extracted and turned
into more or less conventional-type petroleum pro-
ducts. Slow development has been attributed to
technical problems associated with production and
processing and, in other cases, inaccessibility of the
deposit.
As the demand for energy begins to skyrocket
throughout the world and as production and dis-
tribution problems of all fuels become pronounced,
recovery of the so-called “synthetic crude” from tar
sands takes on a new significance. As depicted in Fig.
1, one of the areas now receiving active attention is the
Athabasca tar sands of northeastern Alberta,
36 Developments in the Recovery and Processing of Oil Shales, Tar Sands, Heavy Crude Oils, and Coal

several hundred thousand P at 60OF.5 The sulfur

content of the oil is high for most areas and ranges
from 4 to 6 %. In addition, the oil has a relatively high
nickel-vanadium porphyrin content.3 In total the
Athabasca oil does not present an impressive list of
the most desirable qualities; yet many of its poor
qualities are offset by its above average cracking and
hydrogenation characteristics.
The degree of saturation of the oil zone is ex-
ceedingly variable throughout the Athabasca area.
When being described, oil saturation is usually
expressed as a weight percentage with actual measure-
ments varying from the 18-20% range down to zero.
Fig. 1-Location of Athabasca tar sands. Those sands containing 10 % or more oil by weight are
considered good with definite recoverable potential.
Canada. Work in this area is proceeding with partic-
Expressed in different terms, good areas run as high
ular attention devoted to the establishment of a firm
as 250000 barrels per acre with the average set at
technical base for acceptable future expansion.
about 100000 barrels per acre.5
Where overburden thickness does not exceed 350 ft,
2. DESCRIPTION OF DEPOSIT and where saturated beds are usually between 100
and 200 ft thick, recovery by tested mining techniques
The Athabasca tar sands of northeastern Alberta, is possible but is limited to areas containing 6% or
Canada contain a vast accumulation of heavy viscous more saturation by weight of 0il.5 While saturation
oil. Excluding several similar but smaller deposits in limits have not been established for in situ thermal
the same general area, the main body of the Athabasca stimulation recovery methods, those areas having in
sand covers between 12000 and 13000 sq. miles and excess of 350 ft of overburden are usually considered
contains over 600 billion barrels of oil in place.2 Of most amenable for the application of such methods.
this total, approximately 86 billion barrels of crude oil Thus by recovery method and overburden thickness
are considered recoverable by tested surface mining the Athabasca tar sands can be divided into two
techniques and a further 300 billion barrels are distinct areas: one prospective for recovery by mining
considered recoverable by in situ thermal stimulation. and the other by thermal stimulation. Although
The oil is accumulated in the McMurray formation considerable experimentation and testing has gone on
of Cretaceous age. From outcrops along the Atha- in both, the mining area is the only one currently
basca River, where saturation thicknesses range up being produced.
to 150 ft, the beds in general slope to the southwest,
eventually becoming overlain by sand and shale
deposits to the extent of something over 2000 ft. 3. IiISTORY OF COMMERCIAL
Although outcrops along the Athabasca River are DEVELOPMENT
representative of the overall deposit, the thickness of
the oil-bearing section varies greatly over the area. In Study of the unusual phenomena of the Athabasca
some cases it ranges up to as much as 400 ft while in tar sand accumulation and speculation about its
others it is as little as a few feet. It is interesting to commercial development have been going on for
note that 80% of the oil reserves are located in 40% almost 200 years;4 however, serious efforts to tap this
of the total volume of the oil-bearing sediments.2 vast source of energy did not get underway until 1875
Under such varying conditions some areas become when the ñrst organized geological survey and
highly prospective for oil production, while others are potential commercial assessment were undertaken.6
beyond the practical limits of recoverability. Since that time there have been numerous attempts by
McMurray formation porosities are often as high private individuals, companies and governments to
as 35 %. Between 55 % and 89 % of the available pore set up profitable oil recovery operations. Each were
space is occupied by oil with 1 to 30 % being taken up attracted by the riches that appeared so close at
by formation water.3 For the most part, sand grains hand-something that could be visually inspected,
axe water-wet-a characteristic which allows separa- touched and walked upon, yet so unresponsive to the
tion by water washing. The raw oil is a black, naph- most energetic efforts to unlock the secrets of recovery.
thenic base hydrocarbon which has a sp gr of about Some of the early unsuccessful commercial de-
1.01 and a viscosity which ranges from 3000 to velopers drilled holes and attempted to set fire to the
 Developments in the Recovery and Processing of Oil Shales, Tar Sands, Heavy Crude Oils, and Coal 37

formation in order to "melt" the oil. In these attempts

first major commercial tar sands production plant.
gasoline was pumped into holes, which had been Initial testing and construction was started in 1962
drilled into the oil formation, and ignited. Fires were
and the plant came on stream in September 1967. It
actually maintained for a day or two. Great volumes was designed to produce 45000 barrels per calendar
of black smoke would belch from the hole, but no day of 38" API gravity synthetic sweet crude.
oil was produced. The plant, based on a four-stage sequence of mining,
The first semi-commercial plant, based on hot material handling, extraction and heavy oil upgrading,
water washing to separate the oil from the sand, was required a peak construction force in excess of 2000
built in 1936. A form of diesel oil was produced fromworkmen. A diagrammatic flow plan of this first
the recovered oil and found a ready market in mining generation tar sand plant is illustrated in Fig. 2.
camps in the areas to the north. After a short period In the area now being mined, the overburden,
of operation, the owners of the company decided to averaging approximately 40 ft in thickness, is being
rebuild the whole plant to improve its efficiency andremoved by a fleet of fourteen 32-CUyd tandem engine
it was dismantled for that purpose. The plant was scrapers. The oil-saturated sands, ranging in the
reassembled but never really worked as well as beforeneighborhood of 150 ft in thickness, are mined by
dismantling. Shortly after 1945, the plant caught fire
two giant bucket wheel excavators at rates up to
and was burned to the ground. It was never rebuilt.4 140000 tons per day. One wheel operates from the
As a climax to an extensive research program pit floor and the other from a bench at about the
devoted entirely to the Athabasca tar sands, a plant 75 ft elevation mark. One of the excavators built for
was constructed during the months immediately prior Great Canadian is shown in Fig. 3. Provision is also
to 1948, to process 500 tons per day of tar sands. This
made for the overburden scraper fleet to supplement
plant was built on the east bank of the Athabasca the mining wheels during periods of routine mainten-
River where there was a particularly rich outcrop of ance, when mechanical trouble develops or when
tar sands. The recovery facilities were designed around
especially difficult formation problems are en-
the hot water process. In this approach the raw tar countered.
sand is slurried with steam and hot water and then As the tar sand is mined, the material is loaded on a
fed t o a tank of water, usually at temperatures between
72-in. wide conveyor belt and transported to the
180" and 190",7 where separation of the sand and oil extraction plant at a velocity of approximately
takes place. The plant was not a commercial pro- 1000 ft/min.7 The belt unloads directly into bins
duction facility but the venture, through activities capable of handling in excess of 10000 tons of feed
carried out during 1948 and 1949, served to establishmaterial. The surge bins discharge onto apron feeders
the technical feasibility of the hot water process. which in turn load the conveyors feeding four parallel
The decade following the 1948- 1949 large-scale horizontal slurrying drums. In these drums, both
tests was particularly significant in the history of tar
steam and hot water is introduced in amounts sufficient
sand plant development for it was during this period to create a soft watery pulp containing appreciable
that would-be producers realized that size was amounts of entrapped air. The slurry is pumped to a
probably the most significant consideration in the hot water extraction system where oil is removed in
design of a successful commercial plant. In some the form of a froth and then diluted with naphtha.
cases the order of magnitude in planning new plants The diluted oil in this stream is then passed through
was revised upward a hundred fold. In addition, it a centrifuge system where water and unwanted solids
was realized that material handling problems had a far
are removed. The diluent is then recovered. Sand from
greater effect on successful operations than did any the system is discharged in a separate stream.
other technical factor. (The author wishes to note at this point that dis-
Prior to the plant built by Great Canadian Oil cussions in this paper are not intended to deal in
Sands, there were many attempts to produce oil on a detail with each process step but instead to deal
commercial basis, all of which were unsuccessful, but with basic concepts.)
in total each contributed to the accumulation of From the centrifuge dilutent recovery system, the
technical knowledge which is proving to be of immenseoil is fed through heaters to six parallel delayed coker
value in present day design considerations. drums.7 Coke produced in these units is collected for
plant fuel and the overhead product is separated into
three streams: naphtha, kerosene and a wide range
4. THE FIRST COMMERCIAL PLANT heavy gas oil. Each of the three overhead streams
requires different amounts of hydrogen to meet desired
Based on the new concepts in the economy of scale, specifications and therefore is individually hydro-
Great Canadian Oil Sands engineered and built the treated. After hydrogenation the three streams are
38 Developments in the Recovery and Processing of Oil Shales, Tar Sands, Heavy Crude Oils, and Coal

OVERBURDEN TAR SAND MINING TAR SAND

TRANSPORT EXTRACTION DEPOSAL
REMOVAL
SCRAPERS BUCKET WHEEL BELT CONVEYORS HOT WATER HYDRAULIC
EXCAVATORS PROCESS

COKE
FROTH PRIMARY CONVERSION HYDROTREATING PRODUCTS
TREATMENT
DILUTION DELAYED COKING
CENTRIFUGING

Fig. 2-Diagrammatic illustration of Jirst generation plant.

blended to form the product called synthetic crude.

This material, a full range distillate product, is light
amber in color, has an API gravity rating of approxi-
mately 38" and a boiling range of 210" to 830" F.
Sulfur content is exceptionally low.

Fig. 4-Great Canadian's plant showing hydrogen

furnace and coker drums.

Figure 4 is a view of the Great Canadian plant

showing the hydrogen furnace in the foreground with
hydrotreaters to the right and coker units in the
background.

Fig. 3-Great Canadian's bucket wheel excavator.

Also required, along with the mining, material
handling and process units, are supplementary plants
sufficient in size to supply 60 MM CU ft per stream day
of hydrogen, to produce 300 tons per day of Sulfur
and to supply 70000 kVA of electrical power.7
5. A SECOND GENERATION TAR SANDS
RECOVERY PLANT
Operation of the first tar sands plant has
strengthened the conclusion that size is one of the key
factors in the commercialization of the Athabasca
 Developments in the Recovery and Processing of Oil Shales, Tar Sands, Heavy Crude Oils, and Coal 39

OVERBURMN REMOVAL TAR SAND EXTRACTION DISPOSAL

AND TAR SAND MINING TRANSPORT
DRAGLINES RECLAIMERS MODIFIED HYDRAULIC
AND ELECTRIC TRAINS HOT WATER

PITCH
FROTH PRIMARY CONVERSION HYDROTREATING PROWCTS
TREATMENT
THERMAL DEHYDRATION HYDROVISBREAKING
CYCLONING

Fig. 5-Diagrammatic illustration of the second generation tar sands plant.

tar sands. Working on this theory, Syncrude Canada be required in the bottom of the pit. Therefore,
Ltd. has plans to build a second generation plant surface and formation drainage requirements can be
which is now in the engineering stage-one that will minimized and any special diking within the pit for
be substantially larger, one that hopefully can avoid extraction plant sand tailings disposal can be com-
many of the difficulties of the first development and pletely eliminated. Further, the unit load of the
one that hopefully can improve the overall plant proposed dragline is about twice that of the largest
operating efficiency. This plant, designed to produce
80000 bd of 32" API synthetic crude oil and related
products, is tentatively scheduled to commence
production on July 1, 1976. In principle the second
plant is similar to the fìrst; however, in conceptual
detail it is considerably different. Figure 5 shows an
overall diagramatic plan of the Syncrude plant.
In place of the mining wheels and scrapers employed
in the mining scheme in the fìrst plant, the second
generation plant will utilize large draglines to accom-
plish both removal of overburden and mining of the
tar sand. Two machines, each equipped with 100
CU yd buckets, will be employed. The combined
overburden removal and tar sands mining capability
of each machine will exceed 75000 CU yd per day
which will allow a safety factor of about 25 % under Fig. 6-Scale model of general mining area layout.
average mining conditions. In this operation direct
dumping of the overburden into the mined out pit available scraper. Of particular advantage in the
will be possible, whereas in the case of the first plant Athabasca area will be an elimination of the necessity
overburden must be hauled by the scrapers to a for extensive overburden removal in advance of tar
distant unloading point. Figure 6 is a picture of a sand mining-thus frost penetration of the tar sand
scale model of the proposed Syncrude mining scheme. surface can be minimized during sub-zero weather.
Other advantages are immediately evident. With the The dragline will operate from the surface and
dragline scheme no equipment other than pumps will after exposing a shelf of tar sand will leave the
40 Developments in the Recovery and Processing of Oil Shales, Tar Sands, Heavy Crude Oils, and Coal
overburden face at an angle of 45" and proceed to
mine through the tar sands establishing a face of 65".
It will be possible to operate effectively to combined
overburden and tar sands depths of 200 ft-the
maximum expected during the first 20 years of
operation. In Fig. 7 the model is used to illustrate
details in the vicinity of one of the draglines.
Fig.I-Mined tar sandplaced in reclaim pile parallel to
mining face (scale model).
The mined tar sand will be placed in a reclaim pile
on the surface paralleling the main mining face. A
reclaim wheel feeding a short belt conveyor will be
utilized in conjunction with each dragline to load the
main bulk of the stockpiled sand into railway hopper
cars. Larger lumps and loose material left by the
reclaim wheels will be loaded directly into the trains
using 15 CU yd front-end loaders. With a 9000-ft face,
ample working room will be available to load two
trains simultaneously without necessity of overlap.
Five operating trains and one complete spare unit,
each consisting of one 200 ton locomotive and
fourteen 100 ton capacity cars, will be employed.
This will allow each train 60 min to make one round
trip with separate trains arriving at the dump station
every 12 min. In order to account for the increasing
haul distance to the plant as the mining pit expands,
sufficient horsepower has been incorporated in the
locomotive design to permit an increase in speed
sufficient to cover the increased haul distance in the
fixed time allowed for travel. The trains will be fully
automated and will operate on a 7-day per week
continuous schedule. It is anticipated that 25000 v,
single phase, 60 cycle electrical power will be used.
In the overall material handling system, several
distinct advantages are expected even though an
extra step is introduced into the scheme by including
the field stockpile and reclaim wheel. Extremely large
size lumps, a definite disadvantage in the conveyor
belt scheme, can be handled with ease. Also, the
expected life of the system far exceeds that of a
comparable belt system.
Trains will dump automatically on the move into
a 25000 ton surge bin. Here the tar sand first passes
over a system of vibrating grizzlies separating the
coarse and fine material. Any lumps in excess of
12-in. diameter are diverted through impact crushers
and then recombined with -12 in. tar sand. Feed
conveyors transfer the mixture to a mixing drum.
The only change in basic concept in design of the
surge bins is the introduction of impact crushers to
reduce all the tar sand to a relatively uniform size.
Feed material so prepared will help ensure high
operating efficiency of the mixing drums. Reduced
slurrying time is expected and rejection of undigested
lumps will be minimized especially in the winter when
operating on frozen material.
In the mixing drum, steam and hot water are added
to the tar sand to create an air saturated slurry. A
single drum, with a diameter of 22.5 ft and a length of
160 ft, has been designed to handle 7250 tons of feed
material per hr-the entire throughput of the plant
when operating at design capacity.
The concept of size was pushed to its maximum in
the design of the mixing drum. This was possible
because the mixing operation is simple and straight-
forward. With similar equipment already in operation
in related industries, service factors were easily
calculated creating confidence in the scheme. By
eliminating multiple equipment, many operating
efficiencies are expected along with lower space
requirements.
The hot water extraction cells, to which the slurry
is fed, ase not radically different from those used in
the first plant. The following step, however, is some-
what different. Here the oil froth from the extraction
cells, containing oil, water and solids, is not diluted
but passed directly through heat exhangers, operating
on utility plant exhaust steam. It is raised to about
240°F and the heated material is then passed to a
flash tower where water is removed as low pressure
steam. Any light ends flashed with the water arc
separated before the water is recycled to the slurrying
drums. The dehydrated oil is then raised to a tempera-
ture of 575°F and cycloned to reduce solids content to
acceptable levels.
Since acceptable viscosity conditions for cycloning
can be created by the addition of heat alone, the
concept here is to eliminate the entire dilution-
diluent recovery cycle.
In the primary conversion step, the hot oil from
cycloning is fed to the hydrovisbreaker where cracking
and partial hydrogenation of the heavier fractions
takes place. A single train unit with a throughput
capacity of 104000 barrels per stream day will be
 Developments in the Recovery and Processing of Oil Shales, Tar Sands, Heavy Crude Oils, and Coal 41

employed. This is a case where scale-up factors are proved performance. Major differences are summar-
relatively easy to handle making it possible again to ized as follows:
concentrate on size and simplification in basic design.
Several operating advantages are expected by using First Second
the hydrovisbreaker as compared to the delayed generation generation
cokers used in the first Athabasca tar sands plant. Process plant plant
First and foremost, some hydrogenation is accom- Mining
plished in the primary conversion step resulting in Overburden removal Scrapers Dragline
control over the depth of cut into the heavy ends of Tar sand plant feed Mining wheel
and scrapers Dragline
the Athabasca oil. This in turn permits control over Material handling
the amount of residual produced which in turn makes To the plant Belt conveyor Trains
Plant effluent Fluid Fluid
it easier to maintain a proper plant fuel balance. Also, Extraction Hot water Hot water
it will be possible to withdraw the residual stream as Froth dehydration Centrifuge Thermal
pitch in fluid form rather than coke. Froth solids cleanup Centrifuge Cyclone
Primary oil conversion Delayed coking Hydrovisbreaking
Hydrovisbreaker pitch will be collected for plant Hydrotreating 3 Separate streams 3 Separate streams
fuel while the overhead stream will be broken into
three separate streams: naphtha, light gas oil and
heavy gas oil. Each stream will be individually hydro- In the above comparison basic changes are itali-
treated. The three hydrotreated streams will be cised. Hopefully these changes will allow the maximum
blended to make the specification synthetic crude or usage of single train units in optimum sizes, will result
related products. Also, it will be possible to exercise in a number of simplifications of the overall mining
additional flexibility in the degree of hydrotreating and processing sequence, will minimize the initial
employed in this section. Therefore, by the utilization production buildup period and will generally improve
of such control together with the possibility of taking the overall production efficiency of oil from tar sand.
advantage of a variable ratio in blending the three Should these objectives be accomplished, or even
hydrotreated streams, optimum feedstock require- accomplished in part, the second generation plant will
ments of individual refineries can be met. In addition, prove to be another step forward in establishing the
these streams could be blended to form high quality availability of tar sand deposits, wherever they may
fuel oil to meet the most stringent pollution regula- be found, as a reliable source of energy.
tions. Whatever the product, whether it be synthetic
crude or speciality oils, all streams have been designed
to enter North American markets in competition with Acknowledgements
conventionally produced oil.
Associated with the basic plant will be a 100 MM The author would like to acknowledge the valuable
scf per stream day hydrogen plant and a 450 ton per assistance rendered by Great Canadian Oil Sands and
day sulfur plant. A separate utility plant will furnish members of the staff of Syncrude Canada Ltd. in the
90 megawatts of electrical power, 1.4 MM Ib of oil preparation of this paper.
process steam per hr and 900 gal of treated water per
min. In addition, to take advantage of the availability
of excess pitch, a major block of electrical power is REFERENCES
expected to be generated for use by the local power 1 . “Proceedings of the 7th World Petroleum Congress”, Pane
grid. Discussion 13, Paper I , P. H. PHIZACKERLEY and
L. O. SCOTT, Barking, 1968, Elsevier Publishing Co.
2. K. A. CLARK VOLUME and G. A. STEWART, Informa-
tion Series 45, 1963, Research Council of Alberta, Edmon-
tnn.
3. V.KÄMISKY and E. NAGY, Chem. Eng. Prog., Symposium
6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Series No. 85, 64, 104-1 10.
4. C. W. JACKMAN, Edmonton Journal, January 24, 1967,
In the design of a second generation plant every Southarn Press.
5. G. W. GOVIER, AIME Annual Meeting, Paper No. SPE
effort has been made to overcome deficiencies that 1077, February 14-18, 1965.
have become evident in operations of the first plant 6. C. W. BOWMAN, Science J., November 1969, 32.
and also to introduce new concepts where process 7. “Proceedings of the 7th World Petroleum Congress”, Panel
Discussion 13, Paper 7, E. D. INNES and J. V. D. FEAR,
changes appeared warranted for simplicity or im- Barking, 1968, Elsevier Publishing Co.