Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

Extracted bitumen from oil sands ore is processed and upgraded to produce synthetic crude oil. Duringx000D
processing of bitumen, the presence of higher concentration of metals particularly V and Ni in bitumenx000D
corrodes equipment, clogs catalyst pores, deactivates catalyst and causes metal-laden emissions to thex000D
environment. Therefore, demetallization of bitumen is an important step in improving bitumen processing forx000D
sustainable synthetic crude oil production with less environmental impact.x000D
Currently, natural gas is used to produce steam for steam-assisted gravity drainage process to recover deeplyx000D
buried bitumen. In the newly proposed process, natural gas will be used in fuel cell to produce electricity. Thex000D
process will simultaneously yield pure CO2 and water streams that can easily be brought to a supercritical statex000D
by using heat exchanger. In our laboratory studies, these streams have shown excellent results in the bitumenx000D
upgrading process. This proposed study aims to investigate demetallization of bitumen during its upgradingx000D
using supercritical CO2 and water. The research findings will help devise better bitumen upgrading process forx000D
quality product, eliminate/reduce adverse environmental and operational effects, and contribute significantly tox000D
Millar Western's efforts to commercialize the application of supercritical CO2 and water for sustainablex000D
recovery and utilization of energy resources.