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OIL SANDS ing market, rather than having an associated upgrader. Regulatory approval for a 345,000-bbl/d operation is in place, based on a 4.6-billion-barrel resource, with an initial capacity of 110,000 bbl/d. First output began in April, with the aim of reaching first-stage capacity later this year. Output will be doubled by 2015, with debottlenecking to achieve the nameplate capacity by 2020. Imperial Oil noted that Kearl's energy needs have been reduced by using a proprietary froth treatment process and the installation of energy-saving cogeneration capabilities. Having canceled the Voyageur upgrader, with C$3.5 billion already spent on the project, Suncor has yet to make a final investment decision for its Fort Hills mining project, held in joint venture with Total and Teck. Situated close to the northern margin of mineable resources, Fort Hills has been designed for an initial output of 160,000 bbl/d, with Suncor expected to make its call some time late this year. Meanwhile, Total is the lead partner for the 100,000-bbl/d Joslyn North mine project, provisionally scheduled for commissioning in 2018 at a capex cost of C$7-9 billion. Which Way Now? While the oil sands industry may not exactly be caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, it is facing a new period of energy market uncertainty. Add to that the debates over CO2 emissions, pipeline integrity, previous well-publicized environ- mental incidents such as duck deaths on tailings ponds, and the question of possible human health impacts, it is clear to see that all industry participants will have their hands full for some time. The Alberta provincial government itself has come under criticism for failing to monitor water and airborne emissions adequately, with the report from a study group established subsequently agreeing in general that the operations are releasing polycyclic aromatic compounds and trace metals into the environment. And in June, the newly created Alberta Energy Regulator came into being with a mandate to regulate all aspects of energy industry projects from application to reclamation. Energy consultants are still in the process of updating their assumptions on North America's future energy needs in the new supply-source environment. This is bound to have an effect on the oil sands industry, and it is currently too early to tell whether the projected increase from 1.5 Mbb/d to 3.3 Mbbl/d by 2019 will actually happen. According to Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board projections, daily bitumen production is likely to double from 1.9 Mbbl in 2012 to 3.8 Mbbl in 2022. Of this, 1.6 Mbbl/d will come from mining, the board believes, but the bulk of the increase will be derived from new in-situ operations. In view of this, the proportion of raw bitumen that is upgraded in the province is likely to fall from 52% of total output to 38% over the same time-span. Much obviously depends on the availability of pipeline capacity to carry SCO and dilbit to U.S. refineries. Aside from the Keystone XL project, Enbridge is in the process of doubling the capacity of its Seaway pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf Coast to 850,000 bbl/d, and has submitted plans for a new 525,000 bbl/d pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat in British Columbia. Kinder Morgan is also planning to increase capacity on its pipeline to Vancouver to 890,000 bbl/d, with both of these proposals aimed at increasing Canada's oil exports. In terms of emission controls, suggestions have been made that using mobile inpit crushers could help mining operations reduce their CO2 footprint by reducing the sizes of truck fleets. At the other end of the process, last September, Shell gave the goahead for its C$1.35 billion Quest carboncapture-and-storage project, designed to take 1 million mt/y of CO2 from the Scotford upgrader and sequestrate it 2-km underground. The first project of its kind for the oil sands industry, Quest has attracted C$865 million in provincial and federal government funding, and will store permanently 35% of the upgrader's carbon emissions. Oil sands mining is big business today, and will become bigger in the future. Meanwhile, the industry finds itself in the unenviable position of being a target for criticism from a number of quarters. Success in years to come will depend to a large extent on how it is able to respond. Titanium Targets Zircon with Innovative Tailings-treatment Process In May, Titanium Corp. received the last of the three core Canadian patents that together secure its innovative "Creating Value from Waste" technology for recovering residual bitumen, solvents and heavy minerals from the mining-process tailings stream. The company also received the final results of independent testing on its process by CanmetENERGY which, it said, confirmed its technology can do this. Titanium Corp. reported that during a 10-week run, its pilot plant achieved 82% recovery of the residual bitumen from the oil sands tailings stream and 98% of the solvents. It also produced a large bulk sample of heavy mineral concentrate from which zircon and the titanium minerals, ilmenite and leucoxene, can be recovered in a separate operation. The company said it is well-known that small amounts of heavy minerals occur in Alberta's oil sands. Attracted to bitumen, they become concentrated during the bitumen extraction process, ending up in the tailings from the final froth treatment stage. These also contain residual bitumen. It also stated that using its technology raises the potential for reducing the intensity of CO2 and NOx emissions from oil sand mining, as well as those of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). www.e-mj.com Since 2004, Titanium Corp. has carried out a sequence of projects on both fresh and older tailings, having attracted both provincial and federal government funding. Its work to date has indicated that its process can increase bitumen recovery by 2%, cut VOC emissions by 80%, save 25% of the fresh water makeup currently needed for bitumen recovery, and produce a thicker tailings product that is more amenable to early restoration, as well as producing zircon and titanium. Using 2010 oil sands production rates, this would be equivalent to extra bitumen worth C$700 million a year, plus 170,000 mt/y of zircon worth C$340 million. "While it takes time to commercialize new technology, we are seeing increasing support from stakeholders for our technology, which would recover up to 7,000 barrels per day of currently wasted bitumen and solvent from individual oil sands operations," said Scott Nelson, Titanium's president and CEO. "Oil sands mining companies are the pioneers of this large industry and have introduced many innovations to their processes over the years. Our company is well-positioned to be among the next phase of breakthroughs in efficiency and environmental performance." AUGUST 2013 • E&MJ; 35