Tech | January 24, 2013 | 53 comments

How to Make Gasoline from Tar Sands, in Six Simple Steps

source: http://grist.org/basics/how-to-make-gasoline-from-tar-sands-in-six-simple-steps/

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coolplanet
Ever wonder about the future of energy? Will it be wind? Solar? Geothermal? No wait, I got it, tar sands! (Let’s try that again — tar sands!) They’ve got everything oil does, but they’re harder to get, crappier when you get them, and leave a much bigger mark on the climate. Sounds like a winner. Let’s look a little closer, shall we?

First off, what are tar sands? Tar sands are deposits of about 90 percent sand or sandstone, water, and clay mixed with only about 10 percent high-sulfur bitumen, a viscous black petroleum sludge rich in hydrocarbons, also known as “natural asphalt.”

The Athabasca reserves, in Alberta, Canada, estimated to hold about 170 billion barrels, are the site of the only commercial tar-sands operation in the world. (Though, spoiler alert, that’s about to change.) It’s one of the largest industrial programs on the planet and could eventually cover an area larger than the state of Florida — and it’s sprouting an enormous oily ganglion known as the Keystone XL pipeline, which, if completed, would pump 1.1 million barrels of bitumen sludge a day, crisscrossing much of the continent’s freshwater supply, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Sound like a complicated way to create oil, gasoline, and diesel? Naw. Ain’t no thing. Just follow these simple instructions:

1. Change the name from tar sands to oil sands. Even though there’s no actual oil in them, you’re already that much closer to that sweet Texas Tea. I mean, tar is the reason we don’t have mastodons. Nobody wants tar. But everybody wants oil — we put it in our cars and on our salads!

2. Clear-cut all that unsightly boreal forest. This, admittedly, can be a bit of a bear — or, more likely, lots of bears, and lynxes, and trees, and anything else that creeps, crawls, grows, or flies, and, in the name of tar sands, will also need to die.

3. Get yourself some massive excavators, the biggest moveable objects on the planet, each capable of gouging out 10,000 square meters of earth an hour, and set about ripping pits into the planet 15 stories deep. Use the excavators to fill enormous dump trucks, 22 feet high and nearly 50 feet long, and capable of hauling 400 tons a load — which is good, because we’re far from done, and it takes a lot of sand to make a little oil.

4. To extract the bitumen from the sands, you’ll need to crush the sands with enormous machines creatively known as crushers. Mix the crushed sands with hot water to form a slurry, then agitate the slurry (interestingly, also a major step in most British cooking) so the bitumen sludge can be scooped out. The stuff is still too thick to transport, though, so you’ll need to cut it with solvents so it can be shipped via pipeline for processing.

5. Now you’re ready to get started! Of course you’ve got a problem. Somebody added solvents to our tar, so here comes the hydro-treating that removes the solvents, along with as much nitrogen, sulfur, and other metals as we can get out. The process uses a lot of water and energy in the form of natural gas and oil. (Hey, what are we trying to make again?) Next, heat it again to remove carbon and add hydrogen as part of the upgrading process to make this sludge useful.

6. The bitumen still needs to be refined, so it’s off again into another pipeline to an oil refinery, though most of the old refineries aren’t up to the task of handling the filthy bitumen, so you’ll need to build new refineries or upgrade old ones. Presto! You’re cooking with gas!

After all of this, it takes as much as four tons of sand and four barrels of fresh water to make a barrel of synthetic oil, which is good for about 42 gallons of gas, or one fill up in a ’97 Suburban. The good news is about 10 percent of that water is recycled! (On the downside, the other 90 percent is dumped into toxic tailing ponds, which currently cover about 50 square kilometers [19 square miles] along the Athabasca River, and is leaking into the ecosystem at a rate of perhaps 11 million liters a day.)

Sounds great, huh? That’s probably why the state of Utah has given final approval to open the world’s second commercial tar-sands project. The Alberta operation uses more water than a city of a million people each year. Seems like a perfect fit for Utah. I’m sure the 2 million-plus people in the greater Salt Lake City area will switch to (caffeine-free) Pepsi!

Not everyone seems quite as enthused as Utah, however. The E.U. attempted to single out tar sands as “highly polluting,” and Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the British Liberal Dems, compared them to land mines, blood diamonds, and cluster bombs. This side of the pond, James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Space Studies Institute, warned that exploiting all of Canada’s tar sands would be the final nail in the climate coffin, and that heading down that road will lead to a global game over.

But what do those guys know? Just follow the steps and making oil out of tar sands is as easy as falling out of bed. And besides, tar sands isn’t game over, it’s a new beginning.


Jim Meyer is a Baltimore-based stand-up comedian, actor, retired roller derby announcer, and freelance writer.
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53 comments // How to Make Gasoline from Tar Sands, in Six Simple Steps

  • Wetdog
    • 0
      Wetdog  

    • Or...................................you can just skip the entire process and run your vehicle on the natural gas.

      Any internal combustion engine can run on natural gas with the right intake set up, we've been doing it for over 90 years.

      And running your vehicle on natural gas will cost you between 1/4th to 1/2 what it costs to drive the same distance using gasoline.

      Running your car on natural gas will produce almost 0 harmful emissions.

    • 4 months ago
  • MarshainFlorida
    • +2
      MarshainFlorida  

    • You should send this in a letter to Obama so he can consider it along with all the propaganda he's going to be considering before he makes his decision on whether or not to go forward.

    • 4 months ago
  • Tayllerand
  • tverdell
  • coolplanet
  • EdJoyProductions
  • ThirdSection
  • MarshainFlorida
    • +3
      MarshainFlorida  
    • EdJoyProductions:

      So right Edjoy. And I was listening to a scientist yesterday on FreeSpeech who said we could lay solar panels under all the roadways that would provide energy for the entire country at 1/3 the cost of drilling, and zero damage to the environment.

    • 4 months ago
  • Culdee
  • matka
    • +2
      matka  
    • MarshainFlorida:

      COULD....but is that a pipedream? Will they/could they/would they do it? Wonderful
      concept, but alas, we'll probably never see it done. I know, there's always hope and
      stay positive.

    • 4 months ago
  • ThirdSection
  • Hardytoo
    • +6
      Hardytoo  
    • ThirdSection:

      Fort McMurray's (Athabasca Tar Sands) operation in Alberta uses more fresh water per DAY to wash this filthy tar/sand mix, than an a city of 1,000,000 people use in a full year.
      As the article says, only a bit sarcastically: "Luckily, 10 percent is recoverable and purified, and "only" 90% runs back into the rivers and lakes, and the groundwater. "It takes as much as four tons of sand and four barrels of fresh water to make a barrel of synthetic oil, which is good for about 42 gallons of gas, or one fill up in a ’97 Suburban."

      This area had been staked-out for years before production began a couple of years ago, and it's only now - with the price of oil being as high as it is - that it's economical to crush this tar out of the sands, process it and pipe it to markets. And who needed that Boreal Forest in the first place....
      My beautiful Alberta, my home, is being destroyed, the lakes where I spent my childhood - for 90 miles in radius - are so polluted that they are beyond repair, the fish swim belly-up.
      Sorry, I'm ranting and raving again. I'll stop for today - gonna take some work to get to sleep tonight.

    • 4 months ago
  • northernexpat
    • +6
      northernexpat  
    • Hardytoo:

      Heard on the news tonight that the Alberta government is in big financial trouble because it has relied too heavily on oil production forecasts. So it looks like the roosters are coming home to roost. I'm waiting to hear what the Alberta government is planning to cut (like health care and education) to cover their deficit. Which is par for the course. So they aren't even going to have funding to clean up any of the lake pollution caused by the tarsands.

      That's what happens when you give big tax breaks to these oil companies. They bleed you dry and walk away with all the money. It doesn't look good, as Alberta is one of the only Provinces that was booming.

    • 4 months ago
  • Hardytoo
    • +5
      Hardytoo  
    • northernexpat:

      Saw that too, on The National. It's going to be worse for Alberta when the Gateway Pipeline Atrocity is completely nixed by BC - our horrible (on her way out) PM, Crispy Clark, is up for re-election in May - and 75% of the pop are against the pipeline across the Rockies - and the numbers of Indigenous Peoples' lawsuits are increasing daily.
      "Poor" Alberta may have to dip into their "zillion-dollar rainy-day" fund to cover what they've committed to hospital-building and schools. Good. They "counted their chicks before they hatched" ... cluck cluck...

    • 4 months ago
  • GreyGoose
    • +5
      GreyGoose [removed]  
    • ThirdSection:

      Exactly - it's a total economic boondoggle. All of the geology and geophysics were complete 20 years ago - and the companies think that with the price of oil being higher now, they can get away with the added expense. It's just screwed up math when it gets down to it. Eventually, heads will roll.

    • 4 months ago
  • HarukoHaruhara
  • coolplanet
  • matka
  • matka
    • +2
      matka  
    • coolplanet:

      Beautiful ! Now cross those two and ya have a hybrid bobcat/lynx. My sister, Melanie,
      had one for a while in Vancouver, WA state. One call tell it's a cross cos of the little
      tufted :ynx ears and bobcat traits. Mella had it quite a few years.......named it Subodai,
      after famous Japanese warrior.......
      These cats get to be quite tall and have vorocious appetites......they sell commerciial
      food for it, but Melanie would boil chickens for it and pampered it well.
      Subadai < (pronounced 'soob-a-die') as he grew, was a scarey prospect to 'play'
      with, but he never used his claws or bit. Just knocked ya down and wanted to
      wrestle.

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • Image
    • matka:

      I've always liked hybrids (a fancy term for mutts). ;)
      My favorite horse was half thoroughbred, half quarter horse. My favorite dog was half wolf, half lab.
      I've been super-blessed by my half Abyssinian, Sugar. She makes me feel part pharaoh.
      I've loved hundreds of pets in my life but I've never experienced the total devotion of an Abyssinian before. I think she's half black alley cat.....

    • 4 months ago
  • matka
    • +2
      matka  
    • coolplanet:

      OH ! I remember this picture of your Sugar. And but of course, hybrids must have Fancy
      Dance name by the selective breeders Assn. as 'mutt' wouldn't cut it.......lol. My sister,
      Melanie, had Morgan horses, but they weren't halfer's, they were faves of her though
      she had others when she lived in Burlington, WI and later on, Wheatland.

      My little cat herd has some halfer's: Bengal and DMS Bombay as well as others.
      I can relate how a beloved animal can make u feel like a pharoah. I had a cat, long
      gone to the Rainbow Bridge, named Pharoah, DSH all grey, all like Sugar. Sweet,
      affectionate and totally intelligent and loyal.

      A friend of mine has Abbys and swears by them.....how they need to be involved in
      everything you do....brushing your teeth, they'll sit on the sink; riding on the vacuum
      cleaner while you do domestic chores. They are indeed, intelligent, and their history
      is ancient.

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • matka:

      From what i've read Abyssinians were the first 'domesticated' animal, going back 10.000 years. But the one thing about cats is that they are still wild, unlike all other domesticated animals. Cats domesticated humans when we started to build barns to store grains, attracted by the shelter and mice agriculture blessed us with.
      Interesting fact: Abyssinians seemed to disappear from the face of the Earth until they reemerged a few hundred years ago in England.
      All I know is that I love my little Sugar and am so happy her bloodline survived!

    • 4 months ago
  • matka
    • 0
      matka  
    • coolplanet:

      This be true. The pure bred Abby has a DSH goldenish-coat, 'points' darker on
      feet and ears, if my memory serves me right. Your Sugar is so unusual fur-fur ;
      almost like Tortie pattern.
      Who care, eh? Love them, they are the most divine guardians put here and are
      special gifts from the Creator. All animals are !

    • 4 months ago
  • EdJoyProductions
  • coolplanet
  • EdJoyProductions
  • coolplanet
  • EdJoyProductions
    • +1
      EdJoyProductions  
    • coolplanet:

      Wow that is so sweet. Thanks. When I have the time, I really love all of the current community and the great conversation and contributions. There are some truly wonderful, smart and funny people here. Thank you for all of your wonderful posts and great comments.

    • 4 months ago
  • matka
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • EdJoyProductions:

      Love you Joy!
      Sure hope Ed isn't jealous. ;)
      Let's not let the voter-downers get us down (our comments were voted down).
      Negativity is the only power some people understand.
      Meanwhile you truly shine.
      Thank you!

    • 4 months ago
  • EdJoyProductions
    • 0
      EdJoyProductions  
    • coolplanet:

      We got voted down? Hysterical! Kind, happy, smart people are mostly an inspiration to others but intolerable to the miserable, jealous people that are not happy until they can find some way to ruin a party. Me, I never deliberately try to take the smile from anybody's face.

      Shine on, you crazy diamond! XOXO

    • 4 months ago
  • northernexpat
    • +6
      northernexpat  

    • The Keystone XL pipeline project should only be a small part of this whole issue. I was reading today the Utah wants to start up the US's first tarsands. If they are successful, the pipeline will seem like small potatoes. Just travel to Fort McMurray in Alberta where Canada has it's first tarsands project. You can actually smell the pollution in the air if wind is blowing toward the town. That is what communities in Utah will be up against.

    • 4 months ago
  • trut
  • HarukoHaruhara
  • trut
  • HarukoHaruhara
  • GreyGoose
    • +9
      GreyGoose [removed]  

    • Excellent find, coolplanet - I like the Brit "tongue in cheek" attitude of the writer, I appreciate his sarcasm.
      There can't be enough written articles like this, to show how completely evil this crap is and the detriment to our environment - like it says in the article, "...Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the British Liberal Dems, compared them to land mines, blood diamonds, and cluster bombs." Sickening thoughts, as well as sickening effects of the poisoning of our air, but especially our water. When that's gone, it is really gone.

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
    • +8
      coolplanet  
    • GreyGoose:

      My favorite line is: " Mix the crushed sands with hot water to form a slurry, then agitate the slurry (interestingly, also a major step in most British cooking)".

      As I've maintained for years, humor is perhaps most important in communicating this crisis. Humor gets through to people and is remembered, science has recently confirmed.

      Horrible news tends to make people go into denial.

    • 4 months ago
  • matka
  • bailey78
    • +5
      bailey78  

    • The product that will be flowing through the Keystone XL pipeline is for export. This will not be a domesticly used product. Didn't you guys read the fine print ?

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • Hardytoo
    • +5
      Hardytoo  
    • bailey78:

      Right, bailey. The proposed pipeline from the Tar Sands area in Northern Alberta to the BC Coast, pristine, sensitive wilderness - is for product shipment to China, as is the XL.
      (Geez, what could go wrong with a pipeline that crosses the Rockies... and several earthquake zones.) We're continuing to fight this monstrosity, with some very promising outcomes - we have a Provincial election coming in May, and a current Premier who's so far behind in the polls that she's eating dust - 75% of the population oppose the pipeline project. She's backing up as fast as she can.

    • 4 months ago
  • MSII
    • +4
      MSII  
    • bailey78:

      Yes all the pr-spin bull$hit about this being about "merican" energy independence, is just that BULL$HIT! It's all, just like FRACKING!, about for-sale overseas profit making!

    • 4 months ago
  • VFORVENDETTA
  • coolplanet
  • VFORVENDETTA
  • coolplanet
    • +10
      coolplanet  
    • Image

    • "Get yourself some massive excavators, the biggest moveable objects on the planet, each capable of gouging out 10,000 square meters of earth an hour, and set about ripping pits into the planet 15 stories deep."

    • 4 months ago
  • mrpuma2u
  • coolplanet
  • bailey78
  • MSII
  • VFORVENDETTA
  • coolplanet
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