Lower GHG intensive transport of bitumen or heavy oil in solid phase

艾伯塔省生产的沥青通过管道或铁路运输到加拿大和北美的下游加工商。如果发生沥青泄漏，这两种运输方式都存在巨大的环境、金融和社会成本风险。泄漏的沥青会将有毒化学物质释放到饮用水资源(河流、湖泊)和地下水中，并严重影响泄漏周围的野生动物和动植物。由于这一潜在风险，艾伯塔省的油砂行业正遭遇来自各利益相关者的极端抵制，其经营的社会许可证正受到威胁。研究小组开发了一种固化沥青的技术，使其适合于地面和海上运输，并将潜在的环境事故降至最低或消除。虽然已知许多不同的固化沥青的方法，但研究小组已提议研究将沥青聚合为固体或更粘性的半固体形式的超声波。因此，这项技术开发/商业化计划的目标是展示一种装置的缩小版本，该装置将产生固体或半固体沥青‘砖(或颗粒)’，并产生技术信息，形成更大规模的装置的设计基础，以生产固体或半固体沥青‘砖/颗粒’，可以很容易地安装在轨道车辆中。油砂行业的部分温室气体排放来自向市场运输沥青或重油。这通常包括用稀释剂(气田凝析油)稀释以产生稀释液。固体形式的沥青颗粒可以安全地在轨道车中运输，不需要稀释剂或加热。

Bitumen produced in Alberta is transported to Canadian and North American downstream processors via pipelines or rail. Both modes of transportation present the risk of significant environmental, financial and societal costs if the bitumen spills occur. The spilled bitumen can release toxic chemicals into potable water resources (rivers, lakes), groundwater and significantly affect wildlife and flora and fauna around the spillage.The oil sands industry in Alberta is encountering extreme resistance from various stakeholders because of this potential risk and its social license to operate is being threatened. The Research Team has developed a technology to solidify the bitumen so that it is amenable to ground and sea transportation and minimizes or eliminates potential environmental mishaps.While many different methods for solidifying bitumen are known, the Research Team has proposed to investigate ultrasonics for polymerizing bitumen to a solid or more viscous semi-solid form. Therefore, the objective of this technology development/commercialization plan is to demonstrate a scaled-down version of a device that will generate solid or semi-solid bitumen 'bricks (or pellets)' and generate technical information that would form the design basis for a larger scale device to produce solid or semi-solid bitumen 'bricks/pellets' that could easily fit in a rail car.A portion of GHG emissions in the oil sands industry originate from the transportation of bitumen or heavy oil to markets. This often involves dilution with diluent (condensates from gas fields) to create dilbit. The solid form bitumen pellet can be safely transported in rail cars with no requirement of diluent or heating.