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

阿尔伯塔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重大环境、财务和社会成本的风险。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植物群和动物群。由于这一潜在风险，阿尔伯塔的油砂行业正面临来自各利益相关方的极大阻力，其社会运营许可正受到威胁。研究小组已开发出一种固化沥青的技术，使其适合地面和海上运输，并最大限度地减少或消除潜在的环境事故。虽然已知有许多不同的固化沥青的方法，研究小组建议研究超声波将沥青聚合成固体或更粘稠的半固体形式。因此，我们认为，该技术开发/商业化计划目的是展示一种按比例缩小的装置，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，该技术信息将形成用于生产固体或半固体沥青”砖“的更大规模设备的设计基础。油砂行业的一部分温室气体排放源自将沥青或重油运输到市场。这通常涉及用稀释剂（来自气田的冷凝物）稀释以产生稀释剂。固体形式的沥青球粒可以在轨道汽车中安全地运输，而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.