A few weeks ago, a study conducted by the us national academy of sciences nas reported that the transportation of diluted bitumen is no more corrosive than conventional crude. Prove you can clean up diluted bitumen or reject kinder. Review the available literature and data, including any available data from oil spill. Although bitumen has different heavymetal concentrations and components than conventional oil, their behaviour in a spill hasnt been studied. Diluted bitumen, a type of crude oil made from bitumen extracted from tar sands, has properties that warrant special. Diluents are usually natural gas condensate, naphtha or a mix of other light hydrocarbons. In the us, the epa and uscg define petroleumbased oil groups as follows.
Oil sands opponents say dilbit is more toxic and difficult to cleanup, pointing to. As oil sands production rises, what should we expect at. Understanding bitumen pricing glj petroleum consultants. The enbridge spill on the kalamazoo river was the largest dilbit spill in u. Inside the biggest oil spill youve never heard of, part 1. According to congress and the irs, diluted bitumen or dilbit, which is the type of oil that has spilled in arkansas, is not classified as oil and companies shipping it are not required to pay an 8. Short and longterm environmental monitoring programs were.
The groups, which include greenpeace and the council of canadians, say clark must stick to her conditions and reject kinder morgans proposal, even though it is widely expected to receive. If a diluted bitumen spill happens on canadas west coast, is it possible to. For the cleanup and remediation, some of the most intensive and. Effects of diluted bitumen on crude oil transmission pipelines. Federal regulations should be strengthened to prepare for. Will canadian crude make the keystone xl pipeline leak. The average cleanup cost of every crude oil spill from the past 10 years in the u. These components exist in varying degrees in all crude types. Dilbit diluted bitumen is a bitumen diluted with one or more lighter petroleum products, typically naturalgas condensates such as naphtha. Characterization and behavior of cold lake blend and western canadian select diluted bitumen products pdf 59 pp, 1. Diluted bitumen has a lower viscosity, which means it can be transported in pipelines. Effects of diluted bitumen on crude oil transmission pipelines committee for a study of pipeline transportation of diluted bitumen transportation research board board on energy and environmental systems board on chemical sciences and technology transportation research board special report 311 transportation research board washington, d.
Is the trans mountain pipeline really an oceanmurdering. Exxon wont pay into cleanup fund because oil spilled in. Diluted bitumen, nicknamed dilbit, comes from oil contained in massive deposits of sand. Diluted bitumen is the same type of oil that could someday be carried by the muchdebated keystone xl pipeline 4.
Acidsdiluted bitumen has high total acid, but the acid is not soluble in water and not reactive at pipeline temperatures. Cleanup crews must scoop up the bitumen from beneath the water to prevent further damage to the river. Environmental hazards related to the release of diluted bitumen, and its eventual conversion to weathered diluted bitumen, are summarized and compared with other commonly transported crude oils in figure 51. Spills of diluted bitumen from pipelines examines the current state of knowledge and identifies the relevant properties and characteristics of the transport, fate, and effects of diluted bitumen and commonly transported crude oils when spilled in the environment. Sometimes, its found near the surface mixed in with sand and. Diluted bitumen dilbit is thick, heavy crude oil from the alberta tar sands also known as oil sands, which is mixed with a thinner type of oil the diluent to allow it to. As part of their integrity management programs under phmsas. With most of the diluted bitumen product remaining on the surface for 14 d, a rapid conventional clean up response may be e. The ability to clean up a spill of diluted bitumen depends greatly on whether or not the spilled product will remain floating on the surface, where it can be tracked. One of the types of crude oil derived from the canadian oil sands is bitumen, a heavy, sour oil. Diluted bitumen dilbit is the raw molasseslike product extracted from the athabasca oilsands, mixed in with diluents to make it fluid enough to travel through a pipeline. Land research recent publications land, oil spill, and. Bc reopens the dilbit vs regular crude debate oil sands magazine. Turbulent flowdiluted bitumen is transported under conditions.
At about 6 pm, july 25, 2010, engineers in the edmonton, alberta control room were monitoring enbridges keystone pipeline. It is separated from the sand and water in a centrifuge prior to dilution for transportation. Prospective impacts of oil spills on floodplain vegetation. Bitumen would not flow through a pipeline efficiently, so it is mixed with diluents to be readied for pipeline transportation as diluted bitumen, or dilbit. Relative pipeline impacts view report trans mountain is committed to working with a scientific advisory committee to address areas for future research and development on the fate and behaviour of diluted bitumen.
Dilbit diluted bitumen is the nastiest stuff the fossilfuel purveyors have ever devised, and they want to set us up for more disasters like the one in kalamazoo. A second option that exists for selling bitumen is via rail to the gulf of mexico. Petroleumbased oil that, at the time of shipment, consists of hydrocarbon fractions. Bitumen is a kind of crude oil found in natural oil sands depositsits the heaviest crude oil used today. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. The inlet drive incident is the largest spill wcmrc has cleaned up on canadas west coast it was a diluted bitumen spill, and 95 per cent of the product was recovered. An ad hoc committee will analyze whether the properties of diluted bitumen differ sufficiently from those of other crude oils commonly transported in u.
Summary environment canada scientists are on record several times stating that more research is needed to understand whether and to what extent diluted bitumen will sink in the event of a marine spill. Diluted bitumen, the molasseslike product that would be transported by the proposed northern gateway pipeline, sinks in salt water when battered by. Once the oil started to sink, it made things a lot more difficult on our recovery. The science is settled, said joe oliver, canadas minister of natural resources in a news release about the study. If the mixture is not cooled down enough there is a danger that the vapours can catch alight, which is not only a significant health and safety hazard, it also creates a real possibility of. This helps save on transport costs but it can be a hazardous process. National energy board refuses to accept study on diluted. Powell was one of the people involved in the response and clean up of the kalamazoo. Bitumen is a mixture of heavy oil, sand, clay and water. Can spill response organizations clean up diluted bitumen. Steam is used to extract the oil from the sand and the resulting crude is partially processed before its. Download a pdf of spills of diluted bitumen from pipelines by the national academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine for free.
Crude oil and dilbit had similar foliar impacts, and for both, leaf abscission. An enbridge spill of diluted bitumen in michigan in 2010, for example, proved far harder to clean up than typical oil, as the heavy crude from the oil sands sank to the bottom of waterways, while. And an explainer of how diluted bitumen dilbit, the form that tar sands crude take to travel through pipelines, is a hell of a lot harder to clean. What were learning from the oil sands dilbit dump into the kalamazoo river. Measuring the fate of different diluted bitumen products. Department of transportation dot needs to modify its regulations and planning in order to strengthen preparedness for accidental spills of diluted bitumen from pipelines, says a new report from the national academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine. Fate of diluted bitumen spilled in the coastal waters of british. Exxons duckkilling pipeline wont pay taxes to oil spill. There are two components in the diluted bitumen that have raised concern, namely acid and sulphur. Regulators, the industry and experts have studied and debated the impact of a dilutedbitumen spill, particularly whether a cleanup would require a different response than a conventional oil spill. Enbridge applied to the national energy board to reverse the flow of line 9, a 40yearold pipeline not designed to carry diluted bitumen. Environmental protection agency during his presentation on march 10th at the national academy of sciences conference on the effects of diluted bitumen on the environment.
Is diluted bitumen more corrosive than conventional crude oil. In late summer of 2010, a break in an underground pipeline spilled approximately 1 million gallons of diluted bitumen into a wetland, a creek, and the kalamazoo river. The study, spills of diluted bitumen from pipelines, was released by the washington, d. Miller, and samson ng department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, ms362, rice university, post office box 1892, houston. Per the alberta oil sands bitumen valuation methodology, dilbit blends means blends made from heavy crudes andor bitumens and a diluent, usually naturalgas condensate, for. A hunk of tar sands oil as mined photo credit argonne national laboratory. Spilled diluted bitumen will mainly float in bc waters and wash up on the shoreline. Bitumen is a thick, molassestype product that is found in regions around the world, but more locally in the oil sands regions of northern alberta, canada. A narrative of what happens to two local families and the entire community when an oil disaster strikes.
A 1980 law ensures that diluted bitumen is not classified as oil, and companies transporting it in pipelines do not have to pay into the federal oil. Bitumen is a collection of frameworks to help build lightweight web applications in java and other jvm languages. The study warns diluted bitumen sinks in water and there is no known way to clean up heavy oils that settle to the bottom of oceans, lakes or rivers. Microorganismsnot higher, diluted bitumen lacks essential resources for growth.
Data was acquired using the peak simple software suite sri instruments, california, usa, exported as text files and imported into specalign 2. This report assesses whether the differences between properties of diluted bitumen. There is little information on how bitumen, diluted bitumen or products used to dilute bitumen behave in water. Diluted bitumen sinks when mixed with sediments, federal. In figure 51 the first column lists properties affecting transport. If this event in michigan were were more widely known and understood, the keystone xl pipeline issue would be dead on arrival. The sample spectra were aligned to the average spectrum using the default options in fftpeak. Diluting bitumen makes it much easier to transport, for example in pipelines.
Jane williams speaks with myeengun henry about the challenge. Environment canada has expressed concern that transport canada, the body that oversees and certifies spill responses, has not planned for the submersion or. Statement of task effects of diluted bitumen on the. A costly cleanup conservation council of new brunswick. Department of transportation dot needs to modify its regulations and planning in order to strengthen preparedness for accidental spills of diluted bitumen from pipelines, says a new. A comparison of the properties of diluted bitumen crudes with other oils. The investigation is part narrative, part explainer.
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