Sulfur Recovery from Oil Sands
- A. W. HYNDMAN
A. W. HYNDMANSyncrude Canada Limited, PO Box 5790, Postal Station L, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6C 4G3More by A. W. HYNDMAN
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- J. K. LIU
J. K. LIUSyncrude Canada Limited, PO Box 5790, Postal Station L, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6C 4G3More by J. K. LIU
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- D. W. DENNEY
D. W. DENNEYSyncrude Canada Limited, PO Box 5790, Postal Station L, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6C 4G3More by D. W. DENNEY
Abstract
Syncrude Canada Limited has been producing synthetic crude oil from the Athabasca oil sand deposit since 1978. In place reserves of this deposit are estimated at 118 x 109m3. Oil sands in this deposit have bitumen saturation up to 18 w/w% and average 10-12%. The bitumen is a heavy oil, API gravity 8.3, characterized by high sulphur, 3.5-5.0 w/w%. Chemical and physical modifications during recovery produce a synthetic crude with API gravity in the 30-35 range with less than 2000 wppm sulphur.
At design capacity, 20,500 m3/day of synthetic crude, Syncrude's Upgrading facilities will process 28,000 tonnes of bitumen containing 1375 tonnes sulphur. The sour water and sour gas streams are treated individually to produce H2S rich streams as sulphur recovery unit feed. More than 96% of sulphur entering the recovery unit is recovered as elemental sulphur which is in a molten state for shipment. Recovered sulphur as a