(207b) Designing for Innovation: Process and Technology Configurations for Oil Sands Production

Bitumen from the oil sands is the major source of Canadian oil production, representing about 70% of total daily volumes. However, the high viscosity of the oil and the nature of its deposition necessitate the use of special tools and recovery techniques that are currently energy, water and emissions intensive. Recent lows in the price of crude oil and evolving environmental conservation goals call for the development of processes and technologies to improve operational performance. This work presents a mixed-integer linear optimization model aimed to simultaneously improve three operational performance indicators representing the economic, emission, and energy intensities of the processes and technologies deployable in a greenfield facility. The proposed model identifies Pareto-optimal facility configurations for in-situ heavy oil recovery from the oil sands. The optimization criterion is formulated as a weighted sum of the performance indicators of the facility. The performance attributes are captured as the greenhouse gas emissions, process heat and electricity requirements, and the capitalized costs of the facility. Facility operation is constrained to account for field conditions via governing physical equations and other policy-related requirements. By identifying individual unit operations in the bitumen recovery process, covering both the surface and sub-surface elements, existing challenges/limitations of current in-situ recovery methods are used to highlight process and technology modifications/substitutions that lead to enhanced overall performance. We demonstrate that the steam generation, water treatment, and reservoir segments of the typical in-situ oil sands operation are key areas for improving the performance indicators of the production operations. Opportunities for technologies and processes using solvent-based recovery, integrated chemical treatments, and improved boiler designs are observed.