A PROVEN TECHNOLOGY FOR
RECOVERY OF OIL FROM OIL SANDS

 

Trials on Alberta tar sands

EarthTech confirms that the ToxFree Technology Platform is well suited to completely remove and re-condense the petroleum rich tars as a crude oil while cleaning the sand material so that it can be re-used as clean soil. These trials were successfully completed and validated by EarthTech.

The oil refining industry, not using cokers/refiners, generates large quantities of oil contaminated waste from crude oil tank bottom residues, API separators and waste water treatment plants. The same tire plant recovering the oil for and generating power can process this waste. Scrap tires and oil contaminated waste/tar sands are homogeneous and can be fed into the plant at the same time eliminating landfarming.

The Canadian tar sands and a number of its by products such as asphaltines are similar chemically and physically to oil refinery waste and can be used as a feedstock for the ToxFree Energy North America plant to generate oil and electricity without generating any environmental footprint. Our technology will render any solids inert and suitable for placement back on site and will become even more useful as land farming of oil refinery waste products is eventually outlawed. Ontario is banning land farming from 2009 forward.

In October 2007 and later, ToxFree Energy North America conducted independently validated trials assessing the viability of its plants to separate oil from the tar sands at our Surrey B.C. location. These demonstrate that the process recovers 99.9% of the resource, greatly reduces greenhouse gases by an estimated 90%, does not use water and leaves no environmental footprint. The residual gases after condensation can be used to power the plant.

ToxFree Energy North America sees great strategic advantages in moving its portable soon to be upgraded demonstration plant to Fort McMurray, Alberta at a time when oil is in very high demand and its technology addresses the threats to continued growth such as lack of processed water, very high greenhouse gas emissions and extremely high capital costs to bring projects on stream. Our technology may be able to operate in both small and larger scale settings with some portable plants employed. ToxFree Energy Canada intends to actively canvass a number of tar sands leaseholders with the intention of running trials to establish the economics of extracting oil from tar sands.

ToxFree Energy North America also sees potential in the recovery of hazardous wastes, remediation of contaminated sites and recycling of Over Sized Mine Tires and other scrap rubber produced by the mining of tar sands and may carry out bankable feasibility studies with the intention of establishing profitable recovery, remediation and recycling operations.