11 May 2006

Properties of Athabasca Bitumen and Boscan Ultra-heavy

I found an interesting table in the text 'Hydrocracking Heavy Hydrocarbon Feedstocks...', J.F. Kril & M. Ternan, 'Catalysis on the Energy Scene', Elsevier (Amsterdam) 1984.

Property

Athabasca Bitumen

Boscan Heavy Oil

Relative Density (15 °C)

1.009

1.016

Pitch 524 °C (wt %)

51.5

66.7

Conradson Carbon Residue (wt %)

13.3

16.7

Pentane insolubles (wt %)

16

22

Tolune insolubles (wt %)

0.7

0.1

Ash (wt %)

0.6

0.2

Components

Carbon (wt %)

83.4

82.4

Hydrogen (wt %)

10.5

10.4

Sulphur (wt %)

4.5

5.7

Oxygen (wt %)

1.0

0.5

Nitrogen (wt %)

0.4

0.8

Iron (ppm)

358

23

Vanadium (ppm)

213

1174

Nickel (ppm)

67

114


It seems that the Venezulian ultra-heavy oil from Boscan is in many ways actually worse than Alberta bitumen. I didn't know this; I assumed that the investment climate in Venezula was driving the preferrential development of Alberta tar sands.

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