Oil sand

Oil sand
Originally uploaded by wally_baloo

Here's what a chunk of oil sand looks like. It looks a lot like fresh asphalt. I learned something new about how Shell Canada Energy processes their oil sand. Basically all petroleum products (propane, butane, all those "ane" words) are organic compounds. The mine I work at frequently in Fort McMurray mines a petroleum product called "bitumen", a heavier crude oil (as opposed to conventional stuff they can pump out of the ground), which is a concoction of all different kinds of these complex and simple carbon chains. They take this "bitumen", heat it up, and add a solvent to get rid of the sand, silt, and clay that come with this here chunk of oil sand. They then add hydrogen to this solvent+bitumen mixture and send it in a pipeline to the Scotford refinery in Edmonton, Alberta where its turned into gasoline, butane, propane, diesel fuel, jet fuel, etc...