How is energy generated from tar sands?

Tar sands consist of heavy crude oil mixed with sand, clay and bitumen. Extraction entails burning natural gas to generate enough heat and steam to melt the oil out of the sand. As many as five barrels of water are needed to produce a single barrel of oil.

How is tar sands oil refined?

Refining bitumen generally requires a process called coking. Coking removes the excess carbon in the bitumen and distils it into a solid substance similar to coal called petroleum coke or petcoke.

What are tar sands and why are they a problem?

Burning tar sands oil creates more pollution than regular crude. Because of its sludgy composition, mining and refining tar sands oil demands an enormous amount of energy. Tar sands generate 17 percent more carbon emissions than conventional oil.

How are oil sands made?

migrated north where it became trapped in the huge amounts of quartz sand left behind by the rivers that once drained into the ancient sea. Within these deposits, lighter hydrocarbons either evaporated or were consumed by bacteria, leaving behind thick, viscous bitumen.

Why is tar sands oil so hard?

The oil product extracted from Canada’s tar sands isn’t like conventional crude. Known as bitumen, it’s sticky and so thick, it can’t flow down a pipeline without extensive processing. There are two methods for getting bitumen out of the ground and turning it into usable products.

What is wrong with tar sands oil?

In fact, oil from tar sands is one of the most destructive, carbon-intensive and toxic fuels on the planet. Producing it releases three times as much greenhouse gas pollution as conventional crude oil does. In fact, it has become one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in that country.

Why is tar sands oil so bad?

Tar sands oil — even the name sounds bad. In fact, oil from tar sands is one of the most destructive, carbon-intensive and toxic fuels on the planet. Producing it releases three times as much greenhouse gas pollution as conventional crude oil does.

Why is tar sands oil bad?

What are the benefits of tar sands?

The Pros of Tar Sands

• It provides a localized economic benefit.
• It is a secure source of energy.
• Environmental changes can be repaired.
• Recipients of tar sands experience economic benefits.
• Land preservation efforts can occur simultaneously with tar sands operations.
• It fits into existing systems.

What are tar sands good for?

Tar sands (also known as oil sands) are a mixture of mostly sand, clay, water, and a thick, molasses-like substance called bitumen. Bitumen is made of hydrocarbons—the same molecules in liquid oil—and is used to produce gasoline and other petroleum products.

Why is tar sand more expensive?

Tar sands are an increasingly common—but expensive and dirty—source of oil. Extracting bitumen from tar sands—and refining it into products like gasoline—is significantly costlier and more difficult than extracting and refining liquid oil.

How is oil produced from the tar sands?

Infographic: How Tar Sands Oil Is Produced High oil prices and technological advances have made it economically viable to ramp up oil production from Canada’s tar sands. The oil pulled out of the ground is so thick and sticky that it needs complex, energy-intensive processing just to get it into a pipeline.

What can tar sands bitumen be used for?

Bitumen has long been used in waterproofing materials for buildings, and is most familiar today as the binding agent in road asphalt. However, most of the bitumen produced from tar sands is refined and mixed with lighter oils to produce synthetic crude oil that can be further refined and used in much the same way as typical crude oil. [3]

Where are the tar sands in the world?

Tar Sands. Tar sands (also known as oil sands) is a low quality form of oil that consists of bitumen mixed with sand, clay and water. Vast quantities of the substance are found in Alberta, Canada and in eastern Venezuela. Other deposits are known to exist in Utah, parts of Russia, Congo (Brazzaville), Madagascar and elsewhere,…

Why are Tar Sands bad for the environment?

Far from bringing America energy security, as its proponents claim, tar sands undermines action on climate change and keeps America hooked on dirty oil. Tar sands (also known as oil sands) is a low quality form of oil that consists of bitumen mixed with sand, clay and water.