Recovery of bitumen from oil-impregnated sandstone deposits of Utah

Much attention is being given to fossil fuels such as coal, oil shale, and tar sands, as well as to nuclear, geothermal, wind, and solar energy sources. Characterization of the tar sands from the Uinta Basin is currently underway. Compared with bitumen presently being extracted commercially from Canadian Athabasca tar sands, the bitumen from Utah is considerably lower in sulfur content (typically 0.4 wt.% compared to 4.2 wt.%) and higher in nitrogen content (1 wt.% compared to 0.36 wt.%). Furthermore, while Athabasca tar sands contain 3 wt.% water and have a significant clay content, Utah Uinta tar sands contain very little water and virtually no clay. Bitumen content of the Utah tar sands varies considerably but is comparable with the value of 13 wt.% for the Athabasca tar sands presently being processed commercially. Because of considerable differences in the chemical and physical nature of Utah tar sands as compared with Canadian tar sands, as well as the great differences in geographical and climatic conditions between the two regions, processing of Utah tar sands may require a different procedure from the one currently used commercially in Canada or from the procedures previously demonstrated in laboratory or pilot-plant studies on Canadian tar sands. This paper presents the status of research underway at the University of Utah to explore methods of extracting bitumen by both low- and high-temperature techniques.