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Oil sands GHG lifecycle study using operating data finds lower emitting oil sands cases outperform higher emitting conventional crude cases; a call for more sophisticated tools and reporting

Green Car Congress

Well-to-wheel (WTW) greenhouse gas emissions for in situ SAGD and surface mining pathways generated employing GHOST/TIAX/ GHGenius combination and comparison with SAGD, mining and conventional crude oil literature pathways (all results are on a HHV basis). 74% of WTW emissions in our oil sands pathways. Click to enlarge.

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Utah Water Quality Board upholds issuance of permit for oil sands mine in Utah

Green Car Congress

The Utah Water Quality Board, in a 9-2 vote this week, agreed with the August 2012 recommendations of an administrative law judge (ALJ) upholding a permit-by-rule issued by the Division of Water Quality (DWQ) for the proposed PR Spring an oil sands mine on state land in eastern Utah. USOS bitumen extraction process. Source: USOS.

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Osum Oil Sands closes $500M private placement; new investors include government of Singapore

Green Car Congress

Canada-based Osum Oil Sands Corp. has entered into definitive agreements with a group of investors to issue, on a private placement basis, $500 million in equity securities. billion barrels (net) of Best Estimate Contingent Resources through both acquisitions and additional geological and reservoir work in 2011.

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New petroleum refining lifecycle model finds the variability in GHG emissions from refining different crudes as significant as magnitude expected in upstream operations

Green Car Congress

PRELIM uses a more comprehensive range of crude oil quality and refinery configurations than used in earlier models and can quantify energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with detail and transparency the better to inform policy analysis, the duo suggests. A wider range of GHG emissions estimates is seen for oil sands products (2.5?26

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Ensyn and Fibria establish strategic alliance for cellulosic fuels and chemicals in Brazil; Fibria to invest $20M in Ensyn

Green Car Congress

Fibria has industry-leading expertise in fiber production as well as a significant Brazilian fiber resource and a substantial corporate presence in Brazil. RTP is a fast pyrolysis process in which biomass is introduced into a vessel and rapidly heated to 500 °C by a tornado of hot sand and then rapidly cooled within seconds.

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Stanford, UC Santa Cruz study explores ramifications of demand-driven peak to conventional oil

Green Car Congress

In contrast to arguments that peak conventional oil production is imminent due to physical resource scarcity, a team from Stanford University and UC Santa Cruz has examined the alternative possibility of reduced oil use due to improved efficiency and oil substitution. 2010, to above 140 $/bbl in constant 2010 dollars).

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Tailings Technology Roadmap project releases nine development roadmaps for treatment of oil sands fine tailings

Green Car Congress

The report provides nine different Tailings Technology Deployment (TDD) Roadmaps to accelerate the implementation of oil sands tailings solutions in Alberta. After oil sands ore is excavated from the ground (surface mining operations, not in situ production), warm water is added to wash the bitumen off the. sand and clay.

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