DEVELOPING IMPROVED PROCESSES FOR THE OIL SANDS INDUSTRY

Prairie Creek Extraction Processes Experience

• Substantial capital cost reduction through integration of processes into simplified single unit.
• Substantial operating cost reduction through elimination of unnecessary tasks and maintenance.
• More robust processing capability with less sensitivity to feed quality.
• Improved aeration of middlings and bitumen? without use of processing aids.
• Increased operational flexibility with difficult ores such as high fines and salinity.
• Reduced water requirement through immediate recycle of process water.
• Down-sized or eliminated hydro-transport lines.
• Process optimization by controlling hydrodynamic conditions.

Prairie Creek Process Development Advantages

• Broadly experienced staff provide fresh insights from multi-industrial processes.
• Program efficiency and reduced costs with on-call internal manufacturing staff and facilities.
• Predictable and manageable costs through structured project management.
• Eliminated or minimized internal development capital.
• Successful demonstration programs confirm increased aeration without processing aids.    

Substantial Capital Cost Reduction – More Robust Processing Capability

Prairie Creek Technologies applies both fundamental science and deep industrial experience to advance processing innovations from proof-of-concept to industrial-scale realization.  The array of tools available includes mechanical, chemical and civil engineering fundamentals, plus physical and computational process and hydrodynamic modeling, testing at scales supporting reliable extrapolation, and laboratory analysis.  A common program outcome is the integration of several process units into a single combined system, with a corresponding reduction in capital and operating costs, and operational simplicity.

Resources

Senior staff members individually have forty-plus years of experience in product development, applications engineering, system design, combustion and heat transfer, environmental compliance, manufacturability optimization, field erection, start-up, commissioning and trouble-shooting across all petroleum-related sectors.  Sharing a site with an affiliated manufacturing company provides readily available materials, logistics and skilled craft labor.