Trucks haul an oversize load of tar sands equipment for a SAG D mine, on the road towards Fort McMurray
A SAG D (Steam assisted Gravity Drainage) tar sands plant north of Fort McMurray. The Alberta tar sands are the largest industrial project on the planet, and the world's most environmentally destructive. SAG D is used to extract the bitumen from the tar sands when they are too deep to be strip mined. Although it has the benefit over strip mining, of not having to clear fell the Boreal forest, SAG D prodiuced oil is the most carbon intensive fossil fuel on the planet, over three times more carbon intensive than conventional oil. This is due to the extraction process. Two pipelines are drilled vertically, one to the top of the tar sands layer and one to the bottom. They then spread out horizontally. Vast quantities of steam are pumped down the upper pipe and out in to the tar sands layer. The steam melts the bitumen which they flows down due to gravity and is sucked up by the lower pipe. The steam is genrated by burning natural gas. It takes 1200 cubic feet of gas to produce one barrel of synthetic oil. It produces 45Kg of C02 per barrel of oil produced.
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Photo credit: © Ashley Cooper pics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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