Bitumen

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Does the new pipeline carry bitumen, or is it made of bitumen??

Great distinction! Pipelines themselves are not made of bitumen — they’re made of steel and other engineered materials designed to withstand pressure, corrosion, and environmental stress.

The new Alberta–Ottawa pipeline proposal is intended to carry bitumen (oil sands crude), not be constructed from it.

🛢️ What is Bitumen?

Definition: A heavy, viscous form of crude oil found in Alberta’s oil sands.

Properties: Thick like asphalt; must be diluted with lighter hydrocarbons (creating “dilbit”) to flow through pipelines.

Transport: Pipelines are the most efficient way to move diluted bitumen long distances to refineries or export terminals.

⚙️ Pipeline Construction

Materials: High‑strength steel, welded sections, protective coatings, and monitoring systems.

Design: Built to handle high pressure and resist leaks.

Not Bitumen: Bitumen is the cargo, not the building material.

✅ In short: The new pipeline is a steel infrastructure project designed to transport diluted bitumen from Alberta to BC’s coast. It is not made of bitumen itself.

Would you like me to break down how diluted bitumen (dilbit) behaves differently in pipelines compared to conventional crude oil — including flow, risks, and spill response?

Yes...

Perfect — let’s dig into how diluted bitumen (dilbit) behaves differently in pipelines compared to conventional crude oil, and why it raises unique engineering and environmental challenges.

🛢️ Flow in Pipelines

Bitumen alone is too thick (like peanut butter or asphalt) to flow.

It must be diluted with lighter hydrocarbons (natural gas condensates or synthetic crude) to create dilbit.

Dilbit viscosity is higher than light crude, so pipelines need higher operating pressures and special pumping stations to keep it moving.

This increases energy costs and wear on equipment compared to lighter oils.

⚠️ Risks & Spill Behavior

Conventional crude spills: Oil floats on water, allowing skimming and containment.

Dilbit spills: Initially floats, but as lighter diluents evaporate, the heavy bitumen can sink into water and sediments.

This makes cleanup far more complex, especially in rivers and coastal areas.

Example: The 2010 Kalamazoo River spill in Michigan showed how dilbit can coat riverbeds and resist removal.

Pipeline integrity: Higher pressure and chemical composition can increase corrosion risks, requiring stricter monitoring.

🧪 Environmental & Health Considerations

Air quality: Evaporation of diluents releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs), posing health risks during spills.

Marine ecosystems: Sunken bitumen can smother habitats and persist for decades.

Indigenous and coastal communities: Greater concern because traditional spill response methods (booms, skimmers) are less effective.

                                                                            

✅ In short: Dilbit can be moved through pipelines once diluted, but it requires more energy, poses tougher spill risks, and demands stricter safety measures than conventional crude. That’s why BC’s consultation is critical — the province’s rivers, coastline, and Indigenous lands would bear the brunt of these risks.

Would you like me to visualize this comparison in a chart (pipeline flow vs spill behavior) so you can see the differences at a glance?

Define viscosity in this context...

Great question — let’s pin down viscosity in the context of pipelines and diluted bitumen transport.

🧪 Definition

Viscosity is a measure of a fluid’s resistance to flow.

In simple terms: it describes how “thick” or “sticky” a liquid is.

Units: typically measured in Pascal-seconds (Pa·s) or centipoise (cP).

📌 In Pipeline Context

Low-viscosity fluids (like water or gasoline) flow easily through pipelines with minimal pumping effort.

High-viscosity fluids (like honey, molasses, or raw bitumen) resist flow, requiring higher pressure, stronger pumps, and sometimes heating or dilution to move.

Bitumen is extremely viscous — at room temperature it’s closer to asphalt than oil.

To make it transportable, producers mix it with lighter hydrocarbons (creating dilbit), which lowers viscosity enough for pipeline flow.

⚙️ Why Viscosity Matters for Pipelines

Energy Costs: Higher viscosity means more pumping energy is needed.

Pipeline Design: Determines pipe diameter, pump spacing, and operating pressure.

Safety & Integrity: High-viscosity fluids increase stress on equipment and can accelerate wear.

Spill Behavior: Once diluents evaporate, the remaining bitumen regains high viscosity, making cleanup harder (it can sink and stick to sediments).

✅ In short: Viscosity here refers to how resistant diluted bitumen is to flowing through pipelines. It’s the key property that forces engineers to dilute, pressurize, and carefully design transport systems — and it explains why dilbit behaves differently than conventional crude during both transport and spills.

Would you like me to show a quick comparison chart of viscosity values (water, crude oil, dilbit, raw bitumen, honey) so you can see the scale visually?

Yes...

Viscosity in pipelines shows how resistant different fluids are to flow — diluted bitumen is far thicker than conventional crude, which explains why it requires dilution, higher pumping pressure, and poses tougher spill risks.

Here’s a visual comparison of viscosity values across substances relevant to pipeline transport:

                                                                                   

🔍 Key Takeaways from the Chart

Water (1 cP): Flows easily, minimal resistance.

Conventional crude oil (~50 cP): Still relatively low viscosity, manageable in pipelines.

Diluted bitumen (~500 cP): Much thicker, requiring dilution and higher pumping energy.

Honey (~10,000 cP): A familiar example of high viscosity — shows how sticky fluids resist flow.

Raw bitumen (~500,000 cP): Essentially solid at room temperature, closer to asphalt than oil.

⚙️ Why This Matters

Pipeline Design: Higher viscosity means stronger pumps, larger diameters, and higher operating pressures.

Energy Costs: Transporting dilbit consumes more energy than lighter crude.

Spill Response: Once diluents evaporate, bitumen reverts to high viscosity, sinking and sticking to sediments — making cleanup far harder than with conventional crude.

✅ In short: Viscosity explains why bitumen must be diluted before transport, why pipelines carrying dilbit face higher engineering demands, and why BC’s consultation is critical — because spill risks are uniquely challenging compared to lighter oils.

Would you like me to overlay this viscosity comparison with real-world pipeline operating pressures, so you can see how engineering adapts to these differences?

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Who might be interested in purchasing dilbit; could a Middle East country use it to build roads?

Excellent line of inquiry — let’s break this down into who buys diluted bitumen (dilbit) and whether it could be used in road construction in places like the Middle East.

🌍 Who Buys Dilbit?

Primary Buyers:

U.S. refineries: Especially in the Gulf Coast, designed to handle heavy crude and bitumen blends.

Asian markets (China, India, South Korea, Japan): Interested in diversifying supply and refining heavy crude.

Europe: Some refineries can process heavy crude, though demand is lower compared to Asia.

Why Dilbit?

It’s a heavy crude feedstock for producing diesel, gasoline, and other refined products.

Refineries with “coking” units are best suited to handle it.

🛣️ Could Dilbit Be Used for Roads?

Bitumen vs. Dilbit:

Bitumen (the heavy component in dilbit) is indeed used in asphalt for road construction worldwide.

Dilbit, however, is a transport blend — it contains lighter hydrocarbons to make it flow in pipelines.

Before being used in roads, the diluent would be separated, leaving the heavy bitumen fraction.

Middle East Context:

Many Middle Eastern countries already produce natural bitumen/asphalt domestically.

They could theoretically use Canadian bitumen for roads, but it’s not economical — shipping dilbit overseas just to strip out the bitumen for asphalt is costly compared to local sources.

Middle Eastern buyers are more likely to purchase dilbit for refining into fuels, not for paving.

⚖️ Practical Reality

Yes: Bitumen is a key ingredient in asphalt, so in principle, Middle Eastern countries could use Canadian bitumen for roads.

But: In practice, they wouldn’t import dilbit for that purpose — it’s far more valuable as a refinery feedstock. Road asphalt is usually made from residuals of local crude refining, which are cheaper and abundant in oil-rich regions.

✅ In short: Dilbit is mainly purchased by refineries in the U.S. and Asia for fuel production. While the bitumen component could be used for road construction, Middle Eastern countries wouldn’t import dilbit for that — they already have cheaper local sources of asphalt.

Would you like me to map out the global trade flows of dilbit (who buys, how much, and for what purpose) so you can see the economic logic behind these markets?

Please...

Diluted bitumen (dilbit) is primarily exported from Canada to the United States and Asia for refining into fuels, not for road construction. While the bitumen fraction can be used in asphalt, importing dilbit for paving is uneconomical compared to local sources in oil‑rich regions like the Middle East.

🌍 Global Trade Flows of Bitumen & Dilbit

Canada is the world’s top exporter of petroleum bitumen, shipping over $2.2 billion worth in 2023.

Main buyers:

United States — the largest importer, with refineries designed to process heavy crude and dilbit.

Asian markets (China, South Korea, Japan, India) — increasingly important as Canada diversifies exports beyond the U.S..

Europe — smaller but steady demand, especially in Germany and the EU bloc.

Global market size: Petroleum bitumen trade was valued at $15.1 billion in 2023, ranking 226th among traded products worldwide.

🛢️ Why Buyers Want Dilbit

Fuel production: Dilbit is refined into diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel.

Heavy crude compatibility: Refineries with coking units can handle dilbit efficiently.

Diversification: Asian buyers see Canadian dilbit as a hedge against Middle Eastern supply disruptions.

🛣️ Roads & Asphalt Use

Bitumen fraction: After refining, the heavy residue can be used in asphalt for road construction.

Middle East context:

Countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait already produce local asphalt from their own refining operations.

Importing Canadian dilbit just to strip out bitumen for roads would be cost‑inefficient.

Middle Eastern buyers are far more likely to use dilbit for fuel refining, not paving.

⚖️ Practical Summary

Yes: Bitumen is a key ingredient in asphalt, so technically dilbit could contribute to road building.

But: In practice, Canada’s dilbit exports are aimed at refineries, not construction markets.

Middle Eastern countries would not import dilbit for roads because they already have abundant, cheaper local asphalt sources.

✅ In short: Canada’s dilbit exports flow mainly to U.S. and Asian refineries for fuel production. While the bitumen fraction can be used in asphalt, Middle Eastern countries wouldn’t import dilbit for road building — they already produce asphalt domestically at lower cost.

Would you like me to map this out in a flow diagram (Canada → U.S./Asia → refinery → fuels/asphalt) so you can see the trade logic visually?

But countries that do not have oil reserves of ther own, but do have refineries, would use all of it, including the asphalt residue!?

Exactly — you’ve spotted an important distinction in how import-dependent countries use crude oil and dilbit.

🌍 Countries Without Oil Reserves but With Refineries

Examples:

Japan, South Korea, Singapore — major refining hubs with limited or no domestic oil reserves.

European countries like Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands — large refineries but little crude production.

Their Strategy:

They import crude (including heavy grades like dilbit).

Refineries process all fractions of the barrel:

Light ends → gasoline, jet fuel, diesel.

Middle distillates → heating oil, petrochemical feedstocks.

Residues → asphalt/bitumen for roads, roofing, industrial uses.

🛣️ Asphalt Residue Use

In these countries, nothing goes to waste.

The asphalt fraction (the heavy residue left after refining) is valuable for:

Road construction (paving, highways, airports).

Industrial products (roofing, waterproofing, insulation).

Since they don’t have local oil sands or natural bitumen deposits, imported dilbit provides both fuel and construction material.

⚖️ Economic Logic

Import-dependent countries maximize refinery output because they pay high costs for crude imports.

Using the asphalt residue is part of their energy efficiency strategy — it offsets the cost of importing by supplying domestic infrastructure needs.

This is why Asian markets (Japan, South Korea, China, India) are so attractive for Canadian dilbit: they can use every fraction of the barrel, including the asphalt.

✅ In short: Yes — countries without their own oil reserves but with refineries will use all parts of imported dilbit, including the asphalt residue, because it’s economically efficient and supports both energy and infrastructure needs.

Would you like me to map out a “barrel breakdown” diagram showing how dilbit is refined into fuels vs asphalt, so you can see visually how every fraction gets used?

Define 'coking'...

Coking in oil refining is a thermal cracking process that converts the heaviest fractions of crude oil (the “bottom of the barrel”) into lighter, more valuable products, while producing a solid carbon-rich byproduct called petroleum coke.

🔍 Detailed Definition

Process: Coking subjects heavy residues (like vacuum residue or bitumen) to very high temperatures (typically 480–520 °C) in the absence of oxygen.

Goal: Break down large, complex hydrocarbon molecules into smaller ones.

Outputs:

Lighter hydrocarbons (naphtha, gas oils) → used for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel.

Petroleum coke → a coal-like solid, used in steel and aluminum industries or as fuel.

⚙️ Types of Coking

Delayed coking: The most common; heavy oil is heated and held in drums where it cracks into lighter products and coke.

Fluid coking: Uses fluidized beds of coke particles to crack heavy oils continuously.

Flexicoking: A variation that gasifies part of the coke to produce fuel gas for refinery use.

📌 Why It Matters

Refinery Economics: Coking allows refineries to process heavy crudes like diluted bitumen (dilbit), turning otherwise low-value residues into profitable fuels.

Global Trade: Petroleum coke is a major export, especially to Asia, where it’s used in power generation and industrial processes.

Environmental Note: Petroleum coke is carbon-intensive, so its use raises climate concerns.

✅ In short: Coking is the refinery’s way of squeezing value out of the heaviest, least useful parts of crude oil, transforming them into lighter fuels and solid petroleum coke.

Would you like me to illustrate the “barrel breakdown” showing how crude oil fractions move through coking vs conventional refining, so you can see visually where dilbit fits in?