Oil Sands

Oil sands are naturally occurring mixtures of sand or clay, water and an extremely dense and viscous form of petroleum called bitumen. They are found in large amounts in many countries throughout the world, but are found in extremely large quantities in Canada and Venezuela. These have recently been considered to be part of the world's oil reserves as higher oil prices and new technology enable them to be profitably extracted and upgraded to usable products.

Benefits

Improved understanding of the flow characteristics of oil sands will aid the development of flow models leading to capital cost savings and when designing lengthy pipelines from the mine to the processing plant and reduced energy costs in their operation.