Unconventional Fossil Fuels

Oil Sands a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay or other minerals, water and bitumen (heavy, extremely viscous oil that must be treated before it can be used by refineries to produce usable fuels such as gasoline and diesel).

Oil sands deposits near the surface can be recovered by open pit mining techniques. After mining, the tar sands are transported to an extraction plant… 1. hot water and agitation separates the bitumen from sand, water, and minerals. 2. The combination of hot water and agitation releases bitumen from the oil sand, and causes tiny air bubbles to attach to the bitumen droplets, that float to the top of the separation vessel, where the bitumen can be skimmed off.

Environmental Impacts greenhouse gas emissions disturbance of mined land impacts on wildlife and air and water quality Social & Economic Impacts Most oil shale is found in the relatively arid western United States and it requires a large amount of water for processing

Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year. At least 90% of the fresh water used in the oil sands ends up in tailing ponds so toxic that propane cannons are used to keep ducks from landing. Processing the oil sands uses enough natural gas in a day to heat 3 million homes. The toxic tailing ponds are considered one of the largest human-made structures in the world. -The ponds span 50 square kilometers and can be seen from space. Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.

New York Times Published: May 18, 2010 Oil Sands as a Source of Energy Canadian oil sands are expected to become the top source of imported oil, surpassing other conventional oil imports. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec11/oilpipeline_08-29.html

Oil Shale sedimentary rock that contains solid bituminous materials known as kerogen.  The rock does not contain oil, but when heated to very high temperatures (called retorting) it releases the kerogen that can be stabilized, upgraded and processed into fuel. 

Oil shale can be mined using one of two methods: underground mining using the room-and-pillar method or surface mining.

Environmental Impacts Greenhouse gas emissions Disturbance of mined land Disposal of spent shale Use of water resources Impact on air and water quality Social & Economic Impacts Very expensive to mine and process oil shale Takes more energy to process and mine than the oil produced from it would produce