The environmental impact of oil refineries in Canada
The environmental impact of oil refineries in Canada
Learn about efforts to minimize the environmental impact of tar-sand (also called oil-sand) extraction, notably in Alberta, Canada.
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail © Alan Gignoux/Dreamstime.com
Transcript
NARRATOR: In Canada, oil refineries have sprung out of the ground at an astounding pace. High oil prices are firing an industry that's exploding like there's no tomorrow. And so multinational oil companies are ratcheting up their annual production, to the detriment of the environment.
In the Province of Alberta in Western Canada lies what is presumably the world's largest toxic lake and it gets a little bit bigger day by day. This sump serves as the toxic waste dump for the poisonous sludge that is the by-product of extracting oil from oil sands. No one is certain of how this toxic brew will ever be disposed of. What is certain is that something has to change. Optimizing and cleaning up oil sands processing techniques is the aim of this special research group at the University of Alberta.
The researchers are working on finding a way to store greenhouse gases below ground to stop them from being pumped into the air. Their aim is to store them in coal beds. As yet, however, they have only been successful in injecting CO2 into coal in small-scale lab experiments.
RICK CHALATURNYK: "You've got a big scale. You've got to be able to inject the CO2 into the seams and the CO2 has to be able to travel through all the pore spaces and sometimes that's very difficult. So some of the research is looking at how the permeability changes in the coal, how its structure changes."
NARRATOR: 10-20 years may pass before this method can be put into practice. The technology necessary to solve all the oil sands industry's worries is still in its infancy. In an adjoining lab, researchers are working to reduce the industry's hight water consumption through better recycling. The problem is that oil sands producers use more water a year than the city of Calgary and its 1.3 million inhabitants. And water consumption is linked to CO2 emissions. If less water was used in the refining process, less gas would be required to heat it.
Researcher Nicholas Beyer has taken it upon himself to address this problem. He runs tests in which he shoots the toxic sludge from the refining of oil sands into a porous pipe at high pressure. This special filtering process yields relatively clear water that can be channeled back for use in the production process.
NICHOLAS BEYER: "I'm pretty excited. This looks like a promising new technology. We still have to work on how we can scale it up to the large fluorates that the oil sands plants have but with a lot of work and support from industry and the universities I think we can hopefully develop this possibly into something that might be an option."
NARRATOR: Like the researchers, environmental activists hope for quick progress. If something doesn't happen soon, oil extraction in Alberta will become synonymous with wanton environmental destruction.
In the Province of Alberta in Western Canada lies what is presumably the world's largest toxic lake and it gets a little bit bigger day by day. This sump serves as the toxic waste dump for the poisonous sludge that is the by-product of extracting oil from oil sands. No one is certain of how this toxic brew will ever be disposed of. What is certain is that something has to change. Optimizing and cleaning up oil sands processing techniques is the aim of this special research group at the University of Alberta.
The researchers are working on finding a way to store greenhouse gases below ground to stop them from being pumped into the air. Their aim is to store them in coal beds. As yet, however, they have only been successful in injecting CO2 into coal in small-scale lab experiments.
RICK CHALATURNYK: "You've got a big scale. You've got to be able to inject the CO2 into the seams and the CO2 has to be able to travel through all the pore spaces and sometimes that's very difficult. So some of the research is looking at how the permeability changes in the coal, how its structure changes."
NARRATOR: 10-20 years may pass before this method can be put into practice. The technology necessary to solve all the oil sands industry's worries is still in its infancy. In an adjoining lab, researchers are working to reduce the industry's hight water consumption through better recycling. The problem is that oil sands producers use more water a year than the city of Calgary and its 1.3 million inhabitants. And water consumption is linked to CO2 emissions. If less water was used in the refining process, less gas would be required to heat it.
Researcher Nicholas Beyer has taken it upon himself to address this problem. He runs tests in which he shoots the toxic sludge from the refining of oil sands into a porous pipe at high pressure. This special filtering process yields relatively clear water that can be channeled back for use in the production process.
NICHOLAS BEYER: "I'm pretty excited. This looks like a promising new technology. We still have to work on how we can scale it up to the large fluorates that the oil sands plants have but with a lot of work and support from industry and the universities I think we can hopefully develop this possibly into something that might be an option."
NARRATOR: Like the researchers, environmental activists hope for quick progress. If something doesn't happen soon, oil extraction in Alberta will become synonymous with wanton environmental destruction.