Syncrude Canada Plans $400 Million Emission Reduction Program

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Houston, Texas). Syncrude Canada Limited (Fort McMurray, Alberta) is planning a $400 million emissions reduction program at their Mildred Lake Upgrader (PEC 56000762). The process of upgrading changes bitumen into synthetic crude oil that can later be further refined into additional products. The four main steps of upgrading are thermal conversion, catalytic conversion, distillation, and hydrotreating.

The emissions program will reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 50 percent from two 100,000 barrels per day fluid cokers by installing a lime dry scrubber system. The company expects to select a technology vender by 2005. The scrubber system is comprised of three main components, which are a gas cooling system, reagent injection system, and a baghouse. Washington Group International (Denver, Colorado) is performing engineering design specifications for the emission reduction project.

Syncrude Canada Limited is the world's largest producer of crude oil from oil sands and the largest single source producer in Canada that employs about 4,000 people. The company currently supplies an estimated 13 percent of the nation's petroleum requirements. Syncrude operates a large oil sand mine, utilities plant, bitumen extraction plant, and upgrading facility that process bitumen. In addition, the company produces value-added light & sweet crude oil for domestic consumption and export.

Industrialinfo.com is tracking over $875 million in new projects for Syncrude Canada, as part of the UE-1 Upgrader project. The project included a Fluid Coker, Aromatics Saturation Unit, Hydrogen (H2), Sulfur Recovery (SRU), Froth Treatment, and Diluent Recovery (DRU) Unit.