#826: Field Upgrading Uses Sodium To Remove Sulphur From Heavy Oil

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Neil Camarta

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What do beer, bitumen, and greenhouse gas emissions have in common?

That would be Neil Camarta.  He’s president and founder of Field Upgrading.

Neil spent his engineering career building conventional upgraders which emit hydrogen sulphide and other noxious pollutants to the atmosphere.

Now he has teamed up with the Coors beer family and Alberta Innovates to commercialize a simple and clean upgrading technology for oil.

NEIL CAMARTA:  So we use sodium, It’s a metal, but it melts at low temperature.  It mixes really well with oil. And it’s as if it was programmed to remove all the dirty from dirty oil.  It takes out all the sulphur, It takes out all the metals, It takes out all the acid,.  So it cleans up the oil.  It doesn’t leave piles of coke or ashpaltenes behind. But you’ve got to get the sodium back or you’ll go broke, because sodium is really expensive.  And that’s where the Coors family come in because they have what’s called a  battery.  When you remove the sodium, remove the sulphur from the oil using sodium, you make sodium sulphide.  You put the sodium sulphide in this battery and it separates the sodium from the sulphur, so you’re able to recycle the sodium.   And that’s it in a nutshell.  

Neil Camarta says the next step for Field Upgrading is to build a demonstration plant at Fort Saskatchewan.

Thanks today to ALBERTA INNOVATES

FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER

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Alberta Innovates

Alberta Innovates is a provincially funded Corporation with a mandate to deliver 21st century solutions for the most compelling challenges facing Albertans. We do this by building on our province’s research and technology development strengths in the core sectors of health, environment, energy, food and fibre and platforms such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and omics. We are working with our partners to diversify Alberta’s economy, improve our environmental performance and enhance our well-being through research and innovation. 

The Alberta Innovates system has roots stretching back almost 90 years

In March, 2016 the consolidation of Alberta Innovates was announced and on November 1, a single, integrated innovation powerhouse, Alberta Innovates, was formed. Two applied research subsidiaries – Innotech Alberta and C-Fer Technologies –  serve public and private sector interests.

The Alberta Innovates system was first created in January 2010, as part of an overall innovation framework developed within the Alberta Research and Innovation Act. At that time, four corporations were established:

  • Bio Solutions
  • Energy and Environment Solutions
  • Health Solutions
  • Technology Futures.

The Alberta Innovates system has a 90-year legacy. Our expertise is built on the successes of:

  • Alberta Institute for Agriculture
  • Forestry and the Environment
  • Alberta Agricultural Research Institute
  • Alberta Forestry Research Institute
  • Alberta Life Sciences Institute
  • Alberta Ingenuity
  • Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research
  • Alberta Research Council
  • iCORE
  • nanoAlberta
  • Alberta Water Research Institute (AWRI)
  • Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI)
  • Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA).

 

Program Date: 2016-11-24