Member Spotlight: CVW CleanTech
If you would like to have your organization, project or product featured in an ACR blog and Resources Letter, let us know! Contact communications@acr-alberta.com.
The Alberta Chamber of Resources is proud to say our members are paving the way toward net zero carbon emissions by 2050! One such example is CVW CleanTech’s technology Creating Value from WasteTM (“CVWTM”). This innovative technology processes froth treatment tailings (“FTT”) from mining oil sands operations to recover valuable hydrocarbons and 'green' critical minerals while delivering significant environmental benefits including greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions reductions and enhanced tailings management. The processes have been validated through significant piloting and engineering and are ready for commercial implementation.
Financial markets and the public have been prioritizing Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) practices as an important measure of sectors for investment and market access. The environmental impacts of oil sands mining tailings and associated tailings ponds have created reputational and competitiveness issues for the sector. A CVWTM project will enhance Canada’s ESG reputation and associated competitiveness by addressing environmental aspects of oil sands mining tailings. A CVWTM project installation at a representative oil sands mining site would produce the following sustainable benefits:
2.2 million barrels of hydrocarbons (1.9 MMbbl/a bitumen and 0.3 MMbbl/a solvent) recovered annually
243,000 tonnes of critical mineral (zircon, titanium) concentrates recovered annually
Between 380,000 and 850,000 tonnes of CO2e abatement annually
Up to 5,000 tonnes of volatile organic compounds abatement annually
Annual recovery and re-use of over 2.8 million m3 water and 1.9 million GJ heat integration
Annual land-use reductions of over 19 Ha consistent with the Alberta Energy Regulator’s (“AER”) Directive 85 (remaining tailings are Ready-to-reclaim)
Annual value creation of approx. $250 million for a hydrocarbon-focused project and approx. $450 million for a full facility that also produces critical mineral products
CVWTM is comprised of physical separation operations, including flotation, solvent extraction and distillation. The process is expected to recover 85% of the bitumen and 91% of the solvent contained in FTT that are currently disposed into tailings ponds. These hydrocarbon recovery efforts also clean critical mineral slurries for downstream processing to valuable critical mineral concentrates. Mineral processing operations utilize conventional mineral dressing equipment with expected recoveries of 73% of contained zircon and titanium minerals. These minerals have been identified by Alberta as strategic and critical to the development of the green economy and represent new and diversified export markets for Alberta and Canada. The recovered incremental hydrocarbons increase the oil sands operator’s production efficiency, offering GHG and cost offsets through reduced extraction effort required to produce equivalent volumes of hydrocarbons. By recovering hydrocarbons from FTT, the CVWTM thickener process can efficiently lower operating costs and environmental footprint (compared to conventional tailings management operations) to potentially deliver ready-to-reclaim solids depositions, thereby avoiding the use of tailings ponds and reducing the annual land use footprint by ~3%. This process also recycles approximately 96% of the contained water providing 1.9 million GJ per year of indirect heat extraction and integration with process operations offsetting natural gas costs and related combustion emissions.
The CVWTM technology is designed to deliver significant GHG emissions avoidance and reductions at an oil sands mining site. Solvent lost to tailings ponds via FTT serves as a substrate for methanogenic fermentation in tailings ponds. The key to abating these fugitive methane emissions from tailings is to prevent this solvent from entering tailings ponds. CVWTM technology efficiently recovers solvent from the FTT pipeline, reducing losses to tailings ponds and resulting in fugitive methane emissions avoidance of ~90% compared to current tailings pond emissions. CVW™ provides a point-source solution to a fugitive methane emissions issue for the oil sands industry, in addition to providing other upstream GHG avoidances via improved per unit production efficiency and reintegration of waste heat. The GHG abatement estimate range is based on varying methodologies used to estimate fugitive emissions and reported oil sands process emissions. The CVW™ project GHG benefits have been independently verified for a specific site by expert LCA consultants (The Delphi Group) at 632,000 tonnes CO2e annually. The net incremental benefit of CVWTM implementation will reduce site-wide oil sands emissions by 5-12% and will reduce all of Canada’s emissions by 0.5%.
CVW CleanTech has invested over $100 million and over 15 years to research and develop CVWTM to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 8. Technology development has been supported by large scale integrated piloting and progressive commercial engineering studies resulting in 20 active patents. The progressive technology R&D program was executed with support from Alberta Energy and engaged expert technical resources from across Alberta, Canada and North America, including Alberta Innovates, Saskatchewan Research Council, SGS Lakefield and Gas Technology Institute. CVW™ was piloted at the Natural Resources Canada (“NRCan”) CanmetENERGY froth treatment pilot plant in Devon, AB. This is the same facility utilized by many oil sands operators to validate froth treatment technologies in advance of commercialization. This pilot program was the largest of its kind at CanmetENERGY and was executed with support from Syncrude, Suncor, Canadian Natural and Imperial Oil with funding from Sustainable Technology Development Canada (SDTC), Alberta Energy and the National Research Council.
Front end engineering design (i.e., FEED) studies were executed in 2019 and 2021, supported by Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA), SDTC and NRCan’s Clean Growth Program, that validated the commercial ready status of the technology and integrated project. The FEED studies, led by a Calgary-based Tier 1 engineering firm (Stantec Consulting) and an oil sands operator’s major projects team, were complemented by independent technical studies on key aspects of CVW™ including physical testing on tailings thickening (SNF Mining) and geotechnical deposition (Thurber Engineering), as well as computational fluid dynamic modelling of the distillation (Hatch Engineering and Coanda R&D Corp) and solvent extraction units (Sepro Mineral Systems Corp). As part of the 2021 FEED study, CVW CleanTech in collaboration with an oil sands partner has developed Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (“AACE”) Class 3 capital cost estimates for a CVW™ installation at a commercial oil sands mine. These estimates have been utilized to develop generic project deployment options. These include a hydrocarbon only option that contemplates recovery of bitumen and solvent while realizing the tailings management benefits, enhanced GHG abatement profile at a capital cost of $390 million. A phased option that contemplates future minerals production could be implemented following the installation of hydrocarbon facilities.
CVW™ is truly sustainable in that it provides progressive environmental benefits to the public while generating positive economic returns. The economic rewards are shared across stakeholders that include oil sands partners and the public sector through the generation of commodity revenues, operational cost savings as well as royalty and tax revenues. Assuming a flat US$60/bbl WTI price, a single CVW™ deployment will generate annually $110 million in synthetic crude oil production and $26 million in solvent production, as well as an additional $205 million annually in critical minerals revenues with the addition of the minerals production option. Commodity revenues are complemented by up to $73 million in potential GHG abatement credits as well as $40 million in tailings management savings and heat integration benefits annually. Potential public revenues include up to $36 million in annual royalty payments while creating 3,300 construction jobs and over 60 direct, high-quality jobs in a new diversified critical minerals economy. CVW™ technology has been designed and tested for application at all six commercial oil sands mining operations.
A solution that re-processes a waste stream, prevents discharge to tailings ponds and reduces emissions into the atmosphere while recovering valuable lost products from the waste stream is a clean technology with positive implications for the industry. CVWTM is an innovative and sustainable end-of-pipe solution to realize both economic and environmental benefits from oil sands mining operations, while creating a new Canadian critical minerals industry in support of the emerging green and circular economies and contributing to Canada’s net zero emissions aspirations.
If you would like to have your organization, project or product featured in an ACR blog and Resources Letter, let us know! Contact communications@acr-alberta.com.
