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The name tar sands was applied to bituminous sands in the late 19th and early 20th century. [18] People who saw the bituminous sands during this period were familiar with the large amounts of tar residue produced in urban areas as a by-product of the manufacture of coal gas for urban heating and lighting. [19]
The Athabasca oil sands, also known as the Athabasca tar sands, are large deposits of oil sands rich in bitumen, a heavy and viscous form of petroleum, in northeastern Alberta, Canada. These reserves are one of the largest sources of unconventional oil in the world, making Canada a significant player in the global energy market.
Surface mining and in-situ processing requires extensive land use. Mining, processing, and waste disposal require land to be withdrawn from traditional uses, and therefore should avoid high density population areas. [3] Oil shale mining reduces the original ecosystem diversity with habitats supporting a variety of plants and animals.
Tar sands get a lot of bad press, much of it to do with the fact that the extraction and processing of tar sands bitumen creates a lot more pollution than other fuel sources. A few companies are ...
The largest single plant in Canada to use in situ production is Imperial Oil's Cold Lake oil sand plant. This plant uses a technique called cyclic steam injection . Using this method, the company pumps high-pressure steam into a section of the underground reservoir for a week or so, then pumps the liquid oil out for as long as several months.
Syncrude's Mildred Lake plant (MLSB) in the Athabasca oil sands. The Alberta's oil sands "emit high levels of air pollutants" based on a May 25, 2016 article entitled "Oil sands operations as a large source of secondary organic aerosols" in Nature in June 2016 by lead author John Liggio and a team of Environment Canada scientists.
Bitumen also occurs in unconsolidated sandstones known as "oil sands" in Alberta, Canada, and the similar "tar sands" in Utah, US. The Canadian province of Alberta has most of the world's reserves, in three huge deposits covering 142,000 square kilometres (55,000 sq mi), an area larger than England or New York state .
Tar sands have affected over 75% of the habitat in the Alberta taiga forest due to the clearing of the forests and the oil ponds that come from the extraction. These tar sands also create awful toxic oil ponds that affect wildlife and surrounding vegetation. Oil extraction also affects the forest soil, which harms tree and plant growth.