Before I start, Mr. Chair, I brought some samples with me just to show what our technology looks like so that everybody has a hands-on view in front of them. Our technology is essentially based around these organic polymer beads that are an absorbent for the hydrocarbons. This is the residual sand from our process.
In these jars.... We have one here that we haven't disturbed, but this is essentially what we could end up looking at in terms of treatment, where bitumen is on the beads and you have clear water and residual solids at the bottom, which are settled. With this one, we can go ahead and see how fast the settling is by just turning it upside down. We'll see that the settled solids in a water column do become somewhat trafficable. They settle and they've compacted. They're not moving around.
This is a solution that we are proposing. It's based on the laws of Mother Nature, which I'm going to go ahead and expose here with my documentation.
Mr. Chair and distinguished members of the committee, my name is Thomas Gradek. I am the inventor and developer of a leading Canadian technology. My small company, Gradek Energy Inc., is based out of Montreal, with operational headquarters in Calgary. Gradek Energy proposes to eliminate tailing streams from the oil sand operations and over time eliminate the existing tailing ponds at no cost to oil sands operating companies. Our objective is to reclassify oil sands production as clean oil. The key is RHS technology.
Gradek Energy is developing a hydrocarbon capture technology, called RHST, for application in any media. RHST has been proven through extensive testing in the laboratory, and Gradek Energy is designing a pilot project with oil sands operator participation to prove its performance in eliminating hydrocarbons and tailings streams that proliferate massive ponds.
Present technology of air flotation is adversely affected with fines and dissolved minerals, which alter the chemistry of water into slurry. As such, the inefficiency losses leave bitumen attached to the fines. Those fines remain in suspension in the water, hence the need to have tailing ponds for long-term settling of those fines.
The oil sands industry has invested billions of dollars into building their present production facilities and has spent decades doing it. It is of necessity that the industry focus on its production. Gradek Energy's business model takes the tailing liability off-line to build, own, and operate the tailing streams and ponds through a mediation plant, all off-line, and internally finances a profitable and sustainable enterprise, having no risk impact on the existing operations.
What is the technology? The illustration of the bitumen-coated beads in clear water with settled solids is the result that can be obtained with our technology. As you can witness with the samples that I have brought to the session, the bitumen-free fines readily settle.
How does it work? The beads are essentially a better air bubble and, as such, are more efficient in attaching the bitumen. This is an applied nanotechnology that uses the laws of nature to selectively capture the hydrocarbons. Equilibrium is reached with the hydrocarbon on the bead's surface, at which point the bitumen is at its minimum free-energy level. Afterwards, the solvent wash is used to remove the bitumen from the bead and produce a quality dilbit.
This slide shows the bitumen extraction process and demonstrates the use of fresh tailings blended with tailings pond sludge to obtain our optimum temperature of about 40° Celsius. The blended slurry is introduced into the mixer with the RHS beads, and then contact is made between the bitumen-coated particles and the beads. The bitumen migrates onto the beads. The slurry is then moved into a second compartment in which the clean water and solids are removed, and the bitumen-coated beads are directed into a solvent wash unit. There the beads are washed with a solvent to produce the dilbit. Then the beads are recovered, dried, and can be reused.
The RHST project is a planned two-phase piloting program. We are in the design stage of the first phase of the program at present. The first pilot phase will demonstrate the continuous-flow operation feasibility. The second phase will demonstrate the scalability of the process for ultimate commercial-scale operations.
This slide shows how demonstration and validation of the technology involved various institutions and facilities. The multitude of tests undertaken during the development stages have been numerous and with successful results.
The benefits of the RHS technology described in the following slides, numbers 12 through 16, are summarized as follows:
Environmental performance: RHST has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of the oil sands operations overall.
Social performance: it has the potential to provide a healthier environment by reducing the effects of effluents and their emissions.
Economic performance: it has the potential for overall improvement on operational costs by eliminating tailings management expenses and future liabilities.
Technological issues: RHST has the potential to enable the operators to achieve their bitumen recovery efficiency obligations with the ERCB.
Political issues: RHST has the potential to facilitate compliance with U.S. regulations and policy on transportation fuels.
As a result of implemention of the technology, RHST addresses the proliferation of tailing ponds by recovering the residual bitumen attached to fine particles such as clays and oxides. RHST is a no-cost solution for the industry. It results in water that can be directly treated and recycled, and soil ready for reclamation that is trafficable.
It's also a process that addresses U.S. regulations directly and completely. Reduced carbon intensity overall is in accordance with the low-carbon fuel supply act, greenhouse gas emissions are eliminated from tailing ponds in accordance with the climate change act, and waste fuel designation with a RIN value is in accordance with the renewable fuel supply act.
The oil sands present a tremendous economic opportunity for Canada constrained by an environmental impasse. Implementation of the RHS technology will help the Government of Canada and the industry balance these competing interests. Funding from government sources is essential to accelerate the piloting phases of this project. The entire country can benefit from the economic activity generated by our solution. Implementation will reduce and eventually eliminate tailing ponds, and the RHS technology promises to be an expanding and diversified export opportunity.
Mr. Chair, I thank you for the opportunity and I welcome your committee's questions.