Unsold "Excess Sulphur" at
Syncrude in Fort McMurray
Bury it! Out of sight - out of mind
The sight of large sulphur
blocks or piles of sulphur is a constant reminder of the health-
and environmental liabilities they pose. Why not hide the
excess sulphur?
Syncrude produces and stores significant amounts
of sulphur in a sulphur block [actually several large sulphur
blocks - ed.] at its plant site as there is
presently a limited market for the sulphur. There can be no
assurance that future environmental regulations pertaining to
the use, storage, handling and/or sale of sulphur will not
adversely impact the unit costs of production of synthetic oil. Syncrude is exploring the ability to bury sulphur blocks
underground. Initial information indicates that this may be a
viable and environmentally friendly solution for dealing with
the excess sulphur. Syncrude continues to research alternatives
for addressing this issue, which affects the entire petroleum
industry. (Annual Report 2003,
Canadian Oil Sands Trust, - 1MB PDF file, p. 43)
Aside from misleadingly mentioning only one
sulphur block, while several very large sulphur blocks are
involved at Syncrude alone, that piece of information does not
mention a critical condition that is absolutely essential to
make such a proposal viable.
The critical condition is that the sulphur must be stored underground,
ideally in permafrost, at a temperature that is sufficiently low
to inhibit the action of thiobacilli. (Clark
2001)
That condition does not exist where sulphur is spilled on the
ground, such as at sulphur loading facilities, on and along
railroad tracks, in road-side ditches where tanker trucks
overturned, at the sites of train derailments involving sulphur
trains loaded with liquid or solid sulphur, at dumping grounds
where sulphur recovered from spills is stored, and at landfill
sites envisioned by HAZCO to be used for the subsurface disposal
of many millions of tonnes of sulphur in Thorhild County, in
Sturgeon County and, initially, in Lamont County (although at
the latter location that intention was removed - at least from
HAZCO's initial application to Alberta Environment).
Drilling test holes to examine condition of a sulphur block
at Syncrude
Examining images taken by a camera lowered into a test hole
in a sulphur block at Syncrude
d) Desulphurization unitSyncrude has
entered into an agreement with Marsulex Inc. to utilize flue gas
from Coker 8-3 of Stage 3 to make fertilizer. Under the
agreement, which begins in 2005 and has a minimum term of 15
years, Syncrude is committed to provide the waste stream (that
is, sulphur - ed.) from
the Flue Gas Desulphurization Unit and pay an annual disposal
fee. Syncrude receives a portion of the proceeds from the
fertilizer sales as a cost recovery. Canadian Oil Sands’ share
of this commitment, before any recovery, is approximately $3
million per year. (Ibid., p. 73)
People working in Fort McMurray report that the construction
of the sulphur
processing and forming facility was completed
a number of years ago, but that the facility has not yet shipped any formed sulphur.
HAZCO and Shell personnel, at the Feb. 2006 tour of the Shantz
facility, appear to have provided the explanation for why not.
When asked about their plans to use the large volumes of sulphur
already available for many years in the Fort McMurray area, they
responded that the sulphur blocks there are too far removed from
the market to make shipping sulphur from Fort McMurray a viable
proposition.
Syncrude produces and stores significant amounts of sulphur
in a block at its plant site [again, no mention of the truth,
namely that Syncrude created several large sulphur blocks
that now flake, crumble and crack --ed.] as there is presently a limited
market for the sulphur. There can be no assurance that future
environmental regulations pertaining to the use, storage,
handling and/or sale of sulphur will not adversely impact the
unit costs of production of synthetic oil. Syncrude is exploring
the ability to store sulphur blocks underground. Initial
information indicates that this may be a viable and
environmentally friendly solution for dealing with the excess
sulphur. Syncrude continues to research alternatives for
addressing this issue, which also affects other sulphur
producers in the petroleum industry. Canadian Oil Sands is also
exploring other opportunities to effectively utilize the
sulphur. (Annual Report 2004,
Canadian Oil Sands Trust, p. 28)
The concerns about unsold sulphur are understandable.
Sulphur in open, long-term storage presents a large cost on
account of the need to mitigate
environmental contamination trough acidic run-off. Dr.
Peter Clark of the Sulphur Research Institute estimates that the
costs of treating run-off water from sulphur storage blocks runs
to about $3.00 per tonne of sulphur per year.
Underground Storage.—Alberta Sulphur Research Ltd. was
analyzing preliminary data from its 5-year test for storing
elemental sulfur underground. The expenses incurred to
mitigate the cost of acid run-off treatment from sulfur
stored in large blocks, such as found in Alberta, can be as
much as $10 million per year for a 3-Mt block. Storing the
sulfur underground in areas with low subsoil temperatures
inhibits the action of the bacteria that converts the
elemental sulfur to sulfuric acid by maintaining
temperatures lower than necessary for bacterial activity and
restricting the available oxygen required for the activity.
Data from the first 2 years of the test showed no bacterial
activity. The 5-year test was expected to provide support
for regulatory approval for this type of sulfur storage
(Clark, 2001b, mentioned in
Sulfur, by Joyce Ober, USGS Minerals Information Team,
USGS Minerals Yearbook 2001, p. 75.10).
When the question of sulphur storage costs in relation to
the treatment of acid run-off from sulphur in large blocks was put to
Shell and HAZCO at the February 2006 HAZCO-sponsored tour of the
Shantz site, Shell and HAZCO representatives first exchanged glances
and then indicated that they had no knowledge of water treatment
being a concern.
Syncrude sulphur blocks
Starting a new sulphur block at Syncrude
Except for a few meters around the edge of the block, the sulphur block
shown in the last of the preceding photos is for most of its area in direct
contact with the soil on which it is located. Temperature
extremes in severe climatic conditions cause sulphur blocks to
flake, crumble and crack. Melt- and rainwater that seeps through those cracks
(see cracks in the Shantz sulphur block)
into the ground will therefore cause acidification of the ground
water. Moreover, water that runs off sulphur blocks is
acidic because in the open or under the right conditions elsewhere thiobacilli can and love to live right on any accessible surface
of elemental sulphur and happily eat up the sulphur, thereby to
produce sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, both of which
react with water to become sulphuric acid.
Upgraders in Canada remove most of the sulphur
from bitumen and heavy oil. Since sulphur may be more than
five percent of the raw resource, huge volumes of this
by-product are produced. Sulphur is used in the
manufacture of fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, matches and other
products. Unsold sulphur is stockpiled at the upgrader
sites. Those operations which use coking also market or
stockpile the coke, which contains some sulphur as well as
carbon. (Canada's
Oilsands and Heavy Oil, Petroleum Communication Foundation,
p. 21)Upgraders remove most of the sulphur from bitumen by
converting it to elemental sulphur or retaining it in the coke
byproduct. The remaining sulphur is released into the
atmosphere as sulphur dioxide (SO2). This may
combine with water vapour to form sulphurous acid or sulphuric
acid. According to the national inventory of air
contaminants, oil sands projects accounted for 26 per cent of
Alberta's total sulphur dioxide emissions. Since then,
modifications of the plants have reduced their sulphur dioxide
emissions substantially. (Ibid., p. 27)
Beginning with the tightening of environmental regulations in
the 1990s regarding the sulphur content of fossil fuels, there have been massive reductions
in SO2 emissions at production facilities and in the
combustion of motor fuels that now contain vastly lower amounts
of sulphur, thereby much reducing the impact of acid rain in
cities and other areas that formerly burned fuel containing
large proportions of sulphur. However, the reduction in SO2 emissions comes with a
disadvantage. The
reduction in emissions are offset by vastly greater
requirements for long-term storage of the recovered elemental sulphur.
The storage of those large volumes of sulphur (presently more than 15
million tonnes in Alberta)
threatens the environment at and in the vicinity of the
locations of sulphur blocks.
Dr. Clark of the University of Calgary, a sulphur expert,
estimates that the storage space requirement for sulphur in
Alberta will reach within a hundred years a total area of 150 km2,
with a height of 50 feet.
When sulphur sites of
any kind are decommissioned (which they eventually and inevitably must be), even
if all obvious evidence of sulphur and associated equipment has
been removed and disposed off, those sites are extremely
expensive liabilities to potential purchasers. To
any potential purchasers the
now defunct and totally polluted site of the former sulphur
terminal in the heart of Vancouver is a grim reminder of the magnitude of the financial
consequences that arise out of buying sulphur-polluted real estate.
Further Reading: Sulphur poisoning
Back to index for Sulphur Blocks
Back to index page for HAZCO sulphur storage site
pages Back to Bruderheim Main Page
Posted March 12, 2006
Updates:
2006 03 17 (reformated this page to make it more printer-friendly, added
information on environmental impact and other hazards
posed by sulphur blocks, sulphur spills, sulphur processing sites, etc., and
made various minor edits)
2006 03 21 (page broken up into five pages, to reduce required loading time
2006 10 16 (reformated)
|
