bitumen, Tag

What if some phenomenally large energy/materials breakthroughs were right here in front of us, vastly more accessible than experimental aspirations, but held back by an image problem?

From Mining.com A test shipment of bitumen oil from Alberta is on its way to China, but it didn’t get to a British Columbia port by pipeline – it was moved by train through Prince Rupert in a semi-solid form commonly...

Built in 1923, the concrete Zwarte Silo was originally used to store grain as well as salt. To ward off moisture, the outer walls were treated with a layer of bitumen that weathered to create the building’s distinctive...

Built in 1923, the concrete Zwarte Silo was originally used to store grain as well as salt. To ward off moisture, the outer walls were treated with a layer of bitumen that weathered to create the building’s distinctive...

Photo via Shutterstock In March, Exxon's Pegasus pipeline ruptured in the suburban town of Mayflower, Arkansas. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of bitumen from leaked into neighborhoods and waterways from a 22-foot gash,...

The United States imports almost half of its oil (49%), and about 25% of our imports come from one country — our friendly neighbor to the North, Canada. Today, Canada supplies more oil to the USA than all Persian...

The classic Ford model T; made from 1908 to 1928. Note the high chassis, soft suspensions and light wheels; this car was designed for running on unpaved roads. With asphalt - made from crude oil - becoming more and more expensive,...

For a while, when I was a student, I had an attic bedroom that was heated by a small coal fire, with a relatively short chimney up to the roof. I learned, fairly early on, that in starting the fire you needed a fairly high...

In August 2007, a post titled Extracting Heavy Oil: Using Toe to Heel Air Injection (THAI) introduced readers of The Oil Drum to a technology for producing an upgraded extra-heavy oil from Alberta Tar Sands without the environmentally...