A cleaner process for heavy oil extraction from oil sand using a bio-based solvent

Abstract
Non-aqueous extraction (NAE) at ambient conditions provides many advantages over the current commercial hot water method for processing mined oil sand, but several challenges remain largely due to the use of a hazardous conventional organic solvent (COS) such as toluene or heptane. In this work, a cleaner, more sustainable NAE process using a low-cost, eco-friendly, bio-based solvent, was developed. Results indicate that the bio-solvent extraction could achieve oil recoveries of close to 100% for different grades of ores ...