Innovation Anthology #657:
Construction on Syncrude’s oil sands plant near Fort McMurray started in the early 1970’s.
But the company officially got its start in December of 1964 with a major focus on research.
Glen Rovang is Syncrude’s Manager of Research and Development.
As he explains, fifty years ago the big questions centred on technical viability and cost effective extraction.
GLEN ROVANG: The so-called suite of extraction and froth treatment technologies were the important core technologies of the day. And that was really, what were the appropriate process parameters using the derivative original Clark hotwater process – but to do that at scale so you could get a good quality bitumen product and then to prepare that bitumen for further upgrading processes And there were pilot projects actually done up at Fort McMurray in order to demonstrate the process lineup at a smaller scale before advancing into what was a very significant project for Alberta at the time.
According to Glen Rovang, Syncrude’s first research lab was located at Refinery Row, but has since moved to Edmonton’s Research Park.
Thanks today to Syncrude
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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Syncrude
Program Date: 2015-01-13