Williams Energy is taking off-gas from Suncor’s oil sands operations, extracting valuable petrochemical feedstocks, and reducing Suncor’s carbon dioxide and sulphur emissions in the process.
Williams Energy Canada processes NGLs and olefins at
its facility in Redwater
Williams Energy is taking off-gas from Suncor’s oil sands operations, extracting valuable petrochemical feedstocks, and reducing Suncor’s carbon dioxide and sulphur emissions in the process.
William’s ‘Hydrocarbon Liquids Conservation Project’ started in 2002 to recover highervalue natural gas liquids (NGLs) and olefins that are present in off-gas, a byproduct of upgrading bitumen.
About 40 per cent of the off-gas from upgrading bitumen consists of natural gas liquids (ethane, propane and butane) and olefins; all substances that can be converted into products that help make plastic and other petrochemicals, says David Chappell, Regional Vice President of Williams Energy Canada.
“Ethylene, propylene and butylenes are not naturally occurring. They’re manufactured and most companies spend a lot of money to manufacture them,” he says. “Suncor and some other operators create them as a byproduct.”
Typically, oil sands companies would remove sulphur from the off-gas and burn it as fuel to help run their operations.
Williams takes the off-gas, removes the portion it can separate into NGLs and petrochemicals and sends the rest back to Suncor along with natural gas it’s bought to replace the volumes it took out. Natural gas produces fewer emissions when burned than the original off-gas.
“They’re getting the same amount of energy back but because they’re burning natural gas, they’re reducing emissions,” says Chappell. “In essence, it’s a win-win –– Williams Energy extracts valuable products, while Suncor improves its environmental footprint by reducing carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions.”
Williams recovers the NGLs and olefins from the off-gas at a cryogenic liquids extraction plant near the Suncor facilities in Fort McMurray.
“We take fairly standard technology and apply it in a very unique way,” says Chappell. “We get the liquids out by taking that gas stream and getting it very, very cold, -100 degrees, and things just liquefy and fall out.”
The NGLs and olefins are then piped to Williams’ Redwater facility near Edmonton, where they’re fractionated into NGLs and petrochemicals and sold to petrochemical producers.
Williams is the only processor of oil sands off-gas in Canada and it has the only olefins fractionator in Western Canada.