An Integrated Energy Optimization Model for the Canadian Oil Sands Industry

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to develop a new energy model that predicts the energy infrastructure required to maintain the oil production in the Oil Sands operation at minimum cost. Previous studies in this area have focused on the energy infrastructure for fixed energy demands, i.e., the production schemes that produce synthetic crude oil (SCO) and commercial diluted bitumen remained fixed in the optimal infrastructure calculation. The key novelty of this work is that the model searches simultaneously for the most suitable set of oil production schemes and the corresponding energy infrastructures that satisfy the total production demands under environmental constraints, i.e., CO2 emissions targets. The proposed modeling tool was validated using historical data and previous simulations studies for the Oil Sands operation in 2003. Likewise, the proposed model was used to study the 2020 Oil Sands operations under three different production scenarios. Also, the 2020 case study was used to show the effect of CO2 capture constraints on the oil production schemes and the energy producers. The results show that the proposed model is a practical tool to determine the production costs for the Oil Sands operations, evaluate future production schemes and energy demands scenarios, and identify the key parameters that affect the Oil Sands operation