Upgrading

Bitumen is one of the heaviest forms of hydrocarbon.

Through upgrading, Syncrude converts bitumen into hydrocarbon streams – Naphtha, Light Gas Oil (LGO) and Heavy Gas Oil (HGO) – that are blended to create our high quality, light, low sulphur crude oil known as Syncrude Crude Oil. There are two basic steps to this upgrading process: Primary Upgrading and Secondary Upgrading.

Primary Upgrading

In Primary Upgrading, the process begins with diluted bitumen fed into the Diluent Recovery Units where water is removed and naphtha is recovered to be recycled through Extraction.

The resulting dry bitumen is fed to the cokers, the LC-Finer and the Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) for further processing.

• LGO and HGO are distilled off in the VDU and sent to hydrotreaters. The remaining bitumen is sent to the LC-Finer and cokers.
• LGO and HGO are formed in the LC-Finer, through the use of a catalyst to add hydrogen, and sent to hydrotreaters. The remaining bitumen is sent to the cokers.
• Naphtha, LGO, HGO are produced in the cokers, through chemical reaction using hot coke, and sent to hydrotreaters. 

Secondary Upgrading

Secondary Upgrading is where the impurities such as sulphur and nitrogen are removed from the naphtha, LGO and HGO. The treated gas oils and naphtha are then blended together forming Syncrude Crude Oil and shipped to downstream refineries.