An upgrader is a facility that upgrades bitumen (extra heavy oil) into synthetic crude

Synthetic crude

Synthetic crude is the output from a bitumen/extra heavy oil upgrader facility used in connection with oil sand production. It may also refer to shale oil, an output from an oil shale pyrolysis. The properties of the synthetic crude depend on the processes used in the upgrading. Typically, it is...

 oil. Upgrader plants are typically located close to oil sands production, for example, the Athabasca oil sands

Athabasca Oil Sands

The Athabasca oil sands are large deposits of bitumen, or extremely heavy crude oil, located in northeastern Alberta, Canada - roughly centred on the boomtown of Fort McMurray...

 in Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 or the Orinoco tar sands in Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

.

Processes

Upgrading means using fractional distillation and/or chemical treatment to convert bitumen so it can be handled by oil refineries. This means at least reducing its viscosity so that it can be pumped through pipelines (bitumen is 1000x more viscous than light crude oil), and often separating out heavy fractions and reducing sulfur, nitrogen and metals like nickel and vanadium.

Upgrading may involve multiple processes:

• Vacuum distillation
  Vacuum distillation
  Vacuum distillation is a method of distillation whereby the pressure above the liquid mixture to be distilled is reduced to less than its vapor pressure causing evaporation of the most volatile liquid...
  
   to separate lighter fractions, leaving behind a residue with molecular weights over 400.

• De-asphalting
  De-asphalter
  A de-asphalter is a unit in a crude oil refinery or bitumen upgrader that separates asphalt from crude oil or bitumen.The de-asphalter unit is usually placed after the vacuum distillation tower. It is usually a solvent de-asphalter unit, SDA. The SDA separates the asphalt from the feedstock because...
  
   the vacuum distillation residue to remove the highest molecular weight alicyclic compounds, which precipitate as black/brown asphaltenes when the mixture is dissolved in C₃–C₇ alkanes
  Alkane
  Alkanes are chemical compounds that consist only of hydrogen and carbon atoms and are bonded exclusively by single bonds without any cycles...
  
  , leaving "de-asphalted oil" (DAO) in solution. A mixture of propane and butane will remove metallic compounds that would interfere with hydrotreating.

• Cracking
  Cracking (chemistry)
  In petroleum geology and chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or heavy hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking of carbon-carbon bonds in the precursors. The rate of cracking and the end products...
  
   to break long chain molecules in the DAO into shorter ones.

• Hydrotreating
  Hydrodesulfurization
  Hydrodesulfurization is a catalytic chemical process widely used to remove sulfur from natural gas and from refined petroleum products such as gasoline or petrol, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel fuel, and fuel oils...
  
   may also be employed to remove sulfur and reduce the level of nitrogen.

Research into using Biotechnology

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

 to perform some of these processes at lower temperatures and cost is ongoing.

See also

• Canadian Centre for Energy Information
  Canadian Centre for Energy Information
  The Canadian Centre for Energy Information is a non-profit organization created in 2002 to meet an urgent need for information on all aspects of the Canadian energy system from oil, natural gas, coal, thermal, and hydroelectric power through to nuclear, solar, wind, and other sources of energy...
  
  
• History of the petroleum industry in Canada (oil sands and heavy oil)
  History of the petroleum industry in Canada (oil sands and heavy oil)
  Canada's oil sands and heavy oil resources are among the world's great petroleum deposits. They include the vast oil sands of northern Alberta, and the heavy oil reservoirs that surround the small city of Lloydminster, which sits on the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan...
  
  
• Scotford Upgrader
  Scotford Upgrader
  The Shell Scotford Upgrader is an oilsand upgrader, a facility which processes crude bitumen from oil sands into a wide range of synthetic crude oils. The upgrader is owned by Athabasca Oil Sands Project , a joint venture of Shell Canada Energy , Marathon Oil Sands L.P. and Chevron Canada Limited...
  
  
• Syncrude
  Syncrude
  Syncrude Canada Ltd. is the world's largest producer of synthetic crude oil from oil sands and the largest single source producer in Canada. It is located just outside Fort McMurray in the Athabasca Oil Sands, and has a nameplate capacity of of oil, equivalent to about 13% of Canada's consumption...
  
  
• Suncor
• Visbreaker
  Visbreaker
  A visbreaker is a processing unit in oil refinery whose purpose is to reduce the quantity of residual oil produced in the distillation of crude oil and to increase the yield of more valuable middle distillates by the refinery...