Oil sand contains bitumen, which includes a high percentage of sulfur. Before using bitumen as a fuel, it must be recovered from oil sand and desulfurized. Currently, bitumen is recovered from oil sand using hot water (<100 °C), and sulfur is removed via hydrodesulfurization (>300 °C). Both of these processes consume significant amounts of energy. In this study, we demonstrate the simultaneous recovery and desulfurization of bitumen from oil sand using oxidative desulfurization with ultrasonic irradiation and tetrahydrofuran at 20 °C. We successfully recovered 88% of the bitumen from oil sand and removed 42% of the sulfur from the bitumen.

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Bitumen recovery and desulfurization from oil sand require high temperatures; low-temperature methods are desired to reduce energy consumption. We studied a process for the simultaneous recovery and desulfurization of bitumen in oil sand using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), tetrahydrofuran (THF), and ultrasonic irradiation at 45 °C. THF reduces bitumen viscosity and it makes easy to separate bitumen from oil sand using ultrasound. The optimized conditions for simultaneous bitumen separation and desulfurization from oil sand using oxidant and ultrasound are 15 ml THF, 3 wt% H2O2, and 60 min ultrasonic irradiation after NaOH addition, resulting in 86% desulfurization ratio, 0.88 purity, and 93% recovery ratio.

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