INDUSTRY
Hydrocarbons, Materials and Metals
STAGE
Pre-construction
COMMODITY
Hydrocarbons, Critical Minerals
LOCATION
Alberta, Canada
KEY TERMS
To be negotiated as part of a commercial agreement
CVW Sustainable Royalties’ Proprietary Technology
Oil Sands Tailings Remediation
The Creating Value From Waste™ (CVW™) technology can reprocess froth treatment tailings from oil sands mining operations to recover hydrocarbons, critical minerals, and water, while reducing fugitive methane and VOC emissions, providing operating cost savings and enhancing tailings management.
CVW Sustainable Royalties is the 100% owner of CVW™ and has invested over $100 million and 20 years to develop its technology to the advanced stage of Technology Readiness Level 8 (TRL-8). Development of CVW™ has been supported by 20 active patents, large scale integrated piloting and progressive commercial engineering (FEED) studies.
CVW™ can significantly improve water quality for value-added re-use applications, contributing to a reduction in freshwater use intensity of over 15%. This “shovel-ready” process could reduce volumes by up to 11%, and could produce “ready-to-reclaim” tailings to meet the Alberta Energy Regulator’s Directive 085 standards. This would be a step change in tailings management and allow for progressive remediation.
CVW™ provides significant economic, environmental, and operational benefits
A CVW™ implementation at a single oil sands mining site could provide the following benefits on an annual basis:
Economic Benefits
- Bitumen: ~1.9 ММbbl
- Solvent: ~328 ММbbl
- Zircon Concentrate: 73 kT
- Titanium Concentrate: 170 kT
Environmental Benefits
- CO2e Emissions Abatement: 380-850 kT
- Heat Integration: ~1.9M GJ
- H20 Use Reduction: ~2.8M m3
- Land Use Reductions: 19 H
Operational Benefits
- Eliminates use of tailings ponds for froth treatment tailings
- Tailings Rehandling Reductions: ~1.5 Mt
- Pyrite Mitigation and NORMs Removal
CVW™ standard processes recover over 85% of bitumen and 91% of the solvent currently lost to froth treatment tailings. Through an industry-wide deployment, CVW™ has the potential to reduce Canada’s emissions by between 0.5%-1%, and supply 8% and 15% of the global demand for titanium and zircon respectively.