1 March 2015

The Sherbrooke business Fractal Systems will receive $3.7M from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to reduce bitumen’s environmental footprint.

Fractal Systems has developed a partial upgrading technology – Enhanced JetShear^TM – that can reduce the amount of diluent that must be blended with bitumen by up to 60% before it is transported via pipeline.

It is a unique process that reduces the bitumen viscosity, rather than changing its chemical composition. The result: it is possible to transport the same quantity of the product for less.

The funding allocated by the SD Tech Fund^TM, aims to enhance the technological platform to produce upgraded dilbit, which is free of olefins and has lower acidity levels, two elements that are considered impurities.

Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources recently announced that five other Québec project received a total of $29.5M in funding.

Source: SDTC