In 2012, Larry Shultz, Glenn McGinnis and George Hawranik of SRS International (oil extraction systems) accomplished what no one else in the world has been able to do in the global oil industry:
- Demonstrate large-scale, multi-ton processing of bitumen-rich Tar Sands and Oil Sands without using any water nor creating any toxic Canadian oil sands-like tailing ponds.
Using our customized solvent and process equipment, we extracted >99% of the bitumen from the Tar/Oil Sands with the by-products of: (1) cleaned sand (free of hydrocarbon-contaminants) and (2) recovered solvent (to be re-used in the continuous-flow cycle).
Our bitumen-extraction technology was conceived and co-developed with chemical engineer and oil refinery expert Glenn McGinnis (pictured with sun-hat, above) and George Hawranik and his solvent recovery experts at SRS International.
Glenn McGinnis has four decades of senior management experience designing, building, operating and managing large and complex billion-dollar oil refineries in the USA, Canada and the Caribbean.
Glenn managed the 185,000 barrel per day Orion Refining facility in Louisiana and the 300,000 barrel per day El Paso Corp refinery in Aruba bought by Valero and was CEO of TransAmerican Refining’s Norco, Louisiana facility.
Glenn brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise in refining technologies to the improvement and optimization of our chemical solvent and extraction process – and under his management, we succeeded!
Assisted by George Hawranik of SRS International, whose company built the mobile bitumen extraction and solvent-recovery demonstration unit – Glenn McGinnis tweaked the solvent and process equipment until the bitumen was cleanly extracted from different kinds of Tar Sands and Oil Sand ores to the satisfaction of our sponsors, and the frustration of our skeptics (whose false narratives have been repeatedly refuted by our test results).
As a result of accomplishing what some people in the tar sands business consider to be a historic achievement – the water-less extraction of bitumen from tar sands using a chemical solvent – we entered into a License Agreement with a major tar sands property owner.
According to its licensees, the SRS/McGinnis/Shultz-developed bitumen-extraction technology achieved these test results: (click here to see results)
- Virtually all of the bitumen (>99%) was separated from the sand, leaving the sand “oil” free.
- The sand product contained less than 2 ppm of solvent residue and presents no environmental liability and can be returned to the mine site or sold as hydraulic fracturing proppand-sand
- The compositional characteristics of the bitumen were not altered by the process; therefore, the bitumen will be suitable for upgrading and refining to saleable products by conventional refining technology.
- Solvent losses to the bitumen product were also insignificant. Consequently, because the solvent is recovered and re-used with minimal loss in a closed loop system, make-up solvent costs are minimal.
- The composition and properties of the solvent recovered by the process were not altered by the process; therefore, the solvent can be recovered and re-used through the process without further conditioning or processing.”
While I had previously attempted to pursue the Tar Sands and Oil Sands bitumen-extraction business with previous partners, third-party solvent providers and marketers — personality conflicts between these principals created a dysfunctional and hostile work environment that ultimately got cured by all the parties voluntarily terminating their alliance and going their separate ways, each side taking back what they had brought to the table.
My decision to make a clean break – in order to get back 100% of my intellectual property rights, web domains and bitumen-extraction business plans and spreadsheets — proved to be the best decision, because while everyone else eventually quit the effort or failed – I kept working and persevered to develop various effective solvent-based oil extraction solutions.
Despite competitors trying to harm our reputations and prevent us from succeeding — our hard work paid off with successful demonstrations of our technology to a major international oil company and license of our technology to one of the largest private tar sands property owners in America.
Now I can concentrate on Enhanced Oil Recovery technologies to reduce the cost of oil extraction, so that it can be profitable even in a low-priced oil market.