UMATAC and the Alberta Taciuk Process

The Alberta Taciuk Process

The Alberta Taciuk Process (ATP) technology is a unique thermal desorption and hydrocarbon cracking system for separating and extracting water and organic substances from host solids. UMATAC Industrial Processes, a division of UMA Engineering Ltd., developed the ATP and supplies it under user license for commercial applications. UMATAC was formed in 1975 to develop the thermal extraction technology that was invented by UMA's Bill Taciuk.

The ATP was developed as a dry, thermal process to produce oil from natural resource oil sands, oil shales and other organics-bearing materials. It is also suitable for treating oil contaminated soils, sludges and wastes in environmental remediation work. Commercial application in the mineable oil field was achieved in 1999 with the Stuart Stage 1 Oil Shale Processing Plant located in Queensland, Australia. This demonstrator project portends expansion at Stuart and development of other ATP-based oil shale projects elsewhere in the world. The 210 tph feed capacity ATP Processor is pictured here.

Commercial application of the ATP was first achieved in 1989 in the environmental remediation of contaminated soils. A UMATAC-supplied ATP plant was used to successfully complete four clean up projects for the United States EPA Superfund Program. The picture below shows the 10 tph capacity ATP plant at one of the Superfund sites. Typical applications in the environmental field include:

• Cleaning and recovering oil from wastes produced in oil field production, operations of oil refineries and petrochemical plant and similar facilities.
• Clean up of soils or other materials which are contaminated with PCBs or other heavy organic compounds, such as coal tars and industrial chemicals.
• Reduction of solid wastes such as plastics and rubber, into usable oils and other hydrocarbon or energy products.
• Processing of used, dirty lubricating oils for recycling and recovery of the oil fraction.

The Process:

In the ATP pyrolysis treatment, organics and water are separated by anaerobic thermal desorption from host solids as vapors. In a second step of the ATP System, these vapors are condensed to liquids (oil and water). When oil sands and oil shales are processed, the recovered oil is the main product. When treating contaminated soils and sludge feeds, the oil fraction is potentially recyclable, depending on the type of contaminant, and the main product is the cleaned solids fraction.

The Processor, a rotating, multi-chambered, horizontal vessel, is depicted:

The ATP System includes sub processes to recover liquid products from the pyrolysis vapors and treat the effluents.

Products and Services:

UMATAC supplies the ATP technology to industrial users under license and also manufactures and supplies the ATP plant equipment. As the developer and supplier of the ATP technology, UMATAC custom designs the Processor and plant equipment to the unique requirements of clients, the feed materials and the intended application.

UMATAC operates a development laboratory that is equipped with small and intermediate scale retort facilities for testing and evaluating potential applications for the ATP System. Larger scale test work is done with UMATAC’s 5 tph Pilot Processor that is located in Calgary.

UMATAC has unique expertise in the technology of thermal pyrolysis using continuous flow, multi-chambered, rotating vessels. Additional expertise includes the use of the ATP technology to process candidate feedstocks, ranging from oil resource materials (oil sand, oil shale) to organically contaminated soils and wastes.