Green Car Congress: SONIC to Acquire Cold Cracking Process for Heavy Oil Upgrading

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SONIC to Acquire Cold Cracking Process for Heavy Oil Upgrading

28 April 2008

SONIC Technology Solutions Inc. will acquire Northern Oil Research Technologies Inc. (NORT), an Alberta-based oil process development company that developed and patented a low-pressure and temperature (cold cracking) chemical process for upgrading heavy crude oil (or bitumen) and is developing further processes to maximize the value from asphaltenes.

SONIC has already demonstrated and patented a Sonoprocess which uses sonic energy to accelerate and improve de-asphalting. The NORT acquisition is part of strategy to realign the Company towards the energy sector with a particular emphasis on heavy oil and oil sands in North America.

The basic Sonoprocess enables heavy oil producers to improve the viscosity and API (American Petroleum Institute gravity) of heavy oil in upstream and midstream processes without the need to blend with lighter oils. SONIC’s process is energy-efficient relative to conventional refining. Under SONIC’s collaboration agreement, PetroSonic holds an option to licence its heavy oil Sonoprocess.

NORT’s patented chemistry has demonstrated increases in the API of heavy oil from 10 to more than 28 API as well as significant reductions in sulfur content while maintaining a high liquid yield and minimizing CO₂ production. The performance of the NORT process was confirmed in analysis by the Alberta Research Council in Edmonton, Alberta.

SONIC says that the cold cracking NORT process will enable it to fully exploit the work that it has undertaken with PetroSonic Energy Systems Inc. on accelerated upgrading of heavy oil. SONIC believes that the NORT process is scalable to 2,500 barrels per day by use of PetroSonic’s compact accelerated process, according to SONIC.

The NORT solvent extraction process uses a proprietary biochemical oxidation chemistry to upgrade heavy oil. The two-stage process partially de-asphalts before electrophilic oxidation of sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds. By utilizing agriculturally produced chemicals, and with low energy requirements, SONIC expects the commercial process to have a relatively small carbon footprint.

In 2007, SONIC’s wholly-owned subsidiary SonoOil Inc. entered into an agreement with Shell Canada Energy, under which Shell and SonoOil are working together to develop oil sand extraction process innovations.

The project and any intellectual property created will be owned by Sonic and Shell Canada. This was the first collaboration and development project for SonoOil Inc., which was established and licensed specifically to apply SONIC’s technologies in the oil sands industry.

World heavy oil deposits are now greater than the remaining reserves of conventional oil (Schlumberger data shows that 70% of world oil reserves consist of heavy and extra heavy oil such as oil sand bitumen). Heavy oil production has expanded to more than 5 million barrels per day.

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