Athabasca oil sand on degassing in vacua releases gases volatile at -78°C which are composed of neopentane, methane, acetaldehyde, propane and propylene. At elevated temperature, 70-21O"C, additional quantities of these materials are produced by thermo-Iysis along with other C2-C5 hydrocarbons, CO2, CO, H$S, COS, CS2 and SO2. The activation energies of product formations were determined: they all have unusually low values, pointing to a catalytic effect of the mineral matter present. These results clearly suggest a thermal rather than a microbial origin for the volatile materials present in the oil-sand formations. The separated asphaltene and maltene yield similar products but with considerably higher activation energies. If the values obtained are representative of the entire formation then the amounts (on bitumen reserves of 1Ol2 bbl) of neopentane and methane produced are 2.1 x 1 O6 and 1.05 x 1 O4 tpa, respectively.
Oil Sand Co. Ltd. and the Mildred Lake quarry of Syncrude of Canada Ltd containing 16.4 wt % organic matter and 1.2% moisture were stored in sealed plastic bags at 0°C to prevent oxidation and loss of moisture.
Samples from the two different sources produced the same results within experimental error