Upgrading is the process of converting raw bitumen into streams of high value products like diesel, kerosene, gas-oil, naphtha and crude oil.
While there are several different ways for oil sands producers to perform upgrading, the process can be broken down into three distinct components: initial recovery, primary upgrading, and secondary upgrading. The initial recovery step of the upgrading process is designed to remove as much of the non-bitumen products from the process stream as possible. The recovered products are then sent to secondary upgrading while the residual bitumen stream is sent to primary upgrading for further processing.
