Orimulsion facts for kids

Orimulsion is a special type of fuel made from a thick, tar-like substance called bitumen. It was created for use in factories and power plants by a company in Venezuela called Intevep, which is part of PDVSA. Think of it as a unique kind of oil that's been made easier to use.

Where Does Bitumen Come From?

Just like coal and regular oil, bitumen is found naturally deep underground. The biggest supply of bitumen in the world is in a place called the Orinoco Belt in Venezuela. This area holds an enormous amount of bitumen, estimated to be more than 1,300 billion barrels. That's about as much as all the proven oil reserves in the world!

How Orimulsion Is Made

Raw bitumen is very thick and heavy, almost like cold tar. This makes it hard to use directly in power stations. To turn it into Orimulsion, the bitumen is mixed with about 30% fresh water and a small amount of a special soap-like chemical called a surfactant. This mixture then flows much more easily, similar to regular fuel oil. In the past, a different type of surfactant was used, but now an alcohol-based one is preferred because it's safer and helps the fuel move better.

Good Things About Orimulsion

Orimulsion has several good qualities that make it useful for generating electricity:

• There are huge amounts of bitumen available, so we won't run out quickly.
• It's usually priced to be similar to coal, making it an affordable option.
• It's relatively safe and easy to make, move, handle, and store.
• It catches fire easily and burns well.
• Power plants designed for coal or heavy fuel oil can be changed to use Orimulsion without too much trouble.

Challenges with Orimulsion

While burning Orimulsion has similar environmental effects to burning other fuel oils, spills can be more difficult to handle. If Orimulsion spills into water, like from a ship, the mixture can separate. The bitumen then breaks away from the water and sinks or spreads, which can be messy and hard to clean up.

Also, Orimulsion is a special kind of liquid. If its temperature drops below 30 °C (86 °F), it can become very thick, almost like jelly. Once it "sets" like this, it's extremely difficult to pump, and it can stop flowing through pipelines.

Why Its Use Has Changed

Orimulsion has been used in power plants around the world, including in Japan, Italy, and China. Its use was growing, but things changed after a big workers' strike in Venezuela in 2002–2003. Many engineers who supported Orimulsion were let go from PDVSA. Because of this, some important political leaders in Venezuela became less interested in Orimulsion.

As a result, the Venezuelan government has been slowly stopping the Orimulsion program for most countries. However, they continue to sell it to China because Venezuela and China have strong ties.

Another reason for the change is that the price of regular crude oil has gone up. Companies found that mixing the thick Orinoco bitumen with lighter crude oil makes a more valuable blend to sell on the world market than selling it as Orimulsion. For example, the Merey blend, which mixes Orinoco bitumen with another type of oil, is very popular.

Even with these changes, technology exists to control pollution from burning Orimulsion, keeping emissions at safe levels.

See also

In Spanish: Orimulsión para niños