Optimized transportation of bitumen, a case study for Nigeria

Nigeria meets the bulk of her bitumen demand through importation despite her vast raw deposits. The country is now looking towards its local production by harnessing these vast deposits to change this narrative. The exploration of her abundant deposits of bitumen will however require high-temperature sustenance capable pipelines to ensure uninterrupted flow. Hitherto, this is not a challenge with the transportation of her light crude due to the favorable ambient temperature greater than 25 °C. The solution lies in either with heated pipelines or an optimized insulated pipeline at an extra cost. The goal of this study is to determine a cost estimate for Agbabu Nigeria bitumen transportation. The optimum thickness of pipeline insulation is determined numerically using COMSOL Multiphysics Version 5.5 software heat transfer – pipe flow module. The pipeline span of 150 km with a flow rate of 5 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MMTPA) and needs to be maintained at 68 °C. The calculated cost of insulation is compared with existing data of a heated pipeline. The optimized insulation thickness for the bitumen average flow temperature of 68 °C through the pipe subjected to an ambient temperature of 25 °C is 0.105 m. The transportation of a barrel of bitumen will cost USD 1.25 for an optimized insulation pipeline and USD 1.44 for a heated pipeline. This study provides a decision base for an economical means of transporting the country’s vast bitumen resources.