Mining Canadian Tar Sands with Siemens Energy & Automation

As the United States focuses on becoming less dependent on imported crude oil, mining has turned to the Athabaska Tar Sands near  Ft. McMurray, Alberta, Canada. The Tar Sands region, located in this northeast corner of Alberta, is tough on the surface with average yearly temperatures of 0°C and routine winter lows below -40°C.

But tucked away under the frozen soil of this arctic region lie more confirmed crude oil reserves than in Saudi Arabia.

Tar sand is a mixture of oil and sand lying just beneath the surface of the earth. Over 100 million years ago, the Albian Sea moved over the McMurray sands, leaving behind a blanket of marine shale, which trapped the hydrocarbons, the very resource being mined today.

Natives found this sticky substance useful hundreds of years ago and used it to waterproof their canoes.  Today, the tar sand is used to produce synthetic crude oil and other oil products.  The mineral is removed from the earth using large electric shovels and haul trucks.  The tarry earth is almost alive, as it moves in waves under the extreme weight of these massive machines.  In the refineries, the tar sand is mixed with warm water to separate the oil, called "bitumen," from the sand.  The bitumen is further refined to produce high quality synthetic crude oils.

Siemens technology moves and supports much of the heavy machinery involved in the mining of this natural resource. Currently, at Albian Sands’ Muskeg River Mine, Bucyrus International 495HF (High Floatation) electric mining shovels are used to load Euclid-Hitachi 4500 haul trucks.

The Bucyrus shovels at Albian Sands utilize a highly-reliable Siemens IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) AC drive system. IGBTs are used as main switching devices in the power section, and a SiBAS® (Siemens Bahn Automation System) provides control, regulation, and protection of the shovel.

The system also features an innovative HMI maintenance station, which allows service personnel to use intuitive “active logic” screens to pinpoint and solve any problem quickly. And, with online documentation, the service technician can always get troubleshooting information at the touch of a button.

An exciting new feature is the  SiRAS® remote access system. Now operating at several mine sites throughout the world, SiRAS allows qualified users to log onto the machine from their office, their home, or from wherever they have access to the internet. In addition to SiRAS, Albian Sands also uses the Siemens MIDAS (Monitoring, Interaction, Diagnostics, Analysis, and Service) system.  The monitoring service records the vital information on the machine at all times.  This data can be reviewed in its entirety, or the shift summary can be used to determine the average swing angles, tons per truck, etc. to optimize production.

The Interaction service allows field service engineers or design engineers from the factory to log onto the machine, monitor and modify the software, just as if they were on the machine. The Diagnostic service records the daily statistics from the machine and makes them available back at the office. The Analysis service takes the diagnostic information and uses proprietary analysis software to predict imminent failures and/or alert the field personnel that a problem exists. Service covers the normal system maintenance functions.

The combination of these technologies puts Siemens in a unique position to participate in a maintenance and repair contract with the mine, guaranteeing 98% electrical availability. Siemens is  committed to working with the OEMs and Albian Sands to maximize reliability, up-time, and productivity of both the trucks and the shovels.