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In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Publication history
Received February 27, 2025
Revised March 10, 2025
Accepted April 15, 2025
Available online August 25, 2025
articles This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Economic Analysis of Commercial Scale Central Processing Facility for ES-SAGD Oilsand Plant

Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyeong University 1Department of Environmental Research, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology 2Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chonnam National University
hsbyun@jnu.ac.kr
Korean Chemical Engineering Research, August 2025, 63(3), 105127
https://doi.org/10.9713/kcer.2025.63.3.105127
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Abstract

Due to its limited oil reserves, it produces both conventional and unconventional oil. Oil sands development,

which represents a significant portion of unconventional oil, is actively pursued. As a result, there is increasing interest

in economic evaluation, particularly in the calculation of investment costs. In this study, the ES-SAGD central processing

facility process system, which involves the injection of steam and hydrocarbon solvent, was modeled using HYSYS.

The heat and mass balance were calculated for production capacities of 625, 1250, 2500, 5000, 10000, 20000, and

40000 BPD. Using this data, the total investment cost and total operating cost were estimated with APEA, an economic

analysis tool. As production capacity increased, all costs, including utility and equipment costs, showed an overall increase.

While the total investment cost rose proportionally, the increase in total operating costs slowed down. By comparing the

results of these process simulations with those calculated using the 6/10 factor rule from the rough estimation technique,

the effectiveness of the rough estimation method was validated.

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