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发表于 2007-5-7 17:37
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以下是Edmonton Journal去年对老顾的采访
Edmonton, Alta.: Aug 28, 2006. pg. A.16.FR
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People: Gu, Guoxing, Bilhete, Clint & q& m% M6 F, p, n6 N" S6 {
Author(s): Gordon Jaremko 4 P) t7 C, v# K: |9 d+ Q
Document types: Business; Column
9 C$ W: E3 M _; R: q. {5 c! A* [Column Name: Energy 6 ^2 [; {: @. j! C! a1 v1 w* r# I
Section: Business
! S1 A- D2 \" v8 ~; n+ kPublication title: Edmonton Journal. Edmonton, Alta.: Aug 28, 2006. pg. A.16.FR 6 a' H6 o+ H9 J$ J4 L
Source type: Newspaper - _3 u2 }; U7 g+ C b; d4 s
ProQuest document ID: 1116274771
$ e# V; n: \- LText Word Count 794
- T( {: b; |- E7 x: iDocument URL: http://proquest.umi.com.login.ez ... T=309&VName=PQD 4 W% g' A1 X2 b8 _
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Abstract (Document Summary)
& {2 X" a& a; z: ~Xinjiang means "new frontier," and ethnic Chinese are settlers in the region. [Guoxing Gu] showed his breeding among counterparts to Western Canadian pioneers when he bumped into an Edmonton entrepreneur, Clint Bilhete, who took an oil sample to a U of A lab for analysis.! `/ p- c' F0 a9 L- W/ u. \
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The sample he showed Gu was premium crude, not the molasses-like tar which is the initial oilsands product. Bilhete aroused the engineer's interest with a claim to have extracted the good stuff with a new process.
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4 ~. v( z2 i! h- A8 c, l# fA look at Bilhete's invention convinced Gu the Edmonton entrepreneur was onto something. With partners including a local lawyer and a retired city police officer, they formed an industrial counterpart to a garage band called Material Processing Canada Inc.
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0 k, n5 V9 k8 x' y/ J0 C6 a( e# u3 T7 J" R Full Text (794 words) : b% a9 _) [8 Q; w% Y: v6 u2 S
(Copyright Edmonton Journal 2006)
8 k: K( i7 ?& h4 U( H7 l9 fGuoxing Gu's expertise tapped by local innovator developing machine to extract oil from oilsands2 ^: V% q. H) y$ c
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Not all of the Chinese interest in Alberta oil comes from state- controlled corporate giants working on global supply strategies for the People's Republic.
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0 ^! s- @3 B% u: Q2 {0 U2 z: a2 fEnter Guoxing Gu. He packs a Ph.D. in engineering. But he freely admits in an interview he had no idea the oilsands were the world's second-biggest black gold deposit after Saudi Arabia's fabled reserves before he reached Edmonton nine years ago.
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. C8 R' }; q0 ]He hails from Xinjiang, China's wild west of nomads, warriors and explorers from Mongols and Marco Polo to Asian wildcat drillers who lately added oil to the region's customary staples of grapes, melons, cotton, wheat, silk, walnuts and sheep.; |, V/ m, b0 o5 \
4 K {6 Q* a0 B% I" E sHis hometown of Urumqi is not far from the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility, a desert spot 2,648 kilometres from the nearest coastline that was not reached by a geographical expedition until 1986.
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Although Gu did not know it, his engineering specialty in colloids, or solids suspended in fluids, made him a candidate for oilsands work when he felt a yen for wider horizons while working in a Beijing petroleum institute.
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When he shopped around his international professional network, his experience separating sand from Chinese crude led to assignments with an oilsands research team financed by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He also added a senior role with an Edmonton consulting firm.
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Xinjiang means "new frontier," and ethnic Chinese are settlers in the region. Gu showed his breeding among counterparts to Western Canadian pioneers when he bumped into an Edmonton entrepreneur, Clint Bilhete, who took an oil sample to a U of A lab for analysis.
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The sample came from experiments with Utah oil shale, a rock variation on Alberta's bitumen deposits. The stuff attracted Bilhete as a member of an Edmonton mining family with roots in Portugal.
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The family has a history in minerals from gold to montmorillonite, a mineral-rich clay that absorbs water and sells in dry crushed forms under a variety of names for uses from kitty litter to oil rig drilling mud. P: ?0 F/ W6 U
, `4 G1 T! d' L( w- `' [Bilhete's private Camrose Mining firm markets modest Utah production of the valuable earth as a cleaning agent and farm or garden soil additive under the name mazorite.
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The sample he showed Gu was premium crude, not the molasses-like tar which is the initial oilsands product. Bilhete aroused the engineer's interest with a claim to have extracted the good stuff with a new process.
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A look at Bilhete's invention convinced Gu the Edmonton entrepreneur was onto something. With partners including a local lawyer and a retired city police officer, they formed an industrial counterpart to a garage band called Material Processing Canada Inc.; U6 A4 G( ~% ]% \9 X5 O
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After three years of experiments with machines of increasing size, the crew has a portable "indirect thermal processing system" in a northwest Edmonton industrial district garage and ready to go out for field trials.
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The system uses rotation, heat, pressure and a condenser to separate oil, water and sand from donated samples of storage tank sludge.
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See JAREMKO / A17
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The next step, now in the works, is persuading a refinery to give the firm an industry audition by letting it set up the equipment for extended production tests.. ^3 h3 Y+ h3 U" L
/ u' P( |/ n# }: U- m1 iAs a step on the way to large-scale oilsands or oil-shale processing, just skimming crude out of plant waste is potentially a substantial business. On average, refineries generate about 3.2 kilograms of currently unusable oil, sand and water sludge for every tonne or eight barrels of crude processed.
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Bilhete said he realizes it will not be easy to break into an industry renowned for realism, skepticism of outsiders, and caution about adopting new ideas for handling hazardous materials.: o% n9 u- p1 o2 e
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"There are many, many people that think there's no way this will run," he admitted.
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7 u0 H5 r h0 w% u4 N ]* mBut the firm stands out as a testament to the stature and lustre acquired by the oilsands since Gu earned international professional credentials without having to learn about the Alberta resource.' p4 A0 A) K2 J6 f
0 k8 E, _5 I5 j9 @* ~' M2 p3 f7 a& Y9 BThe engineer vowed to build the next stage in his career on adding the invention to the industry arsenal of processing and refining equipment.
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For Bilhete, breaking into the black gold business has become personal. "I've used all my own money on this -- everything I've ever saved," he said.# T/ M- S- b$ X1 t2 {+ ]' Z
" U* P/ r9 v3 H: s r"I've put everything into this. I have a belief that when you begin something you go to the end, no matter what," the Edmonton entrepreneur said.
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- P7 o0 V; S* k5 g4 H% U, f"I won't stop. I'll sell everything I have. I have so much confidence in my machine I will go all the way."
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gjaremko@thejournal.canwest.com
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8 O( t: d# Q/ c& U, g' Z9 C[Illustration] ; k9 B& k% Y! A9 w' i+ h! D& C7 {
Photo: Rick MacWilliam, the Journal / Clint Bilhete, left, and Guoxing Gu with their homemade material-processing unit. The system uses rotation, heat, pressure and a condenser to separate oil, water and sand. |
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