ABSTRACT
REFERENCES Abraham, H. 1945. Asphalts and Allied Substances. Van Nostrand, New York. ASTM D-4. Test Method for Bitumen Content Annual Book of Standards. American Society for
PA. Hoiberg. A. J. 1964. Bituminous Materials: Asphalts. Tars, and Pitches. Wiley, New York. lTAA. 1936. Income Tax Assessment Act. Government of the Commonwealth of Australia. Koots, J. A., and Speight, J. G. 1975. Fuel 54:179. Lee, S. 1991. Oil Shale Technology. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. Mitchell, D. L., and Speight. J. G. 1973. Fuel 52:149. Pfeiffer, J. H. 1950. The Properties of Asphaltic Bitumen. Elsevier, Amsterdam. Scouten, C. S. 1990. In Fuel Science and Technology Handbook. J. G. Speight, ed. Marcel Dekker,
Kaliaguine and A. Mahay (eds.) Elsevier, Amsterdam. p. 515. Speight, J. G. ed., 1990. Fuel Science and Technology Handbook. Marcel Dekker, New York. Speight. J. G. 1994. The Chemistry and Technology of Coal. 2nd ed. Marcel Dekker, New York. Speight, J. G. 1995. Asphalt. In: Encyclopedia of Energy and the Environment. A Bisio and S. Boots
1" INTRODUCTION Fossil fuels are those fuels--coal, petroleum (including heavy oil), bitumen, natural gas, and shale oil-produced by the decay of plant remains over geological time (Speight, 1990, 1999). They are carbon-based and represent a vast source of energy. Resources such as bitumen in tar sand formations represent an unrealized potential, with the amounts of liquid fuels from petroleum being only a fraction as great as those that could ultimately be produced from tar sand bitumen.
