Direct Mass Spectrometry of tar sands: A new approach to bitumen identification Cristina Flego a,⇑ , Claudio Carati a , Lucilla Del Gaudio b , Carla Zannoni a a Eni Div. R&M, CHIF, Via Maritano 26, I-20097 S. Donato Milanese (MI), Italy b Eni Div. E&P, Via Maritano 26, I-20097 S. Donato Milanese (MI), Italy highlights  Direct Insertion Probe–Mass Spectrometry analyses bitumen directly from tar sands.  Method applied on real tar sand samples coming from different geological areas.  Peculiar DIP–MS mass profiles are used as fingerprint of tar sand composition.  Information correlated with bitumen properties determined with conventional analyses.  On-field application for fast screening and rough evaluation of tar sand fields. article info Article history: Received 23 November 2011 Received in revised form 30 November 2012 Accepted 4 April 2013 Available online 23 April 2013 Keywords: Direct Insertion Probe Mass Spectrometry Tar sand Bitumen characterisation abstract The activities related to the evaluation of the organic fraction of tar sands are acquiring more importance from economical and technical points of view due to the increased variety of sample composition and ori- gin. Conventionally, the analyses of bitumen in tar sands are based on preliminary extraction from the inor- ganic matrix and further characterisation of physical and chemical features by means of different methods. A new approach to characterise the tar sand is now proposed, based on the direct insertion of tar sand into mass spectrometer chamber without any previous separation or treatment and further vaporisation under vacuum at increasing temperature and analysis of its components. DIP–MS (Direct Insertion Probe–Mass Spectrometry) allows separating the bitumen components from the solid inorganic matrix according to their boiling points up to masses of 700 m/z and directly analysing them in one only step, even if they are characterised by high boiling point, high steric hindrance or low solubility, that usually limit their eval- uation by chromatographic methods. This new application of DIP–MS approach is here described on model materials and on a series of real tar sand samples coming from different geological areas. Differences are evidenced among the tar sands on the basis of the evolution of their mass spectra. The information so obtained was compared and confirmed with other analytical techniques that are commonly used for crude oil and bitumen characterisation. This approach is proposed for an on-field application for fast screening of real samples in the perspective to acquire information on the most rel- evant organic species in the bitumen for comparative purposes and rough evaluation of the potentiality of tar sand fields. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The growth in the economy of any country is connected to a strong increase in the energy demand that now combines with declining of conventional oil reserves. The shortage of oil of known petroleum reserves makes more attractive less attended energy re- sources, especially considering that their availability ratio to con- ventional crude oils is 5–1. Processing unconventional or opportunity crudes, i.e. heavy sour crudes, oil sands/bitumen, ex- tra-heavy oil, high-TAN crudes, oil shale, is considered a huge po- tential resource to fulfil energy requirements and the most viable option at a time of rising oil prices and disproportionate demand for light sweet crudes. Among the unconventional crudes, bitumen from tar sand reservoirs appears an appealing fuel. The exploitation of tar sand reservoirs has a historical back- ground in Canada, as in other areas as West Africa is just consid- ered a new opportunity. The activities related to the evaluation of the organic fraction of tar sands consequently acquire more importance from economical and technical points of view due to the increased variety of sample composition and origin. 0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2013.04.010 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0252046678; fax: +39 0252036347. E-mail address: cristina.flego@eni.com (C. Flego). Fuel 111 (2013) 357–366 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Fuel journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel