so, you make pellets. Then you have to mix them with some "light" oil produced during the production of pellets.
So you still have to transport them together.
I cannot really understand how this is better than carrying oil directly.
They mention using the byproduct oil to reconstitute the pellets, but that oil could come from another source. I would picture a system where the pellets are shipped from alberta to houston etc., and the light oil produced by the process is used as fuel within alberta or transported to local refineries by smaller pipeline or train/truck. The balls would be reconstituted using oil available at the houston refinery, or using oil produced at that refinery in the oil upgrading process.
not really, the bit where it mentions that you also need the oil byproduct to reconstitute the heavy oil is at the end of the article, while the mention of "easy to clean" is at the beginning, and (seems to?) only pertains to the pellets.
I cannot really understand how this is better than carrying oil directly.