Karl Clark (chemist), Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetKarl Clark (chemist)
Canadian chemist
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Georgetown, Ontario, Canada
About Karl Clark (chemist)
- Karl Adolf Clark (20 October 1888, Georgetown, Ontario – 7 December 1966, Victoria, British Columbia) was a chemist and oil sand researcher.
- He is best known for perfecting a process that uses hot water and reagents to separate bitumen from oil sands.Clark earned Bachelor's and master's degrees from McMaster University before obtaining a Doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Illinois.
- He began work at the Geological Survey of Canada in 1915, where he became interested in oil sands.
- In 1920 he moved to Edmonton and joined the University of Alberta and a forerunner of the Alberta Research Council, where be began experimenting with separating bitumen from the Athabasca oil sands, a large oil sand deposit in northeastern Alberta.Dr.
- Clark built a prototype separation plant in the basement of the university's power plant, followed by a larger plant on the outskirts of Edmonton, and in 1929 the Alberta Research Council patented the process that he had developed.
- Later testing was done on the outskirts of Fort McMurray near Waterways, and farther north at Bitumount.Dr.
- Clark retired from the Department of Mining Engineering at the University of Alberta in 1954 but continued to provided advice to the developing oil sands industry.
- In 1958 he signed a formal retainer with the Great Canadian Oil Sands consortium, which eventually became a major asset for Suncor.
- He continued to do research at the Alberta Research Council until 1963.
- He died of cancer on December 7, 1966, in Victoria, British Columbia.
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