Canada tries out bitumen 'road apples'

A novel way of transporting bitumen could help overcome Canada’s export pipeline shortage

Backers of the planned new method of transportation hope it will chime with lovers of the country's national sport. In ice-hockey-mad Canada, children call frozen pieces of horse manure "road apples", used as an erstwhile substitute for hockey pucks when none are in supply. It is wryly symbolic that the Canadian National Railway (CN) is embarking on a C$15mn ($11.3mn) pilot plan to solidify bitumen into a similar puck-like form to facilitate transport by rail. The company aims to encase thick and gooey heavy oil in a biodegradable polymer-recycled plastic grocery bags essentially-it calls Canapux, a bitumen pellet that can easily be transported by rail without the need for pipelines. The co