A number of today's technologies produce a bitumen-water emulsion owing to either the recovery process, i.e. in situ extraction, or possibly pipe-lining bitumen to the refinery and using water as a viscosity reducing agent. Can these emulsions be used as a fuel directly and if so what are their combustion and heat transfer properties? A research program was undertaken to compare the combustion of bitumen and several emulsions with heavy fuel oil. It has been shown that the combustion performance of bitumen is not dissimilar to heavy fuel oil and that its performance can be improved when the moisture content is controlled between 10 and 20 wt %. There appeared to be little difference between air and steam as an atomizing medium. It is recommended that close attention be paid to atomizer selection if there is a possibility of the emulsion containing particulate material such as sand. This material can give rise to severe atomizer erosion if wear resistant materials are not utilized.