be selected from the group consisting of ethoxylated nonyl phenol sodium stearate sodium dodecyl sulfate sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate lauralamine hydrochloride trimethyl dodecylammonium chloride cetyl trimethylammonium chloride polyoxyethylene alcohol alkyphenolethoxylate polysorbate 80 propylene oxide modified polymethylsiloxane dodecyl betaine lauramidopropyl betaine cocoamido 2 hydroxy propyl sulfobetaine alkyl aryl sulfonate fluorosurfactants and perfluoropolymers and terpolymers and castor bean adducts water phase 24 also contains nanoparticles 26 which increase the force to disjoin bitumen 22 from surface 20 this leads to more rapid recovery of bitumen from the tar sand nanoparticles 26 may have a size from about 8 nm to about 100 nm a preferred nanoparticle dispersion for the fluid is an aqueous dispersion of 8 0 to 15 0 nm silicon dioxide particles and an anionic charged wetting agent mixed in the water carrying the nanoparticles at 0 1 2 0 by weight which is preferably an anionic surfactant from the group described above at a ph in the range from about 6 to 8 the percentage of nanoparticles in the dispersion preferably ranges between approximately 5 and approximately 30 by weight in the water surfactant mixture a variety of tests were performed to measure the increased removal of bitumen in the presence of wetting agent and nanoparticles the wetting agent was ss 1000 a product of frac tech services which is a nonionic surfactant blend such as disclosed in u s pat pub no 2010 0096939 the nanoparticles were nalco 1130 nalco chemical which are silica particles having an average size of 19 nm grains of tar sand containing bitumen from athabasca tar sand were placed in a.