To "extract bitumen" appears to mean mine tar sands for hydrocarbons.
I expect demand for mined oil to decline to the point where only the absolute cheapest producers of it will be able to stay in business. Extracting from tar sand will be right out.
When we have no need or desire to oxidize mined hydrocarbons for heat, our remaining demand for mined hydrocarbons (e.g. to make into plastic) will surely be less than today. Then, the most easily obtained natural hydrocarbons will be the ones we mine, because we are not wasting them by oxidizing them to CO2, water, and heat.
Unless there is no bitumen dissolved in that readily obtained oil?
It is just possible that hydrocarbons made from gathered and cracked CO2 will end up cheaper than fractions of extracted oil. But I have doubts.
This technology has major applications for hydrogen energy. DME can be converted into Hydrogen at the source of demand using a lightweight portable system that can be outfitted on vehicles and generators. By storing & transporting DME, and then converting to hydrogen on demand, the hydrogen economy can immediately utilize the existing global fossil fuel infrastructure, rather then develop & scale alternative methods of transportation and distribution. Storing DME also circumvents the serious technical & safety challenges inherent in storing hydrogen gas.
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If you're interested, please look at the technical summary website. There are so many advantages to this technology over our existing system that I just can't fit into a brief primer.
http://envirotechdme.com/
We have done laboratory tests, but in order to see real industrial adoption we need to do field demonstrations of the technology in action. We are looking for technically minded investors & industrial partners to help take this tech to the next stage.