Mass transfer between pentane and heavy hydrocarbons

• Author / Creator

  Sadighian, Ardalan

• The demand for accurate bitumen-pentane mass transfer data was the main motivation behind this research. Difficulties such as complex phase behavior, high viscosity and opacity of the hydrocarbon invariably lead to failure of conventional techniques to measure mass transfer coefficients involving heavy oils. To address this issue, X-ray transmission tomography has been employed for such measurements. The initial set of experiments in this study measured the free mutual diffusion coefficient of pentane-Athabasca/bitumen, as well as pentane-atmospheric residue. In addition, forced mass transfer between pentane and both bitumen and atmospheric residue was studied. Forced mass transfer between pentane and these two heavy oils followed a similar pattern when normalized and the pattern is consistent with prevailing understanding. However, mass transfer rates between pentane and Athabasca atmospheric residue are one order of magnitude smaller than for the corresponding bitumen case. Impacts on the effectiveness of proposed production and refining processes are discussed.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Diffusion
  • Mass transfer
  • Pentane
  • Heavy hyrdocarbons
  • Bitumen

• Graduation date

  Spring 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3DK73

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.