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Role of Bitumen Viscosity in Bitumen Recovery from Athabasca Oil Sands
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- Author / Creator
- Zhang, Mei
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Viscosity, as a fundamental physical property of bitumen, has been studied
extensively for the past several decades. By and large, nearly all the bitumen
samples used in viscosity measurement were from hot water extraction processes
that were further cleaned by solvents. A drawback of this approach is inevitably
incomplete evaporation of solvent or losses of light ends of bitumen. Such a gain
or loss can have a significant influence on the measured bitumen viscosity. To
accurately understand the role of bitumen viscosity in bitumen recovery by
water-based extraction processes, viscosity measurement of raw (solvent-free)
bitumen is necessary.
In this study, bitumen samples from good ore, artificially weathered good ore,
average ore, and naturally weathered poor processing ore were prepared through
direct centrifugation method. The viscosity of isolated bitumen at different
temperatures and with different solvent (kerosene and naphtha) additions was
measured. A correlation between solvent addition and temperature was
established via viscosity measurements. Based on correlations established in this
study, processability of oil sands was evaluated to identify the critical role of
bitumen viscosity. -
- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2012
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- 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.