The experimental results reported in this paper are part of a study designed to examine the benefits of using surface-active chemicals with steam-basedprocessesfor obtaining additional bitumen recovery from the oil sands. Results are included, mainly from the following three stages of the work.-1) the effect of temperature and concentration on the stability of a commercial petroleum sulfonate surfactant, 2) displacement experiments conducted in laboratory cells (0. 16 kg and 1. 6 kg oil sand capacity) at 100 OC,, 3) simulation runs carried out on the 45-cm Alberta Research Council Test Bed (75 kg oil sand capacity) at saturated steam conditions of 3.5 MPa and 250'C Measurements of bitumenlaqueous interfacial tensions and E.E. Isaacs Eddy Isaacs is an associate research officer and group leader, has been employed in engineering research and development of pilot-plant and industrial-scale process systems. His current responsibilities include experimental design, assessment and numerical modelling of in-situ recovery processes. _ Technology, May-June 1982, Montreal surfactant retention in porous media are also briefly described.Based on this work, it appears that surfactants have con-siderable potential, a two-to three-fold increase in bitumen recovery was often realized when compared to baseline ex-Periments in the absence of surfactant. Introduction Bitumen contained in oil sands has virtually no mobility at reser-voir temperatures and pressures. The primary means to reduce the viscosity and improve mobility is to provide thermal energy; bitumen undergoes a very steep reduction in viscosity with in-creasing temperature. In-situ recovery methods using steam in-jection, either in cyclic or drive processes, have been widely used(l). However, they are often inefficient and leave behind substantial amounts of oil. The use of volatile additives, such as solvents(2, 3), gases(4, 5) and combinations of gases and solvents(5), in conjunction with steam to increase bitumen recovery has been promoted. At present, the commercial feasibility of these pro-cesses cannot be estimated with certainty. Alkali additives with steam were applied in both laboratory(6) and field(7) tests with ht-tle success. The use of surfactant additives in combination with steam has also been suggested (8,9). A recent laboratory study of a surfactant-steam flood using 300API crude at 1800C showed J. P. Ranlkin Joseph P. Rankin is currently a pro-cess engineer at Nova Scotia Forest In-dustries. Previously, he was employed as a process engineer at the Oil Sands Research Department of the Alberta Research Council, where he was in-volved in the evaluation of data from oil sand simulation tests. He holds a B.Eng. (chemical) from McGill and a M.A.Sc. (chemical) from the University of NN'aterloo.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.