Experimental and modelling studies of MacKay River bitumen and light n‐alkane binaries

Abstract

Solubility of light n-alkanes in bitumen as well as density and viscosity of the bitumen-rich phase are the necessary data for simulation and study of the solvent-aided thermal recovery processes of bitumen. This paper presents experimental data for MacKay River bitumen with n-alkane solvents (methane, ethane, propane, and butane). The viscosity and density of the solvent saturated bitumen phase are measured to determine the effect of solvent dissolution on the thermo-physical properties of bitumen. The solvent-bitumen system is modelled using the Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR-EoS). Moreover, experimental viscosity and density data of solvent-saturated bitumen are correlated. The effective density and viscosity of the dissolved solvent molecules are obtained using the experimental density and viscosity data for the bitumen-solvent system.

Phase behaviour modelling of Athabasca bitumen for in situ combustion applications

“…Also oxygen, carbon monoxide, and methane gases have minor concentrations ahead of the combustion front . Finally, the viscosity behaviour of Athabasca bitumen with respect to temperature is studied, and as can be observed in Figure , the viscosity behaviour reported by different experimental studies conforms to the behaviour of various Athabasca bitumen samples …”

“…[7,9] Finally, the viscosity behaviour of Athabasca bitumen with respect to temperature is studied, and as can be observed in Figure 4, the viscosity behaviour reported by different experimental studies conforms to the behaviour of various Athabasca bitumen samples. [14,15,18,19,22] As the observed behaviour related to various experimental data sets suggests, different Athabasca bitumen samples used by different authors show acceptable analogy in their fluid characteristics. Therefore, one general phase behaviour model can be developed to represent the majority of the Athabasca bitumen samples.…”

“…[10,[13][14][15][16] Similarly, the measured density of Athabasca bitumen is studied in Figure 2 and a relatively good agreement is evident between all of the experimentally measured values. [17][18][19][20] Then, the experimental data related to CO 2 solubility in Athabasca T A B L E 1 Athabasca bitumen SARA characterization and basic properties [12] Fraction/Property Value bitumen is extracted from the literature and compared in Figure 3. [10,15,21] It should be mentioned that this work only considers the solubility of CO 2 gas is in the bitumen, while disregarding its solubility in aqueous phase.…”

“…[23] Second, for an acceptable in situ combustion reactions representation, it is critically important that all of the components encompassed in each pseudocomponent are similarly involved in the reactions. [24] Organizing the vast number of bitumen components into a small Nourozieh et al [10] Zirrahi et al [13] Mehrotra and Svrcek [14] Whitson and Ghasemi [15] Svrcek and Mehrotra [16] F I G U R E 1 Simulated distillation curve of Athabasca bitumen [10,[13][14][15][16] Nouruzieh et al [17] Ashrafi et al [18] Zirrahi et al [19] Badamci-Zadeh et al [20] The Model F I G U R E 2 Density of Athabasca bitumen [17][18][19][20] number of pseudo-components to satisfy both of the mentioned conditions is challenging. Therefore, sufficient knowledge of phase behaviour characterization as well as the reaction kinetics of the subject reservoir is essential in order to ensure that the fluid and the kinetic sections of the model are consistent.…”

“…The Model @ 190°C The Model @ 250°C F I G U R E 3 Carbon dioxide solubility in Athabasca bitumen [10,15, [14] Whitson and Ghasemi [15] Ashrafi et al [18] Zirrahi et al [19] Nourozieh et al [22] The Model F I G U R E 4 Viscosity of Athabasca bitumen [14,15,18,19,22] has a molecular weight of 226 g/gmol, which is also closer to the molecular weight of soot. [33] It is worth noting that coke is not originally present in bitumen, and while the attributes of coke do not have a significant effect in the phase behaviour section, they do have an effect in the reaction kinetics section of the simulation.…”