Gas Solubility, Viscosity And Density Measurements For Athabasca Bitumen

Abstract

New data on density andgas-solubilityforathab asca bitumen are Presentedfor C02, CH, and N2. The apparatus of Jacobs for saturating bitumen with a gas provided reliable viscosity measurements. This apparatus was modified to permit the isolation and removal of gas-saturated bitumen samples for solubility measurements. The solubility measurements were W.Y. Svrcek W.Y. Svrcek received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Alberta, Ed-monton. He worked as a senior sys-tems engineer with the Control Sys-tems Group of the Technical Service De ment o Monsanto ompany, St. ouis, and as an Associate Pro-fessor at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, and he is currently a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta. A.K. Mehrotra A.K. Mehrotra received his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Calgary. He holds an undergraduate degree from BITS, Pi-lani, India and a Master's degree from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. Following his appointment as a research engineer; he is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary. His research interests in-clude properties of gas-saturated bitumens, chlorination of coal ash for metals recovery and membrane processes for the treatment of oil sands waste water. Keywords: Oil sands, Gas solubility, Viscosity, Density, Bitumen, Athabasca bitumen, Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrogen. performed on a controlled depressurization set-up. The range of temperaturesfor these data is 250C to IOO'C; thepressure was varied up to 10 MPa. It was observed that C02 has high solubility in bitumen and causes tremendous reductions in _ viscosity. The solubility of nitrogen is quite low, whereas that of methane is intermediate. Introduction A knowledge of the physical properties of the oil present in Alberta tar-sands is required to mathematically model and simulate the processes used for the recovery of tar-sands. The data on gas-solubility, viscosity, and density for gas-saturated bitumen are of special importance to the in-situ techniques, s@c@ as C02-itijection and fire-flooding, that are now being ac-tiveiy pursued.Viscosity data for Athabasca bitumen (the dead oil) and the bitumen saturated with carbon dioxide (live oil) were presented by Jacobs(l). E)ata from similar experiments using methane and nitrogen gases were published subsequently by Jacobs and co-workers(2). The need existed, however, for the solubility data for these gases. Also needed were methods for correlating temperature and pressure with the viscosity and gas-solubility of bitumen. Experimental data for C02, CH4 and N2 gases are presented in this paper. A successful first attempt at cor-relating these data is presented elsewhere(3).The viscosity of gas-saturated oils (live oils) depends on the type of gas, bitumen composition, temperature and pressure. The qualitative relationship among the individual variables fo...

Foamy Oil Flow in Porous Media

“…We can imagine that the mixture density is independent of pressure. Since gas solubility is a strong function of pressure; the density is also more or less independent of the fraction of dissolved gas at constant temperature (Svrcek & Mehrotra [1982]). ¼ .…”

“…The relevant thermodynamic property for this is "gas solubility"; a function of temperature and pressure at equilibrium which gives the volume ratio of dispersed gas from the crude oil by outgassing. Tables of solubility of methane, carbon dioxide and other gases in various Canadian crude oils have been given by Svrcek & Mehrotra [1982], Peng et al [1991] and others. The oils considered to be foamy evidently cavitate small dispersed bubbles which, under some conditions, are believed to move with the crude oil in which they are dispersed.…”

Venezuela-MEM/USA-DOE Fossil Energy Report IV-11: Supporting technology for enhanced oil recovery - EOR thermal processes

“…In the experiments of Svrcek & Mehrotra [1982] the pressure is dropped from p and 2' to pref and 2_refwhere in the experiments pref is atmospheric and Tref = 373.2"K. It is assumed that all the gas in the live oil at p, 2' comes out. Defining now:…”

“…(2.1) (2.2) Svrcek and Mehrotra [1982] give volumetric solubi~ty curves (CQ and methane in figure 2. 1).…”

“…The relevant thermodynamic property for this is "gas volubility"; a function of temperature and pressure at equilibrium which gives the volume ratio of dispersed gas from the crude oil by outgassing. Tables of volubility of methane, carbon dioxide and other gases in various Canadian crude oils have been given by Svrcek & Mehrotra [1982], Peng et aL [1991] and others. The oils considered to be foamy evidently cavitate small dispemd bubbles which, under some conditions, are believed to move with the crude oil in which they are dispersed.…”