Propane-Aided Leaching of Bitumen from Oilsands,Energy & Fuels

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Propane-Aided Leaching of Bitumen from Oilsands
Energy & Fuels ( IF 5.2 ) Pub Date : 2020-03-31 , DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c00569
Marta Liliana Salas Santa ₁ , Nasser Sabet ₁ , Hassan Hassanzadeh ₁

Affiliation

We report highly fine-grid numerical simulations of solvent-aided bitumen leaching using propane as a solvent. These simulations allowed us to observe the detailed physics of the drainage process, which is otherwise impossible in coarse-grid simulations. Our results revealed significant fingering of the solvent into bitumen as a result of viscosity and density contrasts, which is in line with the previous experimental observation of bitumen leaching by toluene. Based on our simulation results, the drainage process undergoes two distinct infinite-acting and finite-acting periods, with more than two-thirds of the drainage taking place during the former. Interestingly, the rate of drainage of bitumen is constant during the infinite-acting period, and it is independent of formation thickness. Using the results of our simulations, we found out that the rate of drainage of bitumen is scaled linearly with formation permeability. The results of this work shed light on the fine-scale physics of the bitumen leaching process by solvents and pave the way for the development of new recovery processes.

中文翻译：

丙烷从油砂中浸提沥青

我们报告了使用丙烷作为溶剂的溶剂辅助沥青浸出的高度精细网格数值模拟。这些模拟使我们能够观察排水过程的详细物理过程，否则在粗网格模拟中是不可能的。我们的结果表明，由于粘度和密度的对比，溶剂明显进入了沥青中，这与之前通过甲苯浸出沥青的实验观察相符。根据我们的模拟结果，排水过程经历了两个不同的无限作用和有限作用时期，其中三分之二以上的排水发生在前者期间。有趣的是，沥青在无限作用期间的排水速率是恒定的，并且与地层厚度无关。利用我们的模拟结果，我们发现，沥青的排水速率与地层渗透率成线性比例关系。这项工作的结果为溶剂浸出沥清过程的精细物理提供了线索，并为开发新的回收方法铺平了道路。

更新日期：2020-03-31

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