Athabasca bitumen froth treatment

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The research proposal deals with cleaning of extracted bitumen from Athabasca oil sands. The recovered bitumen typically contains 30wt% water, part of which is emulsified. The emulsified water is present as very small drops of few microns in size. The removal of the water prior to bitumen upgrading is essential as the water contains chloride salts that would cause corrosion in the upgrading equipment. We found that one type of ethylcellulose polymers, a biodegradable and environmentally friendly polymer, to be an excellent candidate that assists in the break-up of the emulsified water drops in the bitumen. The research proposal has several aspects: a) We plan to synthesize a family of ethylcellulose polymers and study their ability to coalesce (break- up) the emulsified water drops. Ethylcellulose polymers having different molecular weight and molecular structure will be synthesized to give a wide range of physico-chemical properties. b) Construction of a miniature lab-on-chip micro-fluidic device to visually monitor the coalescence of two water drops. Such a device is particularly useful for opaque systems as experienced in bitumen treatment. The device will be calibrated against traditional jar demulsification tests. c) In order to gain an insight to the mechanism by which a polymer (demulsifier) acts in coalescing two water drops, quartz crystal microbalance is to be used to study the adsorption of the ethylcellulose polymers on surfaces akin to water drops. The adsorbed material will be characterized for their structure by atomic force microscope, wettability, film thickness and elemental composition. This study is of importance for the development of "green" polymers and will provide the mechanism of water drops stabilization and break-up.