Athabasca bitumen froth treatment

阿萨巴斯卡沥青泡沫处理

• 批准号: 4193-2010
• 负责人: Masliyah, Jacob
• 金额: $ 5.83万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=568344
• 关键词: Athabasca; bitumen; froth; treatment

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.

该研究计划涉及从阿萨巴斯卡油砂中提取沥青的清洁。回收的沥青通常含有30重量%的水，其中一部分被乳化。乳化水以几微米大小的非常小的液滴存在。在沥青改质之前除去水是必要的，因为水含有氯化物盐，氯化物盐会引起改质设备的腐蚀。我们发现，一种类型的乙基纤维素聚合物，一种可生物降解和环境友好的聚合物，是一个很好的候选人，有助于在沥青中的乳化水滴的分裂。 该研究提案有几个方面： a）我们计划合成一系列乙基纤维素聚合物，并研究它们聚结（破碎）乳化水滴的能力。将合成具有不同分子量和分子结构的乙基纤维素聚合物，以提供广泛的物理化学性质。 B）构建微型芯片上实验室微流体装置以视觉监测两个水滴的聚结。这种装置对于沥青处理中经历的不透明系统特别有用。该装置将根据传统的罐式破乳试验进行校准。 c）为了深入了解聚合物（破乳剂）在聚结两个水滴中的作用机制，将使用石英晶体微天平来研究乙基纤维素聚合物在类似于水滴的表面上的吸附。吸附的材料将通过原子力显微镜、润湿性、膜厚度和元素组成表征其结构。 该研究对开发“绿色”聚合物具有重要意义，并将提供水滴稳定和破碎的机理。