Managing interface composition and hydrodynamics to enhance coalescence in froth treatment

管理界面组成和流体动力学以增强泡沫处理中的聚结

• 批准号: 514675-2017
• 负责人: Acosta, Edgar
• 金额: $ 14.2万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=618250
• 关键词: Managing; interface; composition; hydrodynamics; enhance

During oil sands extraction, a froth stream containing ~30 wt% water and ~10 wt% solids dispersed in bitumen (~ 60 wt%) is produced. Solids and water need to be removed to mitigate erosion, fouling and corrosion in downstream processes. In the naphthenic froth treatment (NFT) process, naphtha (solvent) is added to reduce bitumen density and viscosity to facilitate water and solids removal. After solvent addition and centrifugation the water and solids content can remain above 2.5wt% and 0.5wt%, respectively. Finding ways to improve water and solid removal is a priority to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Syncrude operations.Our previous work showed that improving water and solid removal requires facilitating coalescence, and solid attachment to water drops, and that this depends on the applied pressure, contact time, the amount and chemistry of solvent, and the pH of the aqueous phase. We hypothesize that understanding the ratio of bitumen components adsorbed at the oil-water interface, and the hydrodynamics leading to coalescence we can develop process strategies to achieve optimal separation of water and solids with minimum use of solvent and energy.The application involves 3 PhDs and 1 MASc. One PhD student will develop film balance devices to study the hydrodynamics and disjoining pressure curves of bitumen films. A second PhD will develop adsorption isotherms and models to predict interface properties relevant to the predicting coalescence time. A third PhD will develop microfluidic devices to study water drop coalescence in the presence of particles. One MASc student will work on developing microfluidic devices that can evaluate the process of coalescence and interfacial properties at high temperatures, close to those used in NFT. These will be supervised by ProfessorsAcosta and Ramchandran who are experts in the areas of colloids and interfaces, and hydrodynamics and microfuidics, respectively. Their complementary expertise will be further supported by Dr. Samson Ng, senior Syncrude researcher expert in translating bench-scale studies into large scale processes that are currently in operation.

在油砂开采过程中，会产生含有~30wt%的水和~10wt%的固体分散在沥青中的泡沫流(~60wt%)。需要去除固体和水，以减少下游工艺中的侵蚀、污垢和腐蚀。在环烷泡沫处理(NFT)工艺中，加入石脑油(溶剂)以降低沥青的密度和粘度，以利于水和固体的去除。加入溶剂和离心后，水分和固形物含量分别保持在2.5wt%和0.5wt%以上。找到改善水和固体去除的方法是提高合成原油操作的有效性和效率的首要任务。我们以前的工作表明，改善水和固体的去除需要促进水滴的结合和固体附着，这取决于施加的压力、接触时间、溶剂的数量和化学以及水相的pH值。我们假设，了解吸附在油水界面上的沥青组分的比例，以及导致聚结的流体力学，我们可以制定工艺策略，以最小的溶剂和能量实现最优的水和固体分离。应用涉及3个博士和1个MASC。一名博士生将开发膜平衡装置来研究沥青膜的流体力学和分离压力曲线。第二个PHD将开发吸附等温线和模型，以预测与预测合并时间相关的界面性质。第三个博士将开发微流控设备，以研究粒子存在时的水滴合并。一名MASC学生将致力于开发微流控设备，该设备可以评估高温下的聚合过程和界面特性，接近于NFT中使用的设备。这些项目将由分别在胶体和界面、流体动力学和微流体领域的专家Acosta教授和Ramchandran教授指导。他们的互补专业知识将得到Syncrate高级研究员Samson Ng博士的进一步支持，他是将实验室规模的研究转化为目前正在运行的大规模过程的专家。