In-situ study of asphaltene precipitation by using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy

加拿大拥有最大的油砂资源之一，包括阿尔伯塔省超过两万亿桶的重油和已探明的1700亿桶沥青可采储量。石蜡泡沫处理（PFT）是在油砂提取过程中，用石蜡溶剂稀释去除沥青泡沫中的固体和水分的步骤。稀释过程中沥青质的沉淀是高质量沥青水固分离的关键。然而，PFT中使用的大量溶剂是一个沉重的负担，不仅因为溶剂成本高，而且因为溶剂回收需要大量的能源消耗，以及沥青运输的管道容量有限。在本项目中，将采用一系列尖端技术来研究稀释引起的早期沥青质沉淀。研究结果将为基于溶剂供应系统优化的技术创新奠定基础，以实现PFT中溶剂的较少使用。

Canada has one of the largest sources of oil sands, including more than two-trillion barrels of heavy oil in Alberta with proven recoverable reserves of about 170 billion barrels of bitumen. Paraffinic froth treatment (PFT) is the step in oil sand extraction to remove solids and water from bitumen froth by dilution with paraffinic solvents. Precipitation of a fraction of asphaltene during the dilution is key to agglomeration and separation of water and solids for high quality bitumen. However, a large volume of solvents used in PFT is a heavy burden not only from a high cost of solvents, but also from intensive energy consumption required to recycle the solvents and from limited pipeline capacity for bitumen transportation. In this project, a suit of cutting-edge techniques will be employed to investigate very early stage asphaltene precipitation induced by dilution. The findings will lay the foundation for technology innovation based on optimization of the solvent supply system to achieve less use of solvents in PFT.