Athabasca bitumen froth treatment

该研究提案涉及从阿萨巴斯卡油砂中提取沥青的清洗。回收的沥青通常含有30wt%的水，其中一部分是乳化的。乳化水以极小的几微米大小的水滴存在。在沥青升级之前去除水是至关重要的，因为水中含有氯盐，这将导致升级设备的腐蚀。我们发现一种乙基纤维素聚合物，一种可生物降解的环保聚合物，是帮助分解沥青中乳化水滴的极佳候选材料。 研究建议有几个方面： A)我们计划合成一系列乙基纤维素聚合物，并研究它们结合(分解)乳化水滴的能力。具有不同相对分子质量和分子结构的乙基纤维素聚合物将被合成，以提供广泛的物理化学性质。 B)建造一个微型芯片实验室微流控装置，以直观地监测两个水滴的结合情况。这种装置对于沥青处理中所经历的不透明系统特别有用。该装置将根据传统的罐子破乳测试进行校准。 C)为了深入了解聚合物(破乳剂)聚合两个水滴的机理，用石英晶体微天平研究了乙基纤维素聚合物在类似水滴的表面上的吸附。吸附后的材料将通过原子力显微镜、润湿性、膜厚和元素组成来表征其结构。 这一研究对“绿色”聚合物的开发具有重要意义，并将为水滴的稳定和破碎提供机理。

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.