Destabilization of bitumen-coated fine solids in oil through water-assisted flocculation using biomolecules extracted from guar beans

Camila Santander,Xiaoli Tan,Qi Liu,Hongbo Zeng,Jing Liu

doi:10.1007/s12182-020-00491-5

Abstract

Non-aqueous extraction (NAE) of bitumen from oil sands has been gaining great attention from both the industry and academia as an alternative to the water-based extraction. A fine solids removal step is important for a NAE process in order to obtain high-quality bitumen product, which, however, remains a great challenge to reduce the fine solids content to the desired level. Here, we introduce a strategy of destabilizing the bitumen-coated silica particles in toluene with the addition of water and biomolecules extracted from Cyamopsiste tragonolobuosr L. Taup., i.e., high molecular weight guar gum (HGG) and low molecular weight guar gum (LGG), respectively. By virtue of sedimentation tests and focused beam reflectance measurement analysis, we demonstrate that the introduced water droplets modified with these biomolecules can facilitate the settling of the solid particles in toluene although the underlying mechanisms differ between these two biomolecule cases. Specifically, in the case of LGG, the added water droplets with the interfacial amphiphilic LGG can strengthen the attachment of solid particles from bulk toluene to the LGG surface. This research work provides useful insight into the development of effective approaches for destabilization and removal of bitumen-coated fine solids from NAE bitumen.

Highlights

Canada holds the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world, only after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, most of which exists as oil sands
Min 8 min 9 min min min min min Destabilizing the fine solids in organic media is the first step for the effective removal of fine solids from bitumen product during the non-aqueous extraction (NAE) of Alberta oil sands in order to meet the specifications of pipeline transport and refinery feed
We demonstrated a way to destabilize the bitumen-coated silica particles in toluene through addition of waterassisted biomolecules extracted from the natural guar bean

Summary

Introduction

Canada holds the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world, only after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, most of which exists as oil sands. According to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB), the reserves of oil sands are over 174 billion barrels and the crude oil production was 2.83 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2017 A mixture of minerals matters, bitumen and water, are an important source of unconventional fossil fuel and require special extraction technologies to acquire petroleum and petrochemical products. It was found that the surface of minerals was typically surrounded by a thin film of connate water, which could facilitate the liberation of bitumen from the oil sands ore during the HWE (Hooshiar et al 2012; Osacky et al 2015). Nowadays HWE process can recycle a large proportion (~ 80%) of process water, importation of additional barrels of freshwater from river (i.e., makeup water) is still necessary for producing each barrel of oil. 3.5 barrels of freshwater is required to produce 1 barrel of oil (Pal et al 2015)

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