Measurement and Prediction of Volumetric Properties for Undersaturated Athabasca Bitumen

Abstract

The application of solvent injection for heavy oil and bitumen recovery processes requires the predictions of the performance for a field-scale design. This directly depends upon the variation of oil properties by solvent dilution. Thus, the comparison and evaluation of the solvent effects on the density and viscosity of oil are crucial. In this study, a constant number of solvent moles is dissolved in 1 mol of bitumen at a constant temperature and pressure and the thermophysical properties of mixtures are measured. Different solvents, methane, ethane, propane, butane, and carbon dioxide, are considered for the measurements. The measurements are taken at temperatures varying from 323 to 463 K, pressures of 4, 6, 8, and 10 MPa, and mixtures with different mole percentages of the solvents (5, 10, and 15). The results indicate that, at a constant temperature, pressure, and solvent mole fraction, the undersaturated carbon dioxide/bitumen mixture has the highest density and the undersaturated butane/bitumen mixture has the lowest density. Among the hydrocarbon gases, a general slight decreasing trend of undersaturated bitumen density with carbon number is observed. Finally, the mixture densities are predicted with an effective liquid density approach with a maximum average absolute relative deviation (AARD) of 0.17%.