Abstract
This work involves the detection and monitoring of solvent interactions with heavy oil and bitumen. Two nondestructive methodslow-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and X-ray computer-assisted tomography (CAT)were used. It is shown that low-field NMR can be a very useful tool in understanding the relationship of viscosity, density, and asphaltene precipitation in bitumen−solvent mixtures. Such mixtures are present in solvent-related heavy oil and bitumen recovery processes, such as vapor extraction (VAPEX). As a solvent comes into contact with a heavy oil or bitumen sample, the mobility of hydrogen-bearing molecules of both solvent and oil changes. These changes are detectable through changes in the NMR relaxation characteristics of both the solvent and the oil and can be correlated to mass flux and concentration changes. Based on Fick's second law, diffusion coefficients were calculated for combinations of three oils and six solvents. X-ray CAT scanning was also used in parallel for analysis of solve...
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