Abstract
A major drawback associated with current hot or warm water-based bitumen extraction processes is the high consumption of energy. To address this issue, an aqueous–nonaqueous hybrid bitumen extraction process (HBEP), in which a portion of the diluent (solvent) was added upfront to soak mined oil sands prior to its water-based extraction, was proposed and demonstrated to be feasible to process mineable oil sands at ambient temperatures. This study investigates the effect of adding ethyl cellulose (EC) as a promising demulsifier to the solvent on bitumen recovery and froth quality in the ambient HBEP. The laboratory flotation results clearly showed a significant improvement in froth quality with a negligible setback on bitumen recovery by 100–200 ppm EC addition to the HBEP. Determined by an online visualization method, the addition of EC in solvent to the HBEP was found to further enhance separation kinetics of bitumen from sand grains of real oil sands ores. The addition of EC in solvent also increased the...
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