Heavy Oil Mixtures Research Articles

A prewetting induced underwater superoleophobic or underoil (super) hydrophobic waste potato residue-coated mesh for selective efficient oil/water separation

Light or heavy oil and water mixtures can by separated selectively with high efficiency using potato residue coated meshes.

Selective Analysis of Sulfur-Containing Species in a Heavy Crude Oil by Deuterium Labeling Reactions and Ultrahigh Resolution Mass Spectrometry.

A heavy crude oil has been treated with deuterated alkylating reagents (CD3I and C2D5I) and directly analyzed without any prior fractionation and chromatographic separation by high-field Orbitrap Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (FTMS) and Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) using electrospray ionization (ESI). The reaction of a polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASHs) dibenzothiophene (DBT), in the presence of silver tetrafluoroborate (AgBF4) with ethyl iodide (C2H5I) in anhydrous dichloroethane (DCE) was optimized as a sample reaction to study heavy crude oil mixtures, and the reaction yield was monitored and determined by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-NMR). The obtained conditions were then applied to a mixture of standard aromatic CH-, N-, O- and S-containing compounds and then a heavy crude oil, and only sulfur-containing compounds were selectively alkylated. The deuterium labeled alkylating reagents, iodomethane-d3 (CD3I) and iodoethane-d5 (C2D5I), were employed to the alkylation of heavy crude oil to selectively differentiate the tagged sulfur species from the original crude oil.

The effect of oil spills on the bacterial diversity and catabolic function in coastal sediments: a case study on the Prestige oil spill.

The accident of the Prestige oil tanker in 2002 contaminated approximately 900 km of the coastline along the northern Spanish shore, as well as parts of Portugal and France coast, with a mixture of heavy crude oil consisting of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, alkanes, asphaltenes and resins. The capacity of the autochthonous bacterial communities to respond to the oil spill was assessed indirectly by determining the hydrocarbon profiles of weathered oil samples collected along the shore, as well as through isotope ratios of seawater-dissolved CO2, and directly by analyses of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis fingerprints and 16S rRNA gene libraries. Overall, the results evidenced biodegradation of crude oil components mediated by natural bacterial communities, with a bias towards lighter and less substituted compounds. The changes observed in the Proteobacteria, the most abundant phylum in marine sediments, were related to the metabolic profiles of the sediment. The presence of crude oil in the supratidal and intertidal zones increased the abundance of Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria, dominated by the groups Sphingomonadaceae, Rhodobacteraceae and Chromatiales, whilst Gamma- and Deltaproteobacteria were more relevant in subtidal zones. The phylum Actinobacteria, and particularly the genus Rhodococcus, was a key player in the microbial response to the spill, especially in the degradation of the alkane fraction. The addition of inorganic fertilizers enhanced total biodegradation rates, suggesting that, in these environments, nutrients were insufficient to support significant growth after the huge increase in carbon sources, as evidenced in other spills. The presence of bacterial communities able to respond to a massive oil input in this area was consistent with the important history of pollution of the region by crude oil.

Exposures of zebrafish through diet to three environmentally relevant mixtures of PAHs produce behavioral disruptions in unexposed F1 and F2 descendant

The release of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) into the environment has increased very substantially over the last decades. PAHs are hydrophobic molecules which can accumulate in high concentrations in sediments acting then as major secondary sources. Fish contamination can occur through contact or residence nearby sediments or though dietary exposure. In this study, we analyzed certain physiological traits in unexposed fish (F1) issued from parents (F0) exposed through diet to three PAH mixtures at similar and environmentally relevant concentrations but differing in their compositions. For each mixture, no morphological differences were observed between concentrations. An increase in locomotor activity was observed in larvae issued from fish exposed to the highest concentration of a pyrolytic (PY) mixture. On the contrary, a decrease in locomotor activity was observed in larvae issued from heavy oil mixture (HO). In the case of the third mixture, light oil (LO), a reduction of the diurnal activity was observed during the setup of larval activity. Behavioral disruptions persisted in F1-PY juveniles and in their offspring (F2). Endocrine disruption was analyzed using cyp19a1b:GFP transgenic line and revealed disruptions in PY and LO offspring. Since no PAH metabolites were dosed in larvae, these findings suggest possible underlying mechanisms such as altered parental signaling molecule and/or hormone transferred in the gametes, eventually leading to early imprinting. Taken together, these results indicate that physiological disruptions are observed in offspring of fish exposed to PAH mixtures through diet.

205 トラップグリース由来燃料を用いた重油焚きディーゼル発電における環境負荷特性(廃棄物発電・環境マネージメント手法)

Effective utilization of waste bio-oil such as fried oil is important for development of low emission engine. Grease trap oil collected from private sewerage system is one of the waste bio-oil and is so dirty and high viscosity that direct applying to the engine is difficult. In this work, however, properties of diesel combustion using mixture of heavy oil and grease trap oil (GTO) was discussed although simply filtration of GTO was carried out. Moreover, environmental burden applying mixture of heavy oil and GTO to commercial diesel generation was investigated. Fuel supply of the mixture differed only slightly with variation of GTO composition. In case of relatively high electric load, the fuel supply decreased when the composition of GTO was more than 30 %. It is thought that the viscosity influences the characteristics of fuel injection. NOx and SO_2 emission decreased with increase in the composition of GTO. On the contrary, concentration of CO in exhaust gas also decrease. The properties of NOx emission give an indication of reduction in temperature with increase in the composition of GTO but that of CO emission shows improvement of combustion state. On the other hand, the properties of SO_2 emission were lower than estimation values calculated from sulfur contents of these fuels.

The Effect of Iron-Containing Powders on Chemical Compositions of Oils

The effect of a composite material based on micron iron powder, modified with cobalt and nickel ions on the composition of oils with different contents of heteroatoms and resin-asphaltene components (a mixture of West Siberian light oils and Usinskaya heavy oil) is studied. It is shown using analytical methods, including elemental and structural group analysis, GC-MS, IR and 1H-NMR - spectroscopy that a composite based on micron sized iron powder modified with cobalt and nickel ions could be used for pretreatment of hydrocarbon feedstock with high content of heteroatom components. It is found out during treatment of the mixture of light West Siberian oil that its qualitative composition remains virtually invariable. Heavy oil treatment from the Usinskoye oil field using composite results in a decreased concentration of nitrogen and organic sulfur compounds.

A Region Growing Method for Detecting Interfaces in X-Ray View Cell Images

X-ray transmission videography is used to observe the thermodynamic phase behavior of heavy oil mixtures of industrial interest that are opaque to visible light. The knowledge of the volumes of various phases provide important information for enhancing oil refining technology. Phase boundaries are usually marked by visual examination based upon which the volumes and densities of the phases are computed. Typically, phase behavior is computed at various temperatures and pressures to generate the phase diagram. This paper presents an image processing algorithm, which automates the task of detecting phase boundaries in the generated images. The interface and region models are first obtained from the image generation process. Using these models, a new method for interface detection based on the Mumford-Shah model is presented. Results are presented to show that the algorithm detects the phase boundaries to subpixel accuracy.

고온 고압 스팀을 주입하는 SAGD 공정에서 CO2주입이 오일샌드 역청 회수율에 미치는 영향

오일샌드에서 비투맨(bitumen)을 회수하는 지하회수방식 중 가장 많이 사용하는 기술인 SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage)공정으로부터 비투맨의 회수율을 향상시키고자 스팀과 함께 주입한 첨가제의 효과와 매커니즘에 대해서 연구하였다. 실제 광구에서 쓰이는 SAGD공정을 150 : 1로 축소한 실험실 규모의 모사장비가 사용되었으며, 지하 박층을 모사할 수 있는 장치(이하 GM, geological model)가 사용되었다. 초중질유와 글래스비드(glass bead 1.5 mm)의 혼합물은 오일샌드의 모사재료로 사용되었다. 첨가제로서 <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX>가 사용되었으며, 스팀 챔버(steam chamber)의 성장 변화를 비교 분석하였다. <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX>의 주입방식에 따른 효과를 확인하기 위하여 스팀과 <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX>를 연속 주입하는 실험(<TEX>$cCO_2$</TEX>-SAGD)과 순차적으로 주입하는 실험(<TEX>$sCO_2$</TEX>-SAGD)을 실시하였다. 그 결과 <TEX>$sCO_2$</TEX>-SAGD 실험의 경우 Control 실험 대비 오일 회수율은 60.2%에서 69.3%로 향상되었으며 cSOR의 경우 7.1에서 6.0으로 낮아졌다. 반면에 <TEX>$cCO_2$</TEX>-SAGD 실험의 경우 60.2%에서 57.6%, 7.1에서 7.3으로 증가 되었다. SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage) process is the most commonly used in-situ technology for the recovery of bitumen from oil sand. It was investigated that the effects of different additives on bitumen recovery rate from oil sand in SAGD process among many possible mechanisms studied throughout the study. Bitumen recovery from thin layer oil sand reservoirs was simulated by using an experimental SAGD apparatus with scale of 150:1. To improve the simulation accuracy of thin layer oil reservoir, we have attached geological model (GM). Oil sand was simulated by using a mixture of extra heavy oil and glass beads with a diameter of 1.5 mm. <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX> was used as an additive and the evolution of steam chambers were closely monitored, and the effects of <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX> as an additive was investigated. Two types of injection methods were tested; continuous (<TEX>$cCO_2$</TEX>-SAGD) and sequential interruption (<TEX>$sCO_2$</TEX>-SAGD) <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX> injection. For the <TEX>$sCO_2$</TEX>-SAGD experiment, it was observed that the recovery rates and CSOR were efficiently improved control experiment from 60.2% to 69.3% and 7.1 to 6.0, respectively, whereas <TEX>$cCO_2$</TEX>-SAGD experiment decreased from 60.2% to 57.6% and 7.1 to 7.3.

Pyrene induces a reduction in midbrain size and abnormal swimming behavior in early-hatched pufferfish larvae

Spills of heavy oil (HO) have an adverse effect on marine life. We have demonstrated previously that exposure to HO by fertilized eggs of the pufferfish (Takifugu rubripes) induces neural disruption and behavioral abnormality in early-hatched larvae. Here, two kinds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pyrene and phenanthrene, were selected to examine their toxic effects on larval behavior of another pufferfish species (T. niphobles). Larvae exposed to pyrene or phenanthrene exhibited no abnormalities in morphology. However, those exposed to pyrene but not phenanthrene swam in an uncoordinated manner, although their swimming distance and speed were normal. The optic tectum, a part of the midbrain, of pyrene-exposed larvae did not grow to full size. Thus, these findings are indicated that pyrene might be a contributor to the behavioral and neuro-developmental toxicity, although there is no indication that it is the only compound participating in the toxicity of the heavy oil mixture.

Determination of Multiphase Boundaries and Swelling Factors of Solvent(s)–CO2–Heavy Oil Systems at High Pressures and Elevated Temperatures

A generalized methodology has been proposed and successfully applied to determine multiphase boundaries as well as swelling factors of solvent(s)–CO2–heavy oil systems at high pressures and elevated temperatures. Experimentally, two- and three-phase boundaries and swelling factors have been respectively measured by conducting PVT tests in the temperature range of 280.45 to 396.15 K. Theoretically, the Peng–Robinson equation of state (PR EOS) combined with the modified alpha function has been applied to describe phase behavior of the solvent(s)–CO2–heavy oil systems. More specifically, an exponential distribution function is used to split a heavy oil sample, whereas the logarithm-type lumping method is employed to group single carbon numbers (SCNs) into multiple carbon numbers (MCNs). The exponents associated with two binary interaction parameter (BIP) correlations are respectively tuned for the alkane solvent-pseudocomponent pair and CO2-pseudocomponent pair to match the measured saturation pressures. It is found that six pseudocomponents combined with the BIP correlation as a function of critical volume is sufficient to predict saturation pressure with an absolute average relative deviation (AARD) of 5.07%. In addition, the PR EOS model associated with the selected parameters is applied to predict three-phase boundaries for a C3H8–CO2–heavy oil mixture and a n-C4H10–CO2–heavy oil mixture yielding an overall AARD of 4.58%. As for swelling factors, the Peneloux et al. method provides the minimum AARD of 2.09% in comparison with 4.00% from the Jhaveri et al. method and 2.41% from the Twu et al. method, respectively.

Synthesis of Ni&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;Fe&lt;sub&gt;3-x&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; Nanoparticles by Microwave-Assisted Coprecipitation and their Application in Viscosity Reduction of Heavy Oil

NixFe3-xO4 nanoparticles have been synthesized using microwave-assisted coprecipitation. Samples were prepared by using FeCl3•6H2O, FeSO4•7H2O, NiCl2•6H2O, and NH4OH as precursors. Concentrated black precipitates were produced after samples were heated in microwave 500 W 2.45 GHz for 3 minutes. According to X-Ray diffractogram, it was indicated that the NixFe3-xO4 was obtained. According to Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) characterization, it was shown that Ni0.3Fe2.7O4 nanoparticles have spherical morphology and average particle size about 43 nm. In this research, NixFe3-xO4 nanoparticles were applied as catalyst in the reduction of heavy oil via aquathermolysis. In catalytic activity test, Fe3O4 and Ni0.3Fe2.7O4 nanoparticles were added respectively to the mixture of water and heavy oil in autoclave on temperature 120°C for 6 hours. Experimental result showed that the viscosity of heavy oil reduced 30% and 17% when Fe3O4 and Ni0.3Fe2.7O4 powders were added in aquathermolysis reaction, respectively.

Determination of Three-Phase Boundaries of Solvent(s)–CO2–Heavy Oil Systems under Reservoir Conditions

The liquid–liquid–vapor (L1L2V) phase boundaries of solvent(s)–CO2–heavy oil systems under reservoir conditions are experimentally and theoretically determined. Experimentally, the L1L2V phase boundaries of one CO2–heavy oil mixture, one C3H8–CO2–heavy oil mixture, and one n-C4H10–CO2–heavy oil mixture in the pressure–temperature (P–T) diagram are determined using a versatile pressure–volume–temperature (PVT) setup. The addition of an alkane solvent to the CO2–heavy oil system tends to expand the pressure and temperature span of the L1L2V phase boundary, while the L1L2V phase boundary of the solvent(s)–CO2–heavy oil system shows its tendency to move toward the high-temperature and low-pressure region of the P–T diagram. Theoretically, the previously developed binary interaction parameter (BIP) correlations for CO2–heavy oil binary, C3H8–heavy oil binary, and n-C4H10–heavy oil binary are incorporated into the Peng–Robinson equation of state (PR EOS) to determine the three-phase boundaries of the above-mentioned systems. The PR EOS with a modified α function and the BIP correlations is found to provide a generally good prediction of the experimentally measured L1L2V phase boundaries of the solvent(s)–CO2–heavy oil systems under reservoir conditions.

Integrated Completion Design for Horizontal Wells in Unconventional Reservoirs

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 147120, ’An Integrated Approach To Design Completions for Horizontal Wells in Unconventional Reservoirs,’ by R. Jain, SPE, S. Syal, SPE, T. Long, SPE, and C. Wattenbarger, SPE, ExxonMobil, and I. Kosik, SPE, Imperial Oil Resources, prepared for the 2011 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Denver, 30 October-2 November. The paper has not been peer reviewed. An integrated workflow was tested for designing completions for a heavy-oil-recovery process that involves injection and production through the same wellbore. To capture the effect of variations or uncertainties in reservoir and fluid-flow characteristics over time, the transient effects are particularly important while analyzing the long-term performance for these types of completions. The proposed integrated workflow involves initial screening and selection of flow-restricting completions that can meet the desired injection and production performance on the basis of a detailed wellbore-hydraulics-modeling tool. Introduction Producing heavy oil and bitumen involves technologies such as cold mining for shallower resources or in-situ viscosity reduction. The cyclic solvent-based process involves alternating cycles of injecting a viscosity-reducing solvent into the reservoir followed by production of a mixture of heavy oil and solvent, with reduced viscosity, through the same wellbore. Many cyclic-process implementations are intended for use in horizontal wells. The completion design for such a process involves ensuring good solvent distribution into the reservoir during the injection phase to mobilize the resource along the entire wellbore and maximize the well length to reduce field-development cost. The process of injecting and producing from the same wellbore entails additional constraints on the completion design. One constraint is controlled injection distribution by use of flow-restriction devices such as orifices while maintaining a minimal pressure drop across the completion during the production phase. Another challenge results from the adverse mobility ratio of the solvent mixture and bitumen during the injection process, which could result in viscous fingering. This fingering can cause wide variations in the solvent injection and may cause an undesirable pressure distribution within the reservoir, which, in turn, may affect solvent placement. Predicting such differential injection or a thief zone is difficult because of the inherent nature of instabilities associated with the fingering process.

Acoustic determination of the heavy oil thermophysical properties: Thermodynamic consistency revisited

We employed an Initial Value approach, so as to integrate the compressional wave propagation velocity data, to determine the thermo-physical properties of heavy oil samples. We present our results for several thermo-physical characteristics of the heavy oil, including isothermal compressibility, thermal expansivity, isobaric heat capacity, and the Joule–Thomson coefficient, for the temperatures between 283.15K and 373.15K and pressures up to 20MPa. The acoustically-determined heavy oil densities exhibited outstanding accuracy within 0.4% of the experimental counterparts. Owing to the nature of the integration methodology applied, derived from the fundamental thermodynamic relations, reasonably accurate results should be expected as for the average thermo-physical properties established for the heavy oil mixtures.

Water-assisted Flow of Heavy Oil in a Vertical Pipe: Pilot-scale Experiments

The use of the core-annular flow pattern, where a thin fluid surrounds a very viscous one, has been suggested as an attractive artificial-lift method for heavy oils in the current Brazilian ultra-deepwater production scenario. This paper reports the pressure drop measurements and the core-annular flow observed in a 2 7/8-inch and 300 meter deep pilot-scale well conveying a mixture of heavy crude oil (2000 mPa.s and 950 kg/m3 at 35 C) and water at several combinations of the individual flow rates. The two-phase pressure drop data are compared with those of single-phase oil flow to assess the gains due to water injection. Another issue is the handling of the core-annular flow once it has been established. High-frequency pressure-gradient signals were collected and a treatment based on the Gabor transform together with neural networks is proposed as a promising solution for monitoring and control. The preliminary results are encouraging. The pilot-scale tests, including long-term experiments, were conducted in order to investigate the applicability of using water to transport heavy oils in actual wells. It represents an important step towards the full scale application of the proposed artificial-lift technology. The registered improvements in terms of oil production rate and pressure drop reductions are remarkable.

Rheological properties of heavy & light crude oil mixtures for improving flowability

The rheological properties of heavy crude oil and its mixture with light crude oil were investigated experimentally. These rheological properties include steady flow behavior, yield stress, transient flow behavior, thixotropy behavior, and viscoelastic behavior. A RheoStress RS100 rheometer was employed in all of the rheological examination tests. The heavy crude oil exhibits a non-Newtonian shear thinning behavior over the examined shear rate range of 0.1–750s−1. The viscosity of the heavy crude oil decreases considerably with temperature over the range of 25–65°C. The addition of 10% light crude oil to the heavy crude oil, to form 10% HLCO mixture, causes a strong reduction in the heavy crude oil viscosity from 10Pa.s to 1.2Pa.s at 25°C. An even higher viscosity reduction from 10Pa.s to 0.375Pa.s at 25°C can be achieved in the presence of 20% light crude oil. The yield stress of the heavy crude oil reaches 0.7Pa at a room temperature of 25°C and it decreases to 0.4Pa at 65°C. The tested samples of heavy crude oil, 10% HLCO mixture, and 20% HLCO mixture exhibit time independent flow behavior. The heavy crude oil shows a thixotropic area of 321.65kPa/s at 25°C and decreases to 118.62kPa/s at 65°C. The presence of the light crude oil eliminates the thixotropic behavior of the heavy crude oil. The complex modulus of the heavy crude oil decreases significantly with temperature. The addition of 10% of the light crude oil strongly reduces the values of the complex modulus of the heavy crude oil. From the comparison of the storage and loss moduli values for the heavy crude oil, it is found that the heavy crude and its blends flow in a viscous liquid behavior. The 10% and 20% of the HLCO mixtures display viscous behavior as well. The storage and loss moduli of the heavy crude oil decrease significantly by the addition of 10% light crude oil.

The Flow Research of Gas-Oil-Sand Three Phase in Wellbore with Heavy Oil Reservoir

Abstract The pressure calculation in wellbore is one of most important techniques in moderate sand production with unconsolidated sandstone heavy oil reservoir. Because the gas oil ratio is lower generally in heavy oil reservoir than that in normal reservoir, the influences that the gas acts on pressure in wellbore in heavy oil and sand mixture often have been neglected. So, it is a matter that is deserved to care how much the influence that the gas acts on pressure calculation is and whether can be neglected. Through research of phase state in flow process of oil and sand mixture(the gas of heavy oil show up by bubbly flow shape), the gas, oil and sand three phase is divided into gas and liquid two phase flow and oil and sand two phase flow. Using the relationship between pressure and dissolved gas oil ratio, viscosity, oil volume factor, the modified mechanistic model of gas-oil-sand has been created. At same time, based on the above-mentioned model, the pressure loss and carrying capacity of oil also have been calculated. The results show: through the gas rate is low in heavy oil reservoir, the influences that the gas acts on wellbore pressure calculation increase with the decrease of pressure and augment of gas oil ratio. Especially, when the pressure falls to one half of saturated pressure, it will have a large influence on the wellbore.

Chromatographic and spectroscopic analysis of heavy crude oil mixtures with emphasis in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: A review

The state of the art in the characterization of heavy crude oil mixtures is presented. This characterization can be done by different techniques, such as gas chromatography (GC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), thin layer chromatography (TLC), infrared spectroscopy (IR), Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS). Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is the technique of choice due to its capability to provide information on the chemical nature of individual types of hydrogen and carbon atoms in different and complex mixtures of crude oils. The progress made in the interpretation of the NMR spectra with the development of new NMR techniques and different multivariate data analyses could give relevant information about the identification and characterization of hydrocarbons and their physical and chemical properties. These progresses can improve the refining industries operation as a result of the better knowledge on the crude composition that is fed in the refining process, as well as in the prediction of better operating conditions to obtain refined products with desired specifications and in quantities desirable to meet the market demands. The improvement in the refining operation conditions is reflected in economical benefits.

Development of Low-Emission Bio-Fuel Boiler System With Plasma-Chemical Hybrid $\hbox{NO}_{\rm x}$ Reduction

A pilot-scale low-emission boiler system consisting of a bio-fuel boiler and a plasma-chemical hybrid NOx removal system is investigated. This system can achieve carbon neutrality because the bio-fuel boiler uses waste vegetable oil (WVO) as one of the fuels. The plasma-chemical hybrid NOx removal system has two processes: NO oxidation by ozone produced from plasma ozonizers and NO2 removal using a Na2SO3 chemical scrubber. Test demonstrations of the system were carried out for mixed oils (mixture of heavy oil and WVO). A stable combustion was achieved for the mixed oil (20%-50% WVO). The properties of flue gas-e.g., O2, CO2, and NOx -when firing mixed oils were nearly the same as those when firing heavy oil for an average flue gas flow rate of 1000 Nm3/h. The NOx concentrations at the boiler outlet were 90-95 ppm. Furthermore, during a 300-min continuous operation when firing 20% mixed oil, a NOx removal efficiency of more than 90% was confirmed. This is equivalent to less than 10 ppm at the scrubber outlet when the flue gas flow rate was 870 Nm3/h. In addition, CO2 reduction when heavy oil was replaced with WVO was estimated. The system comparison is described between the plasma-chemical hybrid NOx removal and the conventional NOx removal.

Modeling the phase behavior of heavy oil and solvent mixtures

The capability of conventional oil characterization methods combined with a cubic equation of state to predict the phase behavior of heavy oil and solvent mixtures was evaluated using data for mixtures of bitumen, propane, and carbon dioxide. The bitumen was characterized based on simulated distillation (SimDist) data extrapolated using six different approaches. Each curve was divided into temperature-based pseudo-components with physical and critical properties determined from established correlations. Four sets of correlations were evaluated and modifications were proposed to extend the Twu critical property correlations to pseudo-components with normal boiling points higher than 730 °C. The phase behavior of the oil was modeled using the advanced Peng–Robinson equation of state and the interaction parameters were optimized to fit experimental saturation pressures of pseudo-binary mixtures of each solvent with the bitumen. The model was then used to predict saturation pressures and liquid–liquid phase boundaries of pseudo-ternary systems as well as asphaltene precipitation from n-heptane diluted bitumen. The best characterization of the bitumen was a Gaussian distribution of boiling points from the SimDist for the maltenes plus a Gamma distribution of the molecular weight of the asphaltene fraction. Characterizations with boiling points above 800 °C failed. Both the Lee–Kesler and Twu property correlations could be applied to heavy fractions but the Lee–Kesler correlations provided a better fit to the data. The model correctly predicted the saturation pressures and liquid–liquid boundaries for pseudo-ternary mixtures of propane–CO 2–bitumen with an AARD of less than 6%. However, the model could not correctly predict asphaltene precipitation yields from bitumen at high dilution with n-heptane.