Chapter 6
6.2. Future work
For diluted bitumen emulsion, NMR CPMG can not get useful information if
T2 distribution is not distinguishable for dispersed water and continuous oil phase;
NMR PGSE restricted measurement can obtain drop size distribution, but can not
get direct information of water/ oil fraction; 1-D MRI profile measurement can get
water/ oil fraction profile, but needs total water/ oil fraction for calibration. Hence
total water fraction can not be directly obtained from these measurements.
Profile diffusion editing measurement [1], which is the combination of these
three methods, may be used in this case to solve the problem. This method can
provide profile of 2-D T2-D (diffusivity) or T2-a (drop radius) map of the sample. If
the parameters are appropriate, in T2-D map, water and oil peaks can be
separated by the diffusivity difference. Water fraction profile can be obtained by
integrating the water and oil peaks separately of T2-D map for each slice of the
sample. Drop size distribution profile can be also obtained directly from T2-a map.
The separation time (12 h - 24 h) is relatively long and the residual water and
solid contents in oil are relatively high, which may not satisfy industrial
requirements. To accelerate the aggregation and sedimentation of water and solid,
appropriate flocculator needs to be used for emulsion to optimize the separation.
Wettability tests show that over 90 % of kaolinite becomes water-wet adding
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