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ABSTRACT

Diluted Bitumen Emulsion Characterization and Separation

by

Tianmin Jiang

Stable water-in-oil emulsions persist in bitumen froth from surface mining
process of Athabasca oil sands because of asphaltenes and clay solids. This
dissertation focuses on the characterization and separation of water in diluted
bitumen emulsions.

A novel approach to process experimental data from classic NMR
experiments for the characterization of water in diluted bitumen emulsions has
been proposed and tested. NMR PGSE restricted diffusion measurement can
characterize emulsion drop size distribution. Experiments show that drop size of
emulsion does not change much with time, which indicates that water in diluted
bitumen emulsion is very stable without demulsifier. Water fraction profile and
water droplet sedimentation velocity can be obtained from MRI 1-D Ti weighted
profile measurement. Emulsion flocculation can be deduced by comparing the
sedimentation velocity from experiment data and Stokes Law prediction.

PR₅ (a polyoxyethylene (EO)/ polyoxypropylene (PO) alkylphenol formal-
dehyde resin) is an appropriate demulsifier for water in diluted bitumen emulsion.
Almost complete separation can be obtained in the absence of clay solids. For
the sample with solids, a rag layer containing solids with moderate density forms

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