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Processibility of Athabasca Oil Sand Using a Laboratory Hyd ro t ransport Extraction System (LHES)
Author(s) -
Wallwork Vince,
Xu Zhenghe,
Masliyah Jacob
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450820407
Subject(s) - asphalt , oil sands , extraction (chemistry) , petroleum engineering , environmental science , secondary air injection , waste management , engineering , materials science , chemistry , chromatography , composite material
A novel laboratory scale apparatus has been developed and used to assess the extraction performance of oil sands under conditions analogous to current industrial processes. The apparatus can be used to investigate independently, the liberation of bitumen from the sand as well as air‐bitumen attachment and bitumen recovery. Experiments show that lower operating temperatures have a detrimental effect on bitumen recovery and controlled air addition is beneficial for recovery. The liberation of bitumen from sand grains has been found to proceed faster than air attachment and bitumen recovery, making the flotation the ratelimiting step in the extraction process. The potential benefit of staged air injection into hydrotransport pipelines as a possible process aid is discussed.