Open AccessAn evaluation of the use of porous membranes for the dewatering of wellhead bitumen/water/mineral emulsions
Author(s) -
B A Farnard,
H Sawatzky,
M A Poirier
Publication year - 1984
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.4095/302503
Subject(s) - dewatering , membrane , asphalt , fouling , waste management , steam injection , filtration (mathematics) , environmental science , materials science , petroleum engineering , wellhead , pulp and paper industry , chemical engineering , chemistry , engineering , composite material , geotechnical engineering , biochemistry , statistics , mathematics
In situ bitumen and heavy oil recovery by steam stimulation can produce large volumes of oil-in-water emulsions. Several difficulties facing recovery operations are the limited water supply in relation to the volumes required for steam injection, and theprocessing of water-rich emulsions to low-water content bitumen. In current practice, these emulsions require substantial amounts of chemical additives with large settling tanks and elevated temperatures. An evaluation of the use of porous membranes for the treatment of these emulsions has been madewhich has led to the development of a process that will produce single pass (80%) steam quality water as membrane permeate and a bitumen-rich stream which can be processed by existing dewatering methods. Details of the performance of several membranes of various pore sizes are given and acomparison is made with existing single-pass steam boiler requirements. Of those tested, cellulose membranes resisted fouling by the bitumen thus were the most promising.