The Comparison of Bitumens from Oil Sands with Different Recovery Profiles |
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| Authors: | J R Woods J Kung D Kingston T McCracken L S Kotlyar B D Sparks |
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| Affiliation: | 1. National Research Council of Canada, Institute for Chemical Process and Environmental Technology , Ottawa , Ontario , Canada;2. V. Bede Technical Associates , Ottawa , Ontario , Canada |
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| Abstract: | Abstract It has been proposed that, regardless of origin, the recovery of bitumen from oil sands is related to its viscosity. Asphaltene and resin contents are known to affect the viscosity of bitumen. In this article we compare the composition of solvent-extracted bitumens from several Athabasca oil sands with very different recovery profiles. After careful removal of any associated mineral matter by ultra-centrifugation, each bitumen sample was separated into saturate, aromatic, resin, and asphaltene (SARA) fractions by an enhanced SARA technique. The individual components were then characterized by several complementary analytical techniques, including carbon, nitrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, size exclusion chromatography molecular weight (MWn) plus proton and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Based on this comparison, we see no correlation between the recovery of bitumen and its composition. |
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| Keywords: | asphaltene bitumen composition bitumen recovery oil sands resin SARA |
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