Experimental and modeling studies of MacKay River bitumen and water

Highlights

• A new data set of water solubility in MacKay River bitumen is reported.

• Water solubility in bitumen is measured at temperatures up to 493 K.

• Water solubility in bitumen increases with temperature and reaches 24 mol.% at 493 K.

• Density and viscosity of bitumen rich phase are measured and correlated.

Abstract

Understanding of thermodynamic and thermo-physical properties of water-bitumen system is the necessary requirement towards better design and successful operation of thermal recovery processes of bitumen and heavy oils. This work reports the new experimental data of water solubility in MacKay River bitumen. Water solubility in bitumen is measured at temperatures up to 493 K. Density and viscosity of bitumen rich phase are measured to investigate effect of water dissolution on thermo-physical properties of bitumen phase. We apply the Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR-EoS) coupled with Henry's law to model the measured data and to predict the water solubility in bitumen. Density and viscosity of water-bitumen mixture are correlated to represent the experimental data of the water saturated bitumen. The results presented in this work can be applied in simulation and studies of thermal bitumen recovery processes.