CO2-responsive surfactants for greener extraction of heavy oil: A bench-scale demonstration

Lu，Yi1; Li，Rui1,2; Manica，Rogerio1; Zhang，Zhiqing1; Liu，Qingxia1,3; Xu，Zhenghe1,4

2022-03-01

10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130554

Journal of Cleaner Production   影响因子和分区

0959-6526

In water-based oil sands extraction, the recovery of ultra-heavy oil is determined by two essential stages: liberation and aeration. However, these two stages prefer opposite water-bitumen interfacial tension conditions, limiting the overall bitumen recovery. Utilizing their switchable properties, CO-responsive surfactants were demonstrated in this study to enhance bitumen recovery in oil sands extraction. Tuning the interfacial tension in each stage improved significantly both bitumen liberation and aeration. As a result, using CO-responsive surfactants in bench-scale extraction tests at ambient temperature improved bitumen recovery from a mid-grade Canadian oil sands ore from 15.0% to 50.4%. Moreover, the use of CO-responsive surfactants also produced cleaner bituminous froths, which is beneficial to downstream processing of froth. The energy consumption during bitumen recovery was estimated to reduce dramatically by at least 156.1 TJ per day, attributed to the elimination of heating the processing water as practiced in the current commercial operations. In general, this study demonstrated not only the feasibility and advantages of using CO-responsive surfactants in oil sands extraction at a bench-scale level, but also a new avenue to develop cleaner and greener techniques for heavy oil industry.

Carbon footprint reduction CO2 utilization CO2-responsive surfactant Heavy oil recovery Oil sands Sustainable development

EI

英语

通讯

20220511568339

Bituminous materials ; Carbon dioxide ; Carbon footprint ; Crude oil ; Energy utilization ; Extraction ; Heavy oil production ; Recovery ; Sand ; Surface active agents

Bituminous Materials:411 ; Environmental Engineering:454 ; Soils and Soil Mechanics:483.1 ; Oil Field Production Operations:511.1 ; Petroleum Deposits:512.1 ; Energy Utilization:525.3 ; Chemical Operations:802.3 ; Chemical Agents and Basic Industrial Chemicals:803 ; Inorganic Compounds:804.2

2-s2.0-85123691628

Scopus

1.Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering,University of Alberta,Edmonton,T6G 1H9,Canada
2.Petroleum Engineering School,Southwest Petroleum University,Chengdu,610500,China
3.College of New Materials and New Energies,Shenzhen Technology University,Shenzhen,518118,China
4.Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Interfacial Science and Engineering of Materials,Department of Materials Science and Engineering,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China

Lu，Yi,Li，Rui,Manica，Rogerio,et al. CO2-responsive surfactants for greener extraction of heavy oil: A bench-scale demonstration[J]. Journal of Cleaner Production,2022,338.

Lu，Yi,Li，Rui,Manica，Rogerio,Zhang，Zhiqing,Liu，Qingxia,&Xu，Zhenghe.(2022).CO2-responsive surfactants for greener extraction of heavy oil: A bench-scale demonstration.Journal of Cleaner Production,338.

Lu，Yi,et al."CO2-responsive surfactants for greener extraction of heavy oil: A bench-scale demonstration".Journal of Cleaner Production 338(2022).