Abstract
The addition of entrained air is crucial to the success of the bitumen extraction process in the mining and processing of Athabasca oil sand. Air-water, air-clay-slurry, and air-sand slurry systems were tested using a 25 mm pipeline loop. Both the bubble size- and gas volume fraction-profiles were asymmetric, with most of the air found in the upper portion of the pipe. The degree of asymmetry of the bubble size distributions and the mean bubble size decreased upon the addition of particles, indicating that the particles inhibit bubble coalescence. The gas volume fraction profiles became more asymmetric in the presence of sand particles. For commercial oil sand hydrotransport operations, the optimal bubble size for bitumen recovery is unlikely to be achieved without the use of surfactants. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering (Montreal, Quebec, Canada 8/23-27/2009).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages | 520e |
| State | Published - 2009 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering: Incorporating the 59th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference and the 24th Interamerican Congress of Chemical Engineering - Montreal, QC, Canada Duration: 23 Aug 2009 → 27 Aug 2009 |
Conference
| Conference | 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering: Incorporating the 59th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference and the 24th Interamerican Congress of Chemical Engineering |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Canada |
| City | Montreal, QC |
| Period | 23/08/09 → 27/08/09 |
