Application of cavitating jets to bitumen separation from oil sands.

摘要

The water and energy (natural gas) requirements with the present technology of bitumen extraction are such that the projected increase in oil production will be constrained by existing water and natural gas availability. Consequently, continued economic growth is directly related to the development of new energy-efficient methods of bitumen extraction.;In the present study, a special cavitation jet experimental setup for investigation of bitumen separation is designed, built and tested. For a given composition of the oil sand, comprising specific volumetric contents of bitumen, sand, air and clay, the efficiency of the cavitating jet on oilsand dissolution is investigated for various water temperatures, oil sand volumes and time of experiment. The results are compared with the similar experiments with a "non-cavitating" nozzle. In addition, the cavitation phenomenon in the water, containing different volumes of oil sand is experimentally investigated. It has been proven that subjecting oil sands to a cavitating jet allows to extract bitumen at room temperature. The proof is based on comparison of experimental results for cavitating and non-cavitating jets. The experiments with different oil sand concentration in water show that cavitation jet can produce effective cavitation in the multiphase medium.;This PhD thesis work focuses on investigation of fundamental aspects of bitumen separation from oil sands when subjected to cavitation jets. Cavitating jet is commonly used for cleaning, cutting, digging and peening. Its effect is based on cavitation phenomenon, which is formation and collapse of bubbles in a liquid. When the cavitation bubbles collapse, they create local zones of large pressure and temperature.