Fundamental understanding of secondary processing aids in bitumen extraction from mined oil sands

对从开采的油砂中提取沥青的二次加工助剂的基本了解

• 批准号: 514583-2017
• 负责人: Liu, Qingxia
• 金额: $ 12.72万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=719357
• 关键词: Fundamental; understanding; secondary; processing; aids

The water based bitumen extraction processes currently being used in the oil sand industry were mainly designed to process ores that are relatively high in bitumen content and low in fines content. However, there exist a large amount of low-grade high-fines ores which alone yield poor bitumen recovery. These poor ores need to be blended with a high proportion of high-grade, low-fines good ores to achieve desired extraction performance. In some mines, however, there are not enough good ores for blending. A solution is urgently needed to enable the processing of poor ores without or with limited ore blending. To this end, Syncrude Canada Ltd. developed a new technology that significantly improves bitumen recovery, especially for poor ores. The core of this patented technology is to use the synergy of sodium hydroxide (caustic) as the primary process aid (PPA) and a selected chemical as the Secondary Process Aid (SPA). It was found that the combined use of caustic and sodium citrate as SPA not only significantly improved both bitumen recovery and froth quality, but also increased bitumen production rate. This invention enables more bitumen to be recovered from the Alberta oil sands resources. It has been successfully implemented at Syncrude for a full scale commercialapplication. However, the fundamental science regarding why and how the SPA works in bitumen extraction remains to be investigated.This proposed research is to advance our fundamental understanding of secondary processing aid (SPA) in bitumen extraction. The proposed research program will provide the scientific leadership to the oil sands industry for the development of next generation of secondary processing aid to improve the bitumen extraction performance.

目前油砂工业中使用的水基沥青提取工艺主要用于加工沥青含量相对较高、细粉含量较低的矿石。然而，存在大量的低品位高粉矿石，仅靠这些矿石的沥青回收率就很差。这些劣质矿石需要与高比例的高品位、低粉的优质矿石混合，以达到所需的提取性能。然而，在一些矿山中，没有足够的优质矿石来进行混合。迫切需要一种解决方案，能够在不进行或限制矿石混合的情况下处理贫矿石。为此，Syncrude Canada Ltd. 开发了一项新技术，可显着提高沥青回收率，特别是对于贫矿石。该专利技术的核心是利用氢氧化钠（苛性碱）作为初级加工助剂（PPA）和选定的化学品作为次级加工助剂（SPA）的协同作用。结果发现，结合使用苛性碱和柠檬酸钠作为 SPA 不仅显着提高了沥青回收率和泡沫质量，而且还提高了沥青生产率。本发明使得能够从艾伯塔省油砂资源中回收更多沥青。它已在 Syncrude 成功实现全面商业应用。然而，有关 SPA 在沥青提取中为何以及如何发挥作用的基础科学仍有待研究。本项研究旨在增进我们对沥青提取中二次加工助剂 (SPA) 的基本了解。拟议的研究计划将为油砂行业开发下一代二次加工助剂以提高沥青提取性能提供科学领导。