Effect of Emulsification Process Conditions on the Properties of Water-in-Bitumen Emulsion

Abstract

Steam or hot water injection into the bitumen reservoir leads to the formation of water-in-bitumen emulsions which exhibit higher viscosity compared to the original bitumen; and thereby affects production flow. The understanding of the effect of formation process conditions on the nature of this emulsion could assist in production improvement, design and simulation of post-production separation system. In this work, water was dispersed in bitumen phase at different temperatures 50-180 and mixing speeds 11.7-23.3 s 1. Emulsi cation properties such as percentage emulsi cation extent of water dispersion into the bitumen , and the particle size of emulsion were analyzed to evaluate the effects of the process conditions. Ultimately, correlations have been presented to predict emulsion properties from the process conditions.