• Clean Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.210-223
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• 2009

As a kind of an energy source to replace petroleum, the importance of oilsands is being emphasized as time goes on. In this paper, the trend of technology for the treatment of oil from oilsands was scrutinized using the patent analysis. The patents analyzed here were limited to them issued from 1973 to 2009. The technology trend of oil treatment of oilsands was analyzed by classifying each patent based on the year of publication, the country, the type of technology, and the major applicant of the patent.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2008

This study was carried out to investigate physical and chemical characteristics of the distillates and residue of Athabasca oilsand bitumen obtained from Canada, using a vacuum distillation unit. The distillates and residue produced from the vacuum distillation were characterized through atomic analysis, SARA analysis, and measurement of boiling point distribution, molecular weight, and API gravity. The vacuum distillation equipment consisted of a 6-litter volume vessel, a glass-packed column, a condenser, a reflux device, a flask fer collecting distillates, and a temperature controller. The cutting of distillates was performed with four steps under the condition of full vacuum and maximum temperature of $320^{\circ}C$. The results showed that the sulfur amount and average molecular weight of the distillates were significantly reduced compared to those of oilsand bitumen. As the cutting temperature increased, the hydrogen amount decreased but the sulfur amount and average molecular weight increased in the distillates.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.35-45
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• 2009

Reservoir Characterization (RC) using 3-D seismic attributes analysis can provide properties of the oil sand reservoirs, beyond seismic resolution. For example, distributions and temporal bed thicknesses of reservoirs could be characterized by Spectral Decomposition (SD) and additional seismic attributes such as wavelet classification. To extract physical properties of the reservoirs, we applied 3-D seismic attributes analysis to the oil sand reservoirs in McMurray formation, in BlackGold Oilsands Lease, Alberta Canada. Because of high viscosity of the bitumen, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology will be necessarily applied to produce the bitumen in a steam chamber generated by Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). To optimize the application of SAGD, it is critical to identify the distributions and thicknesses of the channel sand reservoirs and shale barriers in the promising areas. By 3-D seismic attributes analysis, we could understand the expected paleo-channel and characteristics of the reservoirs. However, further seismic analysis (e.g., elastic impedance inversion and AVO inversion) as well as geological interpretations are still required to improve the resolution and quality of RC.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.38-45
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• 2008

In this work, we investigated the variation of physical and chemical characteristics of solvent-insolubles and solvent-solubles in Canada's Athabasca oil sands by solvent-insolubles experiments. N-Heptane, n-Hexane, and n-Pentane were tested for solvents and asphaltenes were separated from maltenes by using a modified ASTM D 3279 method. Elemental analysis, boiling point distribution (SIMDIS), molecular weight distribution, heavy metal contents, API gravity, viscosity and SARA fractions were measured for thorough samples. The asphaltenes-removed maltenes contained less sulfur and heavy metal amounts and had lower molecular weight than the original bitumen. N-Pentane solvent could lower sulfur and heavy metal amounts, molecular weight, and viscosity of maltenes compared to the other solvents. Eventually, we confirmed that the obtained experimental data could be used as basic informations of bitumen upgrading processes for the production of SCO (synthetic crude oil).

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.5-9
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• 2016

The purpose of this paper is to define criteria to be used as part of the engineering design for an oil sands plant equipped with the steam assisted gravity drainage process. In this effort, the oil treatment process of an oil sands plant on a pilot scale was focused for detailed investigation. The thermodynamic properties of the process fluid, which is mainly composed of bitumen and water, were estimated with the CPA model. The commercial tool aspen HYSYS was used for the analysis throughout this work along with the provided input data and some necessary assumptions. From the simulation results, the heat and mass balances for a 300 BPD plant were established in order to define standard data for its modular design. In particular, the basis of design for equipment size, heat transfer areas, capital cost and operation cost was extensively discussed.

• Clean Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.54-59
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• 2009

In this study, the separation of water/bitumen emulsion was investigated by chemical demulsification method. Motor oils (GS Caltex Deluxe Gold V 7.5W/30, Hyundai gear oil 85W/140) and asphalt (AP-5, KS M 2201, Dongnam Petrochemical MFG. Co.) were used as model oils in the preliminary experiments to effectively remove water from water/bitumen emulsion. The bitumen extracted from Canadian oilsands was used in this study. The water/oil emulsion was not separated without demulsifiers, and Hyundai motor oil showed higher efficiency of water separation at a low concentration of demulsifier compared with that for GS Caltex motor oil. However, as the concentration increased, the efficiency did not rapidly increase compared with that of GS Caltex motor oil. It was highly speculated that the water phase of Hyundai motor oil was not dispersed well compared with that of GS Caltex motor oil because the viscosity of Hyundai motor oil was much higher than that of GS Caltex motor oil. The demulsifier of higher HLB (hydrophilic - lipophilic balance) value had high separation efficiencies in water/oil emulsion. The TWEEN 20 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate solution) showed better separation efficiency than other demulsifiers.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.139-151
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• 2022

SAGD (Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage) method is widely used for oil recovery in oil sands regions. The SAGD operation causes surface displacement, which can affect the stability of oil recovery plants and trigger various geological disasters. Therefore, it isimportant to monitor the surface displacement due to SAGD in the oil sands region. In this study, the surface displacement due to SAGD operations of the Athabasca oil sands region in Alberta, Canada, was observed by applying Permanent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PSInSAR) technique to the Sentinel-1 time series SAR data acquired from 2016 to 2021. We also investigated the construction and expansion of SAGD facilitiesfrom Landsat-7/8 time seriesimages, from which the characteristics of the surface displacement according to the oil production activity of SAGD were analyzed. Uplift rates of 0.3-2.5 cm/yr in the direction of line of sight were observed over the SAGDs and their vicinity, whereas subsidence rates of -0.3--0.6 cm/yr were observed in areas more than several kilometers away from the SAGDs and not affected by oil recovery activities. Through the analysis of Landsat-7/8 images, we could confirm that the SAGDs operating after 2012 and showing high oil production activity caused uplift rates greater than 1.6 cm/yr due to the subsurface steam injection. Meanwhile, very small uplift rates of several mm per year occurred over SAGDs which have been operated for a longer period of time and show relatively low oil production activity. This was probably due to the compression of reservoir sandstone due to continuous oil recovery. The subsidence observed in areas except for the SAGDs and their vicinity estimated to be a gradual land subsidence caused by melting of the permafrost. Considering the subsidence, it was expected that the uplift due to SAGD operation would be greater than that observed by the PSInSAR. The results of this study confirm that the PSInSAR can be used as an effective means for evaluating productivity and stability of SAGD in the extreme cold regions.