Résumé | It has been proposed that, regardless of origin, the recovery of bitumen from oil sands is related to its viscosity. Asphaltene and resin contents are known to affect the viscosity of bitumen. Here we compare the composition of solvent extracted bitumens from several Athabasca oil sands having very different recovery profiles. After careful removal of any associated mineral matter by ultra-centrifugation, each bitumen sample was separated into saturate, aromatic, resin and asphaltene fractions by an enhanced SARA technique. The individual components were then characterized by several complementary analytical techniques, including CHNS, size exclusion chromatography molecular weight (MWn) plus proton and ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Based on this comparison, we see no correlation between the recovery of bitumen and its composition. |
---|