LAUSR

Abstract Solvent-aided bitumen recovery processes are relatively new approaches to reduce the negative environmental impacts and production costs of steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). Thermo-physical properties of these systems such as density, viscosity, phase partitioning and saturation pressure are of great importance in design of solvent-aided processes. Butane is a promising solvent for solvent-aided bitumen recovery processes. Addition of light or heavier solvents to butane can provide an engineering solution to improve the efficiency of solvent-aided processes. In this study, equilibrium measurements of butane and bitumen mixture were conducted at temperatures of 40 and 60 °C and pressures well above vapour pressure of the solvent. Then, the effect of introducing a second solvent as an additive to the butane–bitumen mixture was investigated. Propane, toluene and dimethyl ether were added to the original mixtures of butane and bitumen in separate sets of experiments and changes in thermo-physical properties were determined. It was determined that adding butane can lower the viscosity of the bitumen by several orders of magnitude. It was also concluded that although propane can significantly increase the saturation pressure of the mixture, it results in higher amount of asphaltene precipitation. The effect of dimethyl ether however is favourable because not only increases the vapour pressure but also reduces the asphaltene precipitation similar to toluene.