Heavy oil is characterized by its high viscosity, which is a major obstacle to both logging and recovery. Due to the loss of T 2 information shorter than the echo spacing ( TE ), estimation of heavy oil properties from NMR T 2 measurements is usually problematic. In this work, a new method has been developed to overcome the echo spacing restriction of NMR spectrometer during the measurement of heavy oil. A FID measurement supplemented the CPMG in an effort to recover the lost T 2 data. Constrained by the initial magnetization ( M 0 ) estimated from the FID and Curie's law and assuming lognormal distribution for bitumen, the corrected T 2 of bitumen can be obtained. This new method successfully overcomes the TE restriction of the NMR spectrometer and is nearly independent on the TE applied in the measurement. This method was applied in the measurement of systems at elevated temperatures (8 ∼ 90 °C) and some important petrophysical properties of Athabasca bitumen, such as hydrogen index ( HI ), fluid content and viscosity were evaluated by using the corrected T 2 . Well log NMR T 2 measurements of bitumen appear to be significantly longer than the laboratory results. This is likely due to the dissolved gas in bitumen. The T 2 distribution depends on oil viscosity and dissolved gas concentration, which can vary throughout the field. In this work, the viscosity and laboratory NMR measurements were made on the recombined live bitumen sample and the synthetic Brookfield oil as a function of dissolved gas concentrations. The effects of CH 4 , CO 2 , and C 2 H 6 on the viscosity and T 2 response of these two heavy oils at different saturation pressures were investigated. The investigations on live oil viscosity show that, regardless of the gas type used for saturation, the live oil T 2 correlates with viscosity/temperature ratio on a log-log scale. More importantly, the changes of T 2 and viscosity/temperature ratio caused by solution gas follows the same trend of those caused by temperature variations on the dead oil. This conclusion holds for both the bitumen and the synthetic Brookfield oil. This finding on the relationship between the oil T 2 and its corresponding viscosity/temperature ratio creates a way for in-situ viscosity evaluation of heavy oil through NMR well logging.

Combustion assisted gravity drainage (CAGD) is an integrated horizontal well air injection process for recovery and upgrading of heavy oil and bitumen from tar sands. Short-distance air injection and direct mobilized oil production are the main features of this process that lead to stable sweep and high oil recovery. These characteristics identify the CAGD process as a high-potential oil recovery method either in primary production or as a follow-up process in reservoirs that have been partially depleted. The CAGD process combines the advantages of both gravity drainage and conventional in-situ combustion (ISC). A combustion chamber develops in a wide area in the reservoir around the horizontal injector and consists of flue gases, injected air, and mobilized oil. Gravity drainage is the main mechanism for mobilized oil production and extraction of flue gases from the reservoir. A 3D laboratory cell with dimensions of 0.62 m, 0.41 m, and 0.15 m was designed and constructed to study the CAGD process. The combustion cell was fitted with 48 thermocouples. A horizontal producer was placed near the base of the model and a parallel horizontal injector in the upper part at a distance of 0.13 m. Peace River heavy oil and Athabasca bitumen were used in these experiments. Experimental results showed that oil displacement occurs mainly by gravity drainage. Vigorous oxidation reactions were observed at the early stages near the heel of the injection well, where peak temperatures of about 550ºC to 690ºC were recorded. Produced oil from CAGD was upgraded by 6 and 2ºAPI for Peace River heavy oil and Athabasca bitumen respectively. Steady O2 consumption for both oil samples confirmed the stability of the process. Experimental data showed that the distance between horizontal injection and production wells is very critical. Close vertical spacing has negative effect on the process as coke deposits plug the production well and stop the process prematurely. CAGD was also laboratory tested as a follow-up process. For this reason, air was injected through dual parallel wells in a mature steam chamber. Laboratory results showed that the process can effectively create self-sustained combustion front in the previously steam-operated porous media. A maximum temperature of 617ºC was recorded, with cumulative oil recovery of 12% of original oil in place (OOIP). Post-experiment sand pack analysis indicated that in addition to sweeping the residual oil in the steam chamber, the combustion process created a hard coke shell around the boundaries. This hard shell isolated the steam chamber from the surrounding porous media and reduced the steam leakage. A thermal simulator was used for history matching the laboratory data while capturing the main production mechanisms. Numerical analysis showed very good agreement between predicted and experimental results in terms of fluid production rate, combustion temperature and produced gas composition. The validated simulation model was used to compare the performance of the CAGD process to other practiced thermal recovery methods like steam assistance gravity drainage (SAGD) and toe to heel air injection (THAI). Laboratory results showed that CAGD has the lowest cumulative energy-to-oil ratio while its oil production rate is comparable to SAGD.

The transportation of heavy oil is a pressing problem. Various methods have been devised to mitigate the reluctance to flow of these highly dense and viscous oils. This study is focused on evaluating a case for post-production partial upgrading of heavy oil. Specifically, we analyze the impact of visbreaking, a mild thermal cracking method, on the economic and energy demands of the post-production process. Using conservative modeling techniques and principles we find significant cost and energy savings can potentially result out of visbreaking. Cost savings result as a consequence of reduced diluent usage. Even the most conservative modeling scenario under consideration exhibits significant cost savings in the form of reduced diluent usage; these savings not only offset operational costs but provide short payback periods on capital expenditures. Additionally, the lower gravity blend resulting from visbreaking can also bring about energy and cost savings in pipeline transportation and positively impact the heavy oil value chain from the producer to a refinery or regional upgrading facility. From this basic analysis of the potential of visbreaking, we can recommend investing resources to study its viability in the field. Using this analysis as a tipping off point and with a detailed look at the chemistry of the oil in question it is possible to make a very viable case for visbreaking. In a similar vein, this analysis can serve as a guide in making a case for other partial upgrading methods as well.

Within the confines of this study, numerical simulations of time dependent variation of downdrag forces on the diaphragm walls are analyzed for a generic soil site, where consolidation is not completed. As part of the first generic scenario, consolidation of a clayey site due to the application of the embankment is assessed. Then two sets of diaphragm walls, with and without bitumen coating, are analyzed. For comparison purposes, conventional analytical calculation methods (i.e., rigid-plastic and elastic-plastic soil models) are also used, the results of which, establish a good basis of comparison with finite-element based simulation results. Additionaly, the same generic cases are also analyzed during the stages of excavation, when diaphragm walls are laterally loaded. As the concluding remark, on the basis of time dependent stress and displacement responses of bitumen coated and uncoated diaphragm walls, it was observed that negative skin friction is a rather complex time-dependent soil-structure and loading interaction problem. This problem needs to be assessed through methods capable of modeling the complex nature of the interaction. Current analytical methods may significantly over-estimate the amount of negative skin friction applied on the system, hence they are judged to be over-conservative. However, if negative skin friction is accompanied by partial unloading as expected in diaphragm walls or piles used for deep excavations, then they may be subject to adverse combinations of axial load and moment, which may produce critical combinations expressed in interaction diagrams. Neglecting the axial force and moment interaction may produce unconservative results.

Catalytic naphthalene hydrogenation to tetralin in water/hydrocarbon emulsions with simultaneous water gas shift as the hydrogen source was performed in a 300 ml batch autoclave as a model for aromatic hydrogenation in water/bitumen emulsions. The catalyst utilized was an unsupported and dispersed type based on molybdenum sulfide (MoS2). Distinguishing the fate of hydrogen from water as opposed to molecular hydrogen in hydrogenation and water gas shift was accomplished by utilizing deuterium oxide (D2O) with NMR spectroscopy. The use of D2O allowed determination of isotope effects when compared with H2O. Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy was performed to observe CO adsorption on the MoS2 sulfide surface. Ruthenium was tested as a potential candidate to enhance the activity of the Mo catalyst. Iron, nickel and vanadium were utilized in combination with molybdenum to test promotional/inhibitive activity during naphthalene hydrogenation and water gas shift since Ni and V are found in significant quantities in real bitumen feed. Finally, a multifactorial experiment was performed to test the hydrogenation and water gas shift activity of a binary VNiMo-sulfide catalyst towards H2S partial pressure, temperature and H2 versus CO atmospheres. Deuterium from D2O was incorporated into both saturated and aromatic hydrogen positions in tetralin products. Calculation of a Hydrogenation Index and Exchange Index indicated the extent of H-exchange is greater than hydrogenation. Exchange between D2O and organic products was enhanced with the MoS2 catalyst under H2 or CO compared to N2. A kinetically measured isotope effect of 1.58 was in agreement with a quasi-equilibrium thermodynamic isotope effect for O-H dissociations measured in the literature. A true kinetic isotope effect may be masked by transient surface concentrations occurring under batch conditions. Two strong vibrational bands associated with adsorbed CO were observed over MoS2 above 160 °C. Activation of the MoS2 surface with CO produces COS, suggesting an analgous mechanism to the production of H2S during reduction in H2. In the presence of H2S, Ru displayed low catalytic activity for both water gas shift and naphthalene hydrogenation, attributed to incomplete sulfidation to active RuS2. FeMo and VMo exhibited lower hydrogenation activity than Mo, but the water gas shift activity of VMo was high. A ternary VNiMo displayed lower hydrogenation activity than NiMo and Mo but was higher than VMo, implying Ni could offset the inhibition caused by V. Recycle of V and Ni rich asphaltene residues in catalytic slurry upgrading may therefore be feasible. An analysis of the effect of H2S pressure, temperature and type of reduction gas (CO vs. H¬2) concluded that temperature had the greatest positive effect on rate, followed by a small interaction effect of temperature/gas type and PH2S/gas type. The proximity to equilibrium conversions in WGS limited the analysis, while equilibrium limited the conversion of naphthalene at 380 °C in the batch reactor.

Catalytic naphthalene hydrogenation to tetralin in water/hydrocarbon emulsions with simultaneous water gas shift as the hydrogen source was performed in a 300 ml batch autoclave as a model for aromatic hydrogenation in water/bitumen emulsions. The catalyst utilized was an unsupported and dispersed type based on molybdenum sulfide (MoS2). Distinguishing the fate of hydrogen from water as opposed to molecular hydrogen in hydrogenation and water gas shift was accomplished by utilizing deuterium oxide (D2O) with NMR spectroscopy. The use of D2O allowed determination of isotope effects when compared with H2O. Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy was performed to observe CO adsorption on the MoS2 sulfide surface. Ruthenium was tested as a potential candidate to enhance the activity of the Mo catalyst. Iron, nickel and vanadium were utilized in combination with molybdenum to test promotional/inhibitive activity during naphthalene hydrogenation and water gas shift since Ni and V are found in significant quantities in real bitumen feed. Finally, a multifactorial experiment was performed to test the hydrogenation and water gas shift activity of a binary VNiMo-sulfide catalyst towards H2S partial pressure, temperature and H2 versus CO atmospheres. Deuterium from D2O was incorporated into both saturated and aromatic hydrogen positions in tetralin products. Calculation of a Hydrogenation Index and Exchange Index indicated the extent of H-exchange is greater than hydrogenation. Exchange between D2O and organic products was enhanced with the MoS2 catalyst under H2 or CO compared to N2. A kinetically measured isotope effect of 1.58 was in agreement with a quasi-equilibrium thermodynamic isotope effect for O-H dissociations measured in the literature. A true kinetic isotope effect may be masked by transient surface concentrations occurring under batch conditions. Two strong vibrational bands associated with adsorbed CO were observed over MoS2 above 160 °C. Activation of the MoS2 surface with CO produces COS, suggesting an analgous mechanism to the production of H2S during reduction in H2. In the presence of H2S, Ru displayed low catalytic activity for both water gas shift and naphthalene hydrogenation, attributed to incomplete sulfidation to active RuS2. FeMo and VMo exhibited lower hydrogenation activity than Mo, but the water gas shift activity of VMo was high. A ternary VNiMo displayed lower hydrogenation activity than NiMo and Mo but was higher than VMo, implying Ni could offset the inhibition caused by V. Recycle of V and Ni rich asphaltene residues in catalytic slurry upgrading may therefore be feasible. An analysis of the effect of H2S pressure, temperature and type of reduction gas (CO vs. H¬2) concluded that temperature had the greatest positive effect on rate, followed by a small interaction effect of temperature/gas type and PH2S/gas type. The proximity to equilibrium conversions in WGS limited the analysis, while equilibrium limited the conversion of naphthalene at 380 °C in the batch reactor.

The process of vapor extraction (VAPEX) is a recovery process which targets the heavy oil and bitumen resources. Owing to high viscosity values for these unconventional types of oil, the recovery processes in such reserves are still challenging. The unconventional oil recovery processes usually include a mechanism for reducing the oil viscosity by means of heat, solvent, or both. The process of VAPEX utilizes the injection of a light hydrocarbon solvent into a reservoir for recovering the viscous oil in place by diffusing into the oil and by providing sufficient mobility to the oil upon dilution. Although this process offers a variety of advantages over the alternative thermal recovery processes such as SAGD or CSS, it suffers from two major drawbacks. First, the oil production rates obtained in the VAPEX process are considerably lower than those obtained in the thermal processes. Second, the solvent cost is considerably high. We tried to tackle these two problems during this research and we searched for potentials for an improved VAPEX process. Three potentially improved occurrences of a VAPEX project were found when: 1) the injected solvent was superheated, 2) the wettability of media was altered to oil-wet, and 3) the vugs were distributed in the porous media. Warm VAPEX process is introduced in which the VAPEX process is thermally augmented through superheating the solvent vapor. An attractive feature of this process is the capability of the solvent in being able to condense at the bitumen-solvent interface, which provides the opportunity for the bitumen to be upgraded in-situ through asphaltene precipitation. The asphaltene precipitation was not observed during the conventional vapor extraction process and was only observed during the warm VAPEX process. Upon a moderate level of superheating, the production rate of bitumen was sufficiently improved while the solvent content of the produced oil was significantly decreased as a result of decreased solubility of solvent in the oil at elevated temperatures. Therefore, more oil was produced at lower costs. The warm VAPEX experiments were conducted at 4 temperature levels in high and low permeability media using Cold Lake bitumen and Lloydminster heavy oil blend, n-pentane was used as solvent. The warm VAPEX process was found to be more effective for Cold Lake bitumen and for less permeable media. The potential of in-situ upgrading decreased when the level of superheating increased. The second potential for an improved VAPEX process obtained when the wettability of porous medium was altered to oil-wet conditions. Although this wettability condition is harmful to steam-based recovery processes, such as SAGD, it becomes beneficial to VAPEX. For the application of VAPEX process in fractionally wet media the wettability of glass beads was altered to oil-wet conditions through silylation process, and the VAPEX experiments were conducted in a random packing of water-wet and oil-wet beads of similar size at 7 different compositions. A substantial increase in the oil production rate was observed in a completely oil-wet medium, compared to the water-wet medium. By increasing the fraction of oil-wet beads in the packing up to a critical composition, the production rate of live oil increased linearly with the increase in the fraction of oil-wet beads in the packing during the vapor extraction process. Beyond this critical composition, however, the production rate of live oil did not change significantly with further increase in the fraction of the oil-wet beads in the randomly packed medium. Vugs were also found to be beneficial to the production performance of the VAPEX process. The presence of vugs was investigated in synthesized vugular media at 4 different levels of vuggy-to-total pore volume ratios. The performance of vugular media was compared to that of the homogeneous sintered media. The vugs facilitated the production of oil during the VAPEX process by providing flow communication between the vugs and the surrounding matrix, and therefore, by providing a local high permeability pathways towards the production well. A peak in the oil production rate was observed whenever a series of vugs were simultaneously invaded by the solvent vapor. The overall production rate of oil was higher in vuggy media compared to a homogeneous media at the same overall porosity and permeability. Furthermore, the magnitude of residual oil saturation left behind was also slightly lower in vuggy medium because the vugs were perfectly drained. Finally, a constant rate air injection (CRAI) porosimetry method was developed for characterization of vugs in a vugular media. This method was successfully tested in different synthetic vugular media, and the results illustrated higher accuracy in CRAI porosimetry method compared to constant rate mercury porosimetry. CRAI porosimetry method was also employed for identification of higher permeability regions embedded in a matrix of lower permeability. The analysis of a typical porosimetry signal was also modified.

Polymer modified bitumen is a binder obtained by the incorporation of various types of polymers in bitumen using mechanical mixing or chemical reactions. There are several factors affecting the properties of polymer modified bituminous composites such as / chemical composition of bitumen, kind of polymer and filler, compatibility of bitumen and polymer, amount of bitumen, polymer and filler, particle size of filler and process conditions. The main objective of this study is to determine the effects of polymer type and concentration on mechanical, thermal, properties and morphologies of bitumen based composites. It was also aimed to determine the effect of process temperature on mechanical and thermal properties of bituminous composites. Bituminous composites were prepared by using Brabender Plastic Coder, PLV 151. Mixing was made at two different temperatures (150 &ordm / C and 180 &ordm / C) at 60 rpm for 20 minutes. Three different kinds of polymer and four different polymer concentrations were used to understand the effect of polymer type and polymer concentration on bituminous composites properties. Low density polyethylene (LDPE), styrene-butadiene-styrene copolymer (SBS) and ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) were chosen as polymer. The compositions were adjusted as the polymer volumes were equal to 5%, 10%, 20% and 50% of bitumen volume. According to the test results, addition of polymer increases the mechanical properties, reduces the melt flow index and thermal conductivity values of bituminous composites. Morphological analysis results show that, fibrillation occurs at tensile fractured surfaces of composites which contain LDPE and EVA when the polymer concentration reaches 20% of bitumen volume.

There are many different types of fillers used for bitumen modification such as / silica, limestone, basalt, mica, oyster shells. Filler gives rigidity, stiffness or hardness, regulates thermal expansion and shrinkage, improves heat resistance, and modifies rheological properties of bituminous composites. The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of filler type and ratio on mechanical, thermal properties and morphologies of bitumen based composites. It was also aimed to improve the heat resistivity of the bituminous composite to obtain a material with good mechanical and heat isolation properties. Bituminous composites were prepared by using Brabender Plasti-Corder, PLV 151. Mixing was made at 180 &ordm / C with 60 rpm for 15 minutes. Two grades of bitumen as 20/30 and 50/70 penetrations were used. CaCO3, CaO, mica, baryte, kieselguhr and silaned kieselguhr were used as fillers in this study. Ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, styrene&amp / #8211 / butadiene rubber, and styrene&amp / #8211 / butadiene&amp / #8211 / styrene block copolymer were used as polymers. According to the test results, using mica at low percentages had the effect of decreasing the viscosity of the bitumen due to its flow alignment property. Baryte gave high heat capacity and low heat conductivity to bituminous material. EVA containing samples showed the best combination on mechanical properties. The silanation process decreased the pore sizes as observed in mercury porosimetry experiments. A decreased amount of bitumen impregnation was obtained by the silanation process, clearly observed in SEM micrographs.

In this thesis, the Mechanical properties of polypropylene yarn of outer protection layer on Submarine High Voltage Cable, twisted around submarine cable,is determined on various conditions at ABB Company. In the first step, tensile tests are done with polypropylene yarn specimens with and without Bitumen at Room temperature. In the second step,tensile tests are done with polypropylene yarn specimens with and without Bitumen and with knotted polypropylene yarn namely: the Fishermen’s knot, the Weaver’s knot, the Square knot and the Overhand knot at Warm Condition (60˚c) and Cold Condition(-5˚c). In the final step,it is proposed to obtain numerical solution using FEM analysis with ABAQUS Software to obtain the hoop stress , the yarn stresses from twisting cable and analyzing of the cylindrical buckling in the buckling torsion and buckling bending on the outer layer of submarine cable with polypropylene material that is mixed with Bitumen.