A solvent or diluent can moderate thermal upgrading in more than one way. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relative contributions of solvent dilution, H-shuttling and H-donation during low temperature (400 �C) thermal upgrading of bitumen. The study employed Cold Lake bitumen with tetralin (H-donor), mesitylene (H-shuttler) and naphthalene, which has no H-transfer properties. The anticipated benefits of H-transfer solvents were observed, which included an increase in liquid yield and a decrease in coke yield. The surprising result was that a 40% reduction in coke yield could be obtained purely by physical dilution without chemical participation in the free radical process. This effect was seen even at low dilution (0.25:1 solvent to bitumen ratio) and was only marginally improved by increasing the solvent concentration. Thus, the widely reported yield benefit caused by H-transfer solvents can partly be ascribed to physical effects.

Impact of solvents on thermal conversion of oil sands derived bitumen

245th National Meeting (2013)

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