Canadian oil sand bitumen is a very viscous liquid. Its viscosity reaches 300000cP. To meet the specification of pipeline transportation, about 30% diluent must be blended to reduce the viscosity to a maximum of 350 cP and the density to maximum 940 kg/m<sup>3</sup>. Addition of diluent represents an extra production cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Utilization of microwave irradiation to partially upgrade bitumen is proposed and researched in this work. Microwave irradiation with the aid of carbon-based microwave susceptors (activated carbon, biochar, coke, and graphite) were tested for their ability to promote localized thermal cracking within the highly polar constituents of bitumen at about 200°C, which is much lower than the conventional heating techniques which occur at around 400°C. The results demonstrated that addition of small quantities of the carbon additives, used as microwave susceptors, can effectively reduce the viscosity of bitumen by up to 96%. Viscosity reduction starts at mild conditions of 10 minutes of microwaving time at 150°C. About one-third of the heavy polar hydrocarbon constituents were decomposed into much lighter saturate molecules, resulting in a much less viscous fluid and higher-quality bitumen. In addition, the results also demonstrated that the surface area and porosity of the carbon microwave susceptor play a key role in absorbing microwave radiation. Hence, microwave-assisted partial upgrading of bitumen can be a cost-effective and much greener alternative, compared to conventional upgrading, which can result in an upgraded bitumen that requires significantly reduced amounts of diluent prior to its pipeline transportation.

Microwave-assited partial upgrading of oil sand bitumen

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