Interface Renewal and Concentration Shock Through Sloughing: Accounting for the Dissonance Between Production Models and Measured Outcomes for Solvent–Assisted Bitumen–Production Processes

Abstract

Summary The two-order-of-magnitude mismatch between solvent-assisted bitumen theory and experimental production rates is analyzed with dimensionless groups. This analysis suggests that natural convection does not play a role at bitumen/solvent interfaces and that the interfacial tension (IFT) is an important parameter in solvent-production methods but not in thermal-production methods. This fundamental difference leads to a hypothesis that supports accelerated-solvent mass transfer by way of discontinuous flow events at the solvent/bitumen interface coined “sloughing.” This paper focuses on the production of bitumen-rich bitumen + solvent mixtures at the bitumen/solvent interfaces, and it references a chapter in Robert Stewart's PhD thesis, University of Alberta, 2016 (Stewart 2016).