Viscosity Measurement and Modeling for Mixtures of Athabasca Bitumen/n-Pentane at Temperatures Up to 200°C

Summary The phase-behavior and thermophysical properties of bitumen/solvent systems are of crucial importance for heavy-oil and bitumen in-situ recovery methods. The viscosity reduction as a result of solvent dissolution and/or steam heating is the main recovery mechanism in the solvent-based bitumen-recovery processes. In this paper, the viscosity of bitumen, pentane, and their mixtures at different pentane weight fractions (0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5) are accurately measured. The measurements are conducted under conditions applicable for both in-situ recovery methods and the pipeline transportation of heavy oil. The experiments are taken with Athabasca bitumen at temperatures varying from ambient up to 200°C and at pressures up to 10 MPa. The data for the mixtures are evaluated with predictive schemes as well as with correlation models representing certain mixing rules proposed in the literature. The influences of pressure, temperature, and solvent weight fraction on the viscosity of mixtures are considered in the models and evaluated from the experimental data. The results indicated that the power-law model and the Cragoe model (Cragoe 1933) represent the data better than other models that use a volume-fraction basis.