Upside-Down Bitumen/Water Separation

[DeltaCascade]

Bitumen produced in SAGD operations that is denser than water should be separatable from produced water by sinking it, especially in hot water. We are investigating this, to see if it can compete with the more conventional solvent addition and diluted bitumen floating.

There is reportedly a paper on this "upside down heavy oil - water separation", perhaps by GEBetz, or via Society for Petroleum Engineers, but detailed searches of these and other sites (other than expensive Engineering Index, etc, searches), have turned up nothing.

Has a fellow tipster heard of any R&D in this area?
Many thanks.

Regards,
Wayne//

 

[25362]

This is one site that may be of help.

http://www.jacos.com/Documents/JACOS Disclosure.pdf

Anyhow there are various others that you can review by Googling around.

 

[DeltaCascade]

Thanks, 25362
Your tip led to enquiry regarding JACOS, who appears may presently be the only one with designs to separate bitumen from water by sinking the bitumen, rather than diluting it with diluent (eg: Suncor OSA naptha blend) and floating the "dilbit". It will be interesting to see what they actually do, and the results they can achieve. Thanks, again.
Cheers//