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CA-3077587-C - ALKANOLAMINE AND GLYCOL ETHER COMPOSITION FOR ENHANCED EXTRACTION OF BITUMEN

CA3077587CCA 3077587 CCA3077587 CCA 3077587CCA-3077587-C

Abstract

Embodiments relates to a bitumen recovery process from oil sands. The oil sands may be surface mined and transported to a treatment area or may be treated directly by means of an in situ process of oil sand deposits that are located too deep for strip mining. Specifically, the present invention involves the step of treating oil sands with a composition comprising an alkanolamine and an ethylene oxide capped glycol ether.

Inventors

  • Vikram PRASAD
  • Carol Lyons Bell
  • Biplab Mukherjee

Assignees

  • DOW GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20181004
Priority Date
20171006

Claims (8)

  1. 86351044 CLAIMS: 1. A method to recover bitumen, the method comprising: (a) performing a treatment by contacting oil sands with a composition comprising: (i) an alkanolamine described by the following structure: 10 HO-R-NH2 where R is a linear alkyl group of 4 to 8 carbons with the proviso that the –NH2 group and -OH group is each independently attached to either a primary or a secondary carbon and (ii) 15 20 an ethylene oxide capped glycol ether described by the following structure: R1-(C2H4O)n H wherein R1 is a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl, phenyl, or alkyl phenyl group of equal to or greater than 4 carbons and n is 1 to 3, wherein a weight ratio of (i) the alkanolamine to (ii) the ethylene oxide capped glycol ether in the composition is from 10:90 to 90:10, and wherein the treatment is to oil sands recovered by surface mining or in situ production, and (b) recovering the bitumen after performing the treatment.
  2. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: mixing the composition with at least one additional component selected from water and steam. 30 3.
  3. The method of claim 1, wherein the treatment is to oil sands recovered by surface mining and the method further comprises: i) surface mining the oil sands, ii) preparing an aqueous slurry of the oil sands that comprises the composition to form a treated aqueous slurry, iii) agitating the treated aqueous slurry to form an agitated treated aqueous slurry, iv) v) transferring the agitated treated aqueous slurry to a separation tank, and separating bitumen from an aqueous portion in the separation tank.- 17 86351044 4.
  4. The method of claim 3, wherein the ethylene oxide capped glycol ether is present in the aqueous slurry in an amount of from 0.01 to 10 weight percent based on the weight of the oil sands. 5 10 15 5.
  5. The method of claim 1, wherein the treatment is to oil sands recovered by in situ production and the method further comprises: i) injecting steam containing the composition into a well, and ii) 6. recovering the bitumen from the well.
  6. The method of Claim 5, wherein the ethylene oxide capped glycol ether is present in the steam is in an amount of from 0.01 to 10 weight percent based on a total weight of the steam and the composition.
  7. 7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the alkanolamine is 6-amino-1 hexanol, 8-amino-1-octanol, or mixtures thereof.
  8. 8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the ethylene oxide capped glycol ether is ethylene oxide capped n-butyl ether, ethylene oxide capped n-hexyl ether, or mixtures thereof.- 18

Description

WO 2019/070926 PCT/0S2018/054281 ALKANOLAMINE AND GLYCOL ETHER COMPOSITION FOR ENHANCED EXTRACTION OF BITUMEN FIELD Embodiments related to the recovery of bitumen from oil sands. More particularly, an improved method for bitumen recovery from oil sands through either surface mining or in situ recovery. The improvement is the use of a composition including an alkanolamine and an ethylene oxide capped glycol ether as an extraction 1 o aid in the water and/or steam used in the bitumen recovery process. BACKGROUND Deposits of oil sands are found around the world, but most prominently in 15 Canada, Venezuela, and the United States. These oil sands contain significant deposits of heavy oil, typically referred to as bitumen. The bitumen from these oil sands may be extracted and refined into synthetic oil or directly into petroleum products. The difficulty with bitumen lies in that it typically is very viscous, sometimes to the point of being more solid than liquid. Thus, bitumen typically does not have the flowability of 20 as less viscous, or lighter, crude oils. Because of the viscous nature of bitumen, it cannot be produced from a well drilled into the oil sands as is the case with lighter crude oil. This is so because the bitumen simply does not flow without being first heated, diluted, and/or upgraded. Since normal oil drilling practices are inadequate to produce bitumen, several methods 25 have been developed over several decades to extract and process oil sands to remove the bitumen. For shallow deposits of oil sands, a typical method includes surface extraction, or mining, followed by subsequent treatment of the oil sands to remove the bitumen. The development of surface extraction (surface mining) processes has occurred 30 most extensively in the Athabasca field of Canada. In these surface mining processes, WO 2019/070926 PCT/0S2018/054281 the oil sands are mined, e.g., through strip or open pit mining with draglines, bucketwheel excavators, and, more recently, shovel and truck operations. The oil sands are then transported to a facility to process and remove the bitumen from the sands. These processes typically involve a solvent of some type, most often water or steam, although 5 other solvents, such as hydrocarbon solvents, have been used. After excavation, a hot water extraction process is typically used in the Athabasca field in which the oil sands are mixed with water at temperatures ranging from approximately 35°C to 75°C, with recent improvements lowering the temperature necessary to the lower portion of the range. An extraction agent, such as sodium 10 hydroxide (NaOH), surfactants, and/or air may be mixed with the oil sands. Water is added to the oil sands to create an oil sands slurry, to which additives such as NaOH may be added, which is then transported to an extraction plant, typically via a pipeline. Inside a separation vessel, the slurry is agitated and the water and NaOH releases the bitumen from the oil sands. Air entrained with the water and NaOH 15 attaches to the bitumen, allowing it to float to the top of the slurry mixture and create a froth. The bitumen froth is further treated to remove residual water and fines, which are typically small sand and clay particles. The bitumen is then either stored for further treatment or immediately treated, either chemically or mixed with lighter petroleum products, and transported by pipeline for upgrading into synthetic crude oil. 20 Unfortunately, this method cannot be used for deeper tar sand layers. In situ techniques, e.g., that utilize steam, may be used to recover bitumen from deeper oil in well production. It is estimated that around 80 percent of the Alberta tar sands and almost all of the Venezuelan tar sands are too far below the surf ace to use open pit mining. The above methods have many costs, environmental and safety problems associated with them. For example, the use of large amounts of steam is energy intensive and requires the processing and disposal of large amounts of water. Currently, tar sands extraction and processing requires several barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced. Strip mining and further treatment results in incompletely 30 cleaned sand, which requires further processing, before it can be returned to the WO 2019/070926 PCT/0S2018/054281 environment. Further, the use of a large quantity of caustic in surface mining not only presents process safety hazards but also contributes formation of fine clay particles in tailings, the disposal of which is a major environmental problem. Thus, there remains a need for efficient, safe and cost-effective methods to improve the recovery of bitumen 5 from oil sands. SUMMARY Embodiments related to a bitumen recovery process comprising treating oil 1 o sands with a composition comprising, consisting essentially of, or consisting of (i) an alkanolamine and (ii) a glycol ether wherein the treatment is to oil sands recovered by surface mining or in situ production to oil san