Production of synthetic crude oil from oil sands deposits in northern Alberta involves open pit mining, mixing the mined ore with water, extraction of aerated bitumen from the slurry, removal of water and solids from the froth formed, and upgrading heavy bitumen to liquid hydrocarbons. The success of the froth treatment operation, aimed at removal of fine solids and water from the bituminous froth, depends on the control of wettability of fine solids by the aqueous phase. Fine solids were extracted from bitumen froth by heptane. The partition of the extracted solids in aqueous, organic, and interphases was measured, and the wettability of the solids by water in various diluents was evaluated from contact angle measurements. The effect of diluent composition, sample drying, and surface washing on the wettability and fine particle partition was examined. The partition of fine particles correlated well with their wettabilities, and the results were found to be useful for interpreting the observations from froth treatment practice.
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Chen et al. (1999) studied this question.
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