Micro-Structure Model of Some Chinese Oil Sand

An accurate description of the microscopic structure of three Chinese oil sand samples is presented. According to the investigation, the Inner Mongolia oil sand (NNY) is oil-wet with bitumen bonding directly to the sand ; one of the Sinjiang oil sands(SUG) is water-wet with a water film approximately 15nm thick existing between bitumen and sand surfaces; the other Sinjiang oil sand (SNE) is mixed-wettability, the structure of the part of water -wet is the same with SUG oil sand, the part (fine and clay) of the oil-wet with bitumen bonding with the solid. The film is stabilized due to the electrical double layer repulsive force acting between the negatively charge surfaces of bitumen and sand. Further discussion of water film stability at alkaline aqueous solution was made to predict the possibility of hot water extraction bitumen from oil sand It has shown that bitumen extraction of SUG oil sand is much easier than that of SNE