Properties of cold lake bitumen saturated with pure gases and gas mixtures

This paper presents new data for the viscosity, density and gas solubility of Cold Lake bitumen saturated with light gases and gas mixtures over a temperature range of 15 to 103°C at up to 10 MPa pressure. Specifically, the gases whose effects on the bitumen properties were measured are N2, CH4, CO2 and C2H6, and two mixtures of CO2 and CH4. With CO2 and C2H6, experiments were also performed in the liquid‐liquid region, and the results of these experiments generally agree with the previously published predictions. The viscosity of the gas‐free Cold Lake bitumen is comparable to that of a Marguerite Lake bitumen that was tested previously. Due to the large solubilities of C02 and C2H6, the reduction in gas‐saturated bitumen viscosity is quite dramatic. The density of the gas‐saturated bitumen decreases with increased amounts of the dissolved CH4 and C2H6 gases, but no such trends are evident for the N2 and CO2 gases. The results of the experiments with two binary gas mixtures (i.e., CO2 and CH4) indicate that the bitumen properties are affected largely by the major gas constituent.