The study detailed in the complete paper aims at understanding the effect of a surfactant that the authors refer to as a high-temperature emulsifying agent (HEA) as an additive in the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process. The work provides insights into the role of surfactants in forming oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions in steam-based bitumen production. A novel high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) visual cell enables the rapid assessment of recovery processes and a better understanding of the active emulsifying mechanism in such a system.
Introduction
The authors conducted a pore-network micromodel experiment to analyze the effect of emulsifiers on the SAGD process. Hot water, with and without a priority emulsifying agent, was injected into a bitumen-saturated micromodel at 82°C. The surfactant solution can remove the residual oil from the invaded zone and forms O/W emulsions as it spreads in uninvaded regions.
Experimental Setup
The experimental setup includes a high-resolution imaging system, a lightbox, a precision syringe pump, a bitumen-transfer vessel, and an HP/HT cell (Fig.
