Mfg. hydrocarbon material esp. heavy crude oil or bitumen - for further processing by emulsifying in water, degassing, breaking the emulsion and re-emulsifying with water

摘要

Prepn. of a naturally occurring viscous hydrocarbon material for further processing comprises: (a) with an emulsifier, forming a 1st hydrocarbon-in-water emulsion (I) with H2O content at least 15 wt.%, max, viscosity 5000 cP at 122 deg. F and max. oil droplet size 300 microns; (b) degassing emulsion (I) at a temp. as low as 95 deg and min pressure 20 psi with min. degassing efficiency 90%, to produce an emulsion (II) contg. less than 5 cu. ft./bbl. of gas; (c) adjusting the density difference between the phases of emulsion (II) to be at least 0.002 g/cc at temp. T which is at least equal to 15 deg.C below the cloud point of the emulsifier used in (a); (d) breaking the density-adjusted emulsion (III) in a separator at temp. T, and recovering the hydrocarbon material; (e) re-emulsifying the hydrocarbon material using an emulsifier, and conditioning it for further processing so as to form a 2nd stable hydrocarbon emulsion (IV) suitable for transportation; and (f) transporting emulsion (IV). Breaking a hydrocarbon-in-water emulsion comprises essentially steps (c), (d) and (e) of (A).