| Understanding of asphaltene interaction with asphaltene, bitumen, clay fines and air bubbles is important in the success of the oil sand industry in north Alberta. Interest in this subject stems from its relevance to Albian Sands' new froth treatment process in which asphaltenes will be precipitated along with water, bitumen and clay fines. Although the asphaltene precipitation process is well known, there is very little data available on the precipitated asphaltenes---their interactions with each other to form aggregates, with bitumen, and with hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces such as fines and air bubbles.; This thesis presents results of both experimental investigation and theoretical modeling of the deposition process of asphaltene-in-toluene droplets suspended in water onto hydrophilic, hydrophobic, bitumen coated and asphaltene coated surfaces. A well established impinging jet technique is used to study the deposition of a flowing asphaltene-in-toluene droplets suspended in water onto a solid substrate at varying flow rates, pH and electrolyte concentrations. The deposition process is modeled by solving the mass transport equation which includes influences of hydrodynamic convection, Brownian diffusion and migration under gravitational and DLVO forces (e.g. the van der Waals and electrical double layer forces).; The model simulations were found to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental data when electrostatic double layer interactions are neglected. However, the model failed to predict deposition when the electrostatic force is considered. |
