Gas solubility measurement in heavy oil and extra heavy oil at vapor extraction (VAPEX) conditions
Résumé
A pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) cell has been developed for measuring light gas solubility in heavy oils and bitumen under pressure. It uses a magnetic stirrer designed to stir the fluid in a laminar way within oil with a viscosity up to 55 000 cP. Because of this stirring system, recombination of heavy oil and gas is achieved in less than 2 h. The apparatus was used to quantify the solubility of carbon dioxide and methane in two heavy oils. One is coming from Canada, and the other is coming from Venezuela. The experiments were conducted by adding solvent into the oil and recombining the system by pressurization with a full laminar stirring. Finally, solubility data were obtained by measuring the bubble pressure of the recombined fluid. This was achieved by determining the change of the PV slope during an isothermal decompression. Measurements were performed for various contents of gases and different temperatures ranging between 293 and 353 K.