Grant: Industrial Research Chairs

Solvent enhanced bitumen recovery has been identified as a strong candidate for economizing the energy, waterconsumptions and associated reduction of the GHG emissions compared to current steam based recoverymethods such as CSS and SAGD. Although the concepts and primary mechanisms of solvent based recoveryprocesses are known and some have been tried successfully in the field, there is an alarming level of absence ofthe key elements which are crucial for optimizing these solvent processes. Missing is the concrete data andmechanistic understanding of solvent-bitumen interactions at operating conditions. New technologies need tobe developed that will extend the expected prosperity provided by the oil and gas resources far into the future.These technologies are the outcomes of data gained through experimental lab work and the correspondingmodels that this Chair program will develop. Industry needs this information continue their economically andenvironmentally sustainable exploitation of our natural energy resources. This work will create the knowledgebase needed to build robust, reliable and valid models for reservoir and process simulations. With thisknowledge and these tools, it will be possible to not only design and optimize new and existing downholerecovery processes but to advance the technology used for upgrading and refining. These developments canthen be pursued commercially by industry. The Chair program in solvent enhanced recovery processes is a keyenabler for solvent-based technology that is politically, socially and environmentally acceptable. The intentionis to support industry in the development of recovery and separation processes that sustain economically viableheavy oil recovery in a less energy intensive and more environmentally benign manner.