Bitumen production in paraffinic froth treatment (pft) operations with near infrared (nir) monitoring

Abstract

Techniques described herein relate to producing bitumen while monitoring various aspects of paraffinic froth treatment (PFT) operations using near infrared (NIR) spectrometry and chemometric analysis to continuously monitor and enable measurements of physical and chemical properties of various streams in PFT operations, which can be done in real time online and can facilitate process control. NIR spectrometry can be used to acquire NIR spectra measurements from a PFT process stream and the NIR spectra measurements and chemometric analysis can, in turn, be used to determine composition characteristics of the PFT process stream as well as operational features of a PFT process unit. For example, NIR spectra can be used to determine upward velocity in a PFT settler to facilitate settler operation for diluted bitumen quality control. NIR spectra can be obtained using reflectance or transmission probes which can be positioned within particular phase of a stratified PFT process stream.

1 . A paraffinic froth treatment (PFT) process, comprising:
 adding a paraffinic solvent to bitumen froth to produce a solvent diluted bitumen froth;   in a froth separation unit (FSU), separating the solvent diluted bitumen froth into a diluted bitumen overflow stream withdrawn from a lighter phase zone comprising a solvent diluted bitumen material, and a diluted tailings underflow stream withdrawn from a heavier phase zone and comprising a diluted tailings material;   monitoring the solvent diluted bitumen material by acquiring near infrared (NIR) spectral measurements from the solvent diluted bitumen material within the FSU using an NIR probe that remains within the lighter phase zone to determine upward velocity within the lighter phase zone using a pre-determined direct relationship between the upward velocity and a corresponding NIR spectral profile, the pre-determined direct relationship being obtained by determining a set of different upward velocities for a set of test solvent diluted bitumen materials, and acquiring respective NIR spectral measurements on the set of test solvent diluted bitumen materials; and   controlling at least one operating condition of the PFT process based on the NIR spectral measurements.   
     
     
         2 . The PFT process of  claim 1 , wherein the controlled operating condition comprises a feed rate of the diluted froth into the FSU, a dosage of a process-aid, a flow rate of an overflow stream and/or underflow stream from the FSU, or a solvent-to-bitumen (S/B) ratio of a PFT process stream, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         3 . The PFT process of  claim 1 , wherein the NIR spectral measurements are taken continuously and the upward velocity of the solvent diluted bitumen material is continuously determined. 
     
     
         4 . The PFT process of  claim 1 , wherein controlling the at least one operating condition of the PFT process based on the NIR spectral measurements comprises maintaining the solvent diluted bitumen material within a pre-determined compositional property. 
     
     
         5 . The PFT of  claim 4 , wherein maintaining the solvent diluted bitumen material within the pre-determined compositional property is performed at different inflow and outflow rates. 
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the NIR spectral measurements are acquired using at least one of a transmission probe or a reflectance probe. 
     
     
         7 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein acquiring respective NIR spectral measurements on the set of test solvent diluted bitumen materials comprises testing the set of test solvent diluted bitumen materials over a range of wavelengths to obtain a series of upward velocities. 
     
     
         8 . A process for producing a bitumen product via a paraffinic froth treatment (PFT) operation, comprising:
 adding a paraffinic solvent to bitumen froth to produce a solvent diluted bitumen froth;   feeding the solvent diluted bitumen froth to a settling vessel to separate the solvent diluted bitumen froth into a diluted bitumen overflow stream withdrawn from a lighter phase zone comprising a solvent diluted bitumen material, and a diluted tailings underflow stream withdrawn from a heavier phase zone and comprising a diluted tailings material;   separating the diluted tailings underflow stream into a recovered underflow solvent stream and a solvent recovered tailings stream;   separating the diluted bitumen overflow stream into a recovered overflow solvent stream and the bitumen product;   acquiring near infrared (NIR) spectral measurements from the solvent diluted bitumen material using a NIR probe that remains within the lighter phase zone to determine an upward velocity within the lighter phase zone as a settling characteristic of the settling vessel.   
     
     
         9 . The process of  claim 8 , further comprising determining water content or solids content of the solvent diluted bitumen material based on the upward velocity. 
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 8 , further comprising obtaining an instant value of at least one of a water content or a solids content in the solvent diluted bitumen material based on the upward velocity in the lighter phase zone. 
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 8 , further comprising determining a settling characteristic of the settling vessel other than the upward velocity based on the NIR spectral measurements. 
     
     
         12 . The process of  claim 11 , wherein the settling characteristic comprises at least one of an interface location, an interface movement or an interface composition. 
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 8 , wherein determining the settling characteristic of the settling vessel based on the NIR spectral measurements comprises developing an NIR calibration model, and wherein the NIR calibration model is a multivariable calibration model developed by: processing both laboratory measured data and associated NIR data using a chemometric method; and using at least one of quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) analyses, a multiple scatter correction data processing method, a first derivative data processing method, a vector normalization data processing method, and a combination thereof. 
     
     
         14 . A paraffinic froth treatment (PFT) process, comprising:
 adding a paraffinic solvent to bitumen froth to produce a solvent diluted bitumen froth;   in a froth separation unit (FSU), separating the solvent diluted bitumen froth into a diluted bitumen overflow stream withdrawn from a lighter phase zone comprising a solvent diluted bitumen material, and a diluted tailings underflow stream withdrawn from a heavier phase zone and comprising a diluted tailings material; and   acquiring near infrared (NIR) spectral measurements from the solvent diluted bitumen material irrespective of a location of an interface between the lighter phase zone and the heavier phase zone to determine upward velocity within the lighter phase zone using a pre-determined direct relationship between the upward velocity and a corresponding NIR spectral profile;   
       wherein the pre-determined direct relationship is obtained by determining a set of different upward velocities for a set of test solvent diluted bitumen materials, and acquiring respective NIR spectral measurements on the set of test solvent diluted bitumen materials. 
     
     
         15 . The PFT process of  claim 14 , wherein the NIR spectral measurements are acquired using a NIR probe located within the FSU and within the lighter phase zone. 
     
     
         16 . The PFT process of  claim 14 , further comprising monitoring the solvent diluted bitumen material according to the NIR spectral measurements, and controlling at least one operating condition of the PFT process based on the NIR spectral measurements. 
     
     
         17 . The process of  claim 14 , further comprising correlating the upward velocity with solids and water content of the solvent diluted bitumen material. 
     
     
         18 . The process of  claim 17 , wherein the solids and water content of the solvent diluted bitumen material enables estimating the location of the interface between the lighter phase zone and the heavier phase zone. 
     
     
         19 . The process of  claim 14 , further comprising obtaining an instant value of at least one of a water content or a solids content in the solvent diluted bitumen material based on the upward velocity in the lighter phase zone. 
     
     
         20 . The process of  claim 14 , further comprising controlling the location of the interface between the lighter phase zone and the heavier phase zone based on the NIR spectral measurements from the solvent diluted bitumen material to achieve a pre-determined compositional property of the solvent diluted bitumen material.