Heat Transfer During the Formation of Solid Oil

Sim, Kellie

Heat Transfer During the Formation of Solid Oil

dc.contributor.advisor	Gates, Ian Donald
dc.contributor.author	Sim, Kellie
dc.contributor.committeemember	Kibria, Md Golam
dc.contributor.committeemember	Hu, Jinguang
dc.date	2023-06
dc.date.accessioned	2023-04-11T20:45:00Z
dc.date.available	2023-04-11T20:45:00Z
dc.date.issued	2023-04-04
dc.description.abstract	Over the past decade, the transportation of heavy oil and bitumen has experienced constraints due to insufficient pipeline capacity. An alternative is transportation via rail, but this presents safety and logistical challenges due to the heat required to reduce the viscosity of the bitumen and heavy oil for loading. A novel approach is transporting bitumen as solid phase oil, which can be treated as a cold solid similar to grain or sulfur pellets, requiring no heating or special containment. One solid oil formation process extrudes a fixed-length cylinder of molten oil which is then cooled to the point that it becomes solid. The key unknown is the behaviour of the cylinder with respect to heat transfer and the time required to reach a target temperature within the cylinder where it would be considered solid enough for material handling and transport. A heat transfer model for bitumen cylinder cooling surrounded by an outer cylinder of a cooling medium was solved using CMG STARS™. The diameter of the bitumen cylinder (2 mm, 5 mm, 10 mm), the cooling fluid (air, water), the cooling fluid temperature (air at 5°C, air at 21°C, water at 21°C), and the cooling fluid flow rates (11.6 ml/s, 23.2 ml/s) were varied to determine the fastest cooling rate. The 2 mm diameter bitumen in water at 23.2 ml/s resulted in the fastest cooling. It is recommended to update the model to solve for the cooling of multiple bitumen cylinders.
dc.identifier.citation	Sim, K. (2023). Heat transfer during the formation of solid oil (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/116057
dc.identifier.uri	https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/dspace/40903
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	Heat Transfer
dc.subject	Bitumen
dc.subject	Heavy Oil
dc.subject	Solid Oil
dc.subject	Solid Oil Formation
dc.subject	Oil Solidification
dc.subject	Solid Oil Heat Transfer
dc.subject.classification	Engineering--Chemical
dc.subject.classification	Engineering--Petroleum
dc.title	Heat Transfer During the Formation of Solid Oil
dc.type	master thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Engineering – Chemical & Petroleum
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Master of Science (MSc)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I do not require a thesis withhold – my thesis will have open access and can be viewed and downloaded publicly as soon as possible.