Kantzas, Apostolos K.Carril Naranjo, José Eduardo2020-01-212020-01-212020-01-20Carril Naranjo, J. E. (2020). Concentration Dependent Diffusion of Solvent in Heavy Oil (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111533In recent years, solvent-based methods have arisen as a feasible alternative to thermal schemes for heavy oil recovery, owed to the diffusive solvent mass transfer effect on oil mobility. The increasing incorporation of significant diffusion physics to models describing the process will lead to successful field implementations. In this work, a numerical model that captures the solvent diffusion coefficient dependence, on its concentration in solvent – bitumen / heavy oil systems, was developed and tested. The interFoam solver was enabled to account for two phases and a miscible component diffusing between them. Then, one-dimensional diffusion simulations were conducted to validate its results against analytical solutions. Once the two phases and miscible component diffusion features were validated, the solvent diffusivity concentration dependence feature was added to the numerical model. This attribute was later evaluated against experimental measurements of solvent concentration evolution in heavy oil and bitumen. To this end, results from two experimental works were considered as reference. This study demonstrates that the diffusivities observed in the solvent – heavy oil / bitumen systems analysed can be numerically handled by the model presented. Additionally, the solvent concentration dependence feature makes of the model an important tool to evaluate its effect on viscous oil and it can potentially be implemented in pore scale models.engUniversity 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.Solvent diffusionEngineering--Petroleummaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/37485