Analysis and physico-chemical characterization on Chinese oil sand bitumens

The extraction of four Chinese oil sands from Sinjiang and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions with Dean-Stark extractor were investigated. The mineral composition and sand grain distribution were determined and the bitumens were separated into saturates, aromatics, resin-I and resin-II, asphaltenes. The structure parameters and molecular model were made for the bitumens. Elemental analysis, molecular weight, FTIR, H-1-NMR were made for the bitumen fractions. The results show that the molecular structure of Mongolia bitumens have more polycyclic aromatics than that of Sinjiang bitumen. It is believed that the extraction of Sinjiang ail sand bitumen by hot alkaline water is much easier than Mongolia oil sand due to the difference of the viscosity of bitumen,the molecular structure and other physico-chemical properties of the bitumens.