Influence of Climatic Parameters on Changes in the Density and Viscosity of Diluted Bitumen after a Spill

Abstract

Nonconventional oil products (Access Western Blend [dilbit], Western Canadian Select [dilsynbit], and Synthetic Bitumen [synbit]) and a conventional crude (Heidrun) were naturally weathered on sea water under spring (April-May) and summer (July-August) conditions to improve our understanding of the effects of climatic parameters (air and water temperature, wind speed, and light intensity [solar radiation]) on their density and viscosity.   The physical properties data, from each experiment, was fitted to a previously developed hyperbolic function that captured different rates of changes in densities and viscosities of the oils due to preferential weathering of the diluent portion of the diluted bitumen products. A combination of multiple correlation and regression analysis of experimental data over two seasons revealed that there were significant (p