A Power-Law Mixing Rule for Predicting Apparent Diffusion Coefficients of Binary Gas Mixtures in Heavy Oil

A power-law mixing rule has been developed to determine apparent diffusion coefficient of a binary gas mixture on the basis of molecular diffusion coefficients for pure gases in heavy oil. Diffusion coefficient of a pure gas under different pressures and different temperatures is predicted on the basis of the Hayduk and Cheng's equation incorporating the principle of corresponding states for one-dimensional gas diffusion in heavy oil such as the diffusion in a pressure–volume–temperature (PVT) cell. Meanwhile, a specific surface area term is added to the generated equation for three-dimensional gas diffusion in heavy oil such as the diffusion in a pendant drop. In this study, the newly developed correlations are used to reproduce the measured diffusion coefficients for pure gases diffusing in three different heavy oils, i.e., two Lloydminster heavy oils and a Cactus Lake heavy oil. Then, such predicted pure gas diffusion coefficients are adjusted based on reduced pressure, reduced temperature, and equilibrium ratio to determine apparent diffusion coefficient for a gas mixture in heavy oil, where the equilibrium ratios for hydrocarbon gases and CO₂ are determined by using the equilibrium ratio charts and Standing's equations, respectively. It has been found for various gas mixtures in two different Lloydminster heavy oils that the newly developed empirical mixing rule is able to reproduce the apparent diffusion coefficient for binary gas mixtures in heavy oil with a good accuracy. For the pure gas diffusion in heavy oil, the absolute average relative deviations (AARDs) for diffusion systems with two different Lloydminster heavy oils and a Cactus Lake heavy oil are calculated to be 2.54%, 14.79%, and 6.36%, respectively. Meanwhile, for the binary gas mixture diffusion in heavy oil, the AARDs for diffusion systems with two different Lloydminster heavy oils are found to be 3.56% and 6.86%, respectively.