CA2755634A1 - Paraffinic froth treatment with bitumen froth pretreatment - Google Patents
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Abstract
A method is provided to separate a bitumen product from an oil sand compositions wherein the oil sand composition comprises mineral solids, water and bitumen, the bitumen containing asphpaltenes, the method includes the steps of: contacting the oil sand composition with water to form a slurry;
separating the slurry into a froth comprising a majority of the bitumen from the slurry, and an underflow stream comprising a majority of the mineral solids and water from the slurry;
contacting the froth with a sufficient amount of a first paraffinic solvent to achieve a solvent to bitumen weight ratio of at least 0.2 but less than the amount of paraffinic solvent that would cause asphaltenes to precipitate, to form a froth and first solvent mixture; separating the froth and first solvent mixture into a first hydrocarbon mixture containing a majority of the first paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the froth and first solvent mixture, and a first tailings stream containing at least 35 percent by weight of the mineral solids and a majority of the water present in the froth; contacting the first hydrocarbon mixture with a sufficient amount of a second paraffinic solvent to reach at least partial asphaltene precipitation, forming a second hydrocarbon mixture; separating the second hydrocarbon mixture into a solvent diluted bitumen containing a majority of the first and second paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the oil sand composition, and a second tailings stream containing a majority of solids and a majority of the water present in the second hydrocarbon mixture; and separating the solvent diluted bitumen into a bitumen product and a recyclable paraffinic solvent stream.
separating the slurry into a froth comprising a majority of the bitumen from the slurry, and an underflow stream comprising a majority of the mineral solids and water from the slurry;
contacting the froth with a sufficient amount of a first paraffinic solvent to achieve a solvent to bitumen weight ratio of at least 0.2 but less than the amount of paraffinic solvent that would cause asphaltenes to precipitate, to form a froth and first solvent mixture; separating the froth and first solvent mixture into a first hydrocarbon mixture containing a majority of the first paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the froth and first solvent mixture, and a first tailings stream containing at least 35 percent by weight of the mineral solids and a majority of the water present in the froth; contacting the first hydrocarbon mixture with a sufficient amount of a second paraffinic solvent to reach at least partial asphaltene precipitation, forming a second hydrocarbon mixture; separating the second hydrocarbon mixture into a solvent diluted bitumen containing a majority of the first and second paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the oil sand composition, and a second tailings stream containing a majority of solids and a majority of the water present in the second hydrocarbon mixture; and separating the solvent diluted bitumen into a bitumen product and a recyclable paraffinic solvent stream.
Description
TH4057(US) PARAFFINIC FROTH TREATMENT WITH BITUMEN FROTH PRETREATMENT
Field of the Invention The invention relates to a method and apparatus for treatment of bitumen froth to enhance separation of solids and water from the bitumen.
Background Oil sand is essentially a matrix of bitumen, mineral matter and water, and possibly encapsulated air. The bitumen component of oil sand consists of viscous hydrocarbons which behave much like a solid at normal in situ temperatures and which acts as a binder for the other components of the oil sand matrix.
Oil sand will typically contain about 10% to 12% bitumen and about 3% to 6%
water, with the remainder of the oil sand being mineral matter. The mineral matter component in oil sand typically contains about 14% to 20% sub 44 micron fines, measured by weight of total mineral matter contained in the deposit.
However, the amount of fines may increase to about 30% or more for poorer quality deposits. Oil sand extracted from the Athabasca area near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, averages about 11% bitumen, 5% water and 84% mineral matter, with about 15% to 20% of the mineral matter being made up of fines.
Oil sand deposits are mined for the purpose of extracting bitumen from them, which is then upgraded to synthetic crude oil.
Near surface oil sand deposits are typically exploited using surface mining techniques and an aqueous extraction process. In this process, aggressive thermal action and aggressive mechanical action are used to liberate and separate bitumen from the oil sand. An example of an aqueous process is the hot water process. In the hot water process, oil sand is first conditioned by mixing it with hot water at about 95 C and steam in a conditioning vessel which vigorously agitates the resulting slurry in order to disintegrate the oil sand. Once the disintegration of the oil sand is complete, the slurry is separated by allowing sand and rock to settle out. Bitumen with entrained air floats to the top of the slurry and is withdrawn as a bitumen froth. The remainder of the slurry is then treated further or scavenged by froth flotation techniques to recover bitumen that did not float to the top of the slurry during the separation step.
The froth is further treated to separate solids and water from liquid hydrocarbons. Such a process is suggested in US patent no. 5,645,714, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Many processes for extraction of hydrocarbons from oil sand ores utilize aeration to cause bitumen globules to separate from mineral solids and rise in a separation vessel. The overflow product from this separation vessel may then contain a considerable amount of entrained air. A deaeration process is therefore often needed to reduce the amount of entrained air in the froth. Deaeration is TH4057(US) typically accomplished by heating the froth to 40 to 50 C. Because the froth still contains a considerable amount of solids, heating typically is accomplished by direct contact with steam. The froth would typically foul heat exchangers quickly. Additionally heating by heater exchanges is not efficient because the froth has a relatively high viscosity. Heating by direct contact with steam is relatively expensive because waste heat cannot be utilized, and the condensed steam further dilutes the froth.
Canadian patent number 2,232,929, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein, discloses an improvement to the hot water process that utilizes a paraffinic solvent to extract bitumen from the bitumen froth. In this process, paraffinic diluent is combined with the froth in an amount sufficient to cause precipitation of at least a portion of asphaltenes present in the bitumen. The asphaltenes form a separate phase and are removed from the froth with the water and mineral solids. The resulting product bitumen is more marketable as a result of the lowered asphaltene content. A
problem with this process is that with certain low quality oil sands, separation of the bitumen components from the underflow components from the froth treatment is unacceptably slow.
The paraffinic solvent froth treatment process such as the process disclosed in Canadian patent number 2,232,929 typically contacts the froth with the solvent at a temperature greater than about 70 C.
Heat is generally added to the froth feed to the paraffinic solvent froth treatment process by direct contact with steam. As with the heating of the froth for deaeration purposes, it is difficult to utilize heat exchangers because of the solids content of the froth, and the tendency of these solids to foul heat exchange surfaces as well as high viscosity of the froth. It would be desirable to be able to utilize heat exchangers to provide this heat.
Summary of the Invention A method is provided to separate a bitumen product from an oil sand compositions wherein the oil sand composition comprises mineral solids, water and bitumen, the bitumen containing asphpaltenes, the method comprising the steps of. contacting the oil sand composition with water to form a slurry;
separating the slurry into a froth comprising a majority of the bitumen from the slurry, and an underflow stream comprising a majority of the mineral solids and water from the slurry;
contacting the froth with a sufficient amount of a first paraffinic solvent to achieve a solvent to bitumen weight ratio of at least 0.2 but less than the amount of paraffinic solvent that would cause asphaltenes to precipitate, to form a froth and first solvent mixture; separating the froth and first solvent mixture into a first hydrocarbon mixture containing a majority of the first paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the froth and first solvent mixture, and a first tailings stream containing at least 35 percent by weight of the mineral solids and a majority of the water present in the froth; contacting the first hydrocarbon mixture with a sufficient amount of a second paraffinic solvent to reach at least partial asphaltene precipitation, forming a second
Field of the Invention The invention relates to a method and apparatus for treatment of bitumen froth to enhance separation of solids and water from the bitumen.
Background Oil sand is essentially a matrix of bitumen, mineral matter and water, and possibly encapsulated air. The bitumen component of oil sand consists of viscous hydrocarbons which behave much like a solid at normal in situ temperatures and which acts as a binder for the other components of the oil sand matrix.
Oil sand will typically contain about 10% to 12% bitumen and about 3% to 6%
water, with the remainder of the oil sand being mineral matter. The mineral matter component in oil sand typically contains about 14% to 20% sub 44 micron fines, measured by weight of total mineral matter contained in the deposit.
However, the amount of fines may increase to about 30% or more for poorer quality deposits. Oil sand extracted from the Athabasca area near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, averages about 11% bitumen, 5% water and 84% mineral matter, with about 15% to 20% of the mineral matter being made up of fines.
Oil sand deposits are mined for the purpose of extracting bitumen from them, which is then upgraded to synthetic crude oil.
Near surface oil sand deposits are typically exploited using surface mining techniques and an aqueous extraction process. In this process, aggressive thermal action and aggressive mechanical action are used to liberate and separate bitumen from the oil sand. An example of an aqueous process is the hot water process. In the hot water process, oil sand is first conditioned by mixing it with hot water at about 95 C and steam in a conditioning vessel which vigorously agitates the resulting slurry in order to disintegrate the oil sand. Once the disintegration of the oil sand is complete, the slurry is separated by allowing sand and rock to settle out. Bitumen with entrained air floats to the top of the slurry and is withdrawn as a bitumen froth. The remainder of the slurry is then treated further or scavenged by froth flotation techniques to recover bitumen that did not float to the top of the slurry during the separation step.
The froth is further treated to separate solids and water from liquid hydrocarbons. Such a process is suggested in US patent no. 5,645,714, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Many processes for extraction of hydrocarbons from oil sand ores utilize aeration to cause bitumen globules to separate from mineral solids and rise in a separation vessel. The overflow product from this separation vessel may then contain a considerable amount of entrained air. A deaeration process is therefore often needed to reduce the amount of entrained air in the froth. Deaeration is TH4057(US) typically accomplished by heating the froth to 40 to 50 C. Because the froth still contains a considerable amount of solids, heating typically is accomplished by direct contact with steam. The froth would typically foul heat exchangers quickly. Additionally heating by heater exchanges is not efficient because the froth has a relatively high viscosity. Heating by direct contact with steam is relatively expensive because waste heat cannot be utilized, and the condensed steam further dilutes the froth.
Canadian patent number 2,232,929, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein, discloses an improvement to the hot water process that utilizes a paraffinic solvent to extract bitumen from the bitumen froth. In this process, paraffinic diluent is combined with the froth in an amount sufficient to cause precipitation of at least a portion of asphaltenes present in the bitumen. The asphaltenes form a separate phase and are removed from the froth with the water and mineral solids. The resulting product bitumen is more marketable as a result of the lowered asphaltene content. A
problem with this process is that with certain low quality oil sands, separation of the bitumen components from the underflow components from the froth treatment is unacceptably slow.
The paraffinic solvent froth treatment process such as the process disclosed in Canadian patent number 2,232,929 typically contacts the froth with the solvent at a temperature greater than about 70 C.
Heat is generally added to the froth feed to the paraffinic solvent froth treatment process by direct contact with steam. As with the heating of the froth for deaeration purposes, it is difficult to utilize heat exchangers because of the solids content of the froth, and the tendency of these solids to foul heat exchange surfaces as well as high viscosity of the froth. It would be desirable to be able to utilize heat exchangers to provide this heat.
Summary of the Invention A method is provided to separate a bitumen product from an oil sand compositions wherein the oil sand composition comprises mineral solids, water and bitumen, the bitumen containing asphpaltenes, the method comprising the steps of. contacting the oil sand composition with water to form a slurry;
separating the slurry into a froth comprising a majority of the bitumen from the slurry, and an underflow stream comprising a majority of the mineral solids and water from the slurry;
contacting the froth with a sufficient amount of a first paraffinic solvent to achieve a solvent to bitumen weight ratio of at least 0.2 but less than the amount of paraffinic solvent that would cause asphaltenes to precipitate, to form a froth and first solvent mixture; separating the froth and first solvent mixture into a first hydrocarbon mixture containing a majority of the first paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the froth and first solvent mixture, and a first tailings stream containing at least 35 percent by weight of the mineral solids and a majority of the water present in the froth; contacting the first hydrocarbon mixture with a sufficient amount of a second paraffinic solvent to reach at least partial asphaltene precipitation, forming a second
2 TH4057(US) hydrocarbon mixture; separating the second hydrocarbon mixture into a solvent diluted bitumen containing a majority of the first and second paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the oil sand composition, and a second tailings stream containing a majority of solids and a majority of the water present in the second hydrocarbon mixture; and separating the solvent diluted bitumen into a bitumen product and a recyclable paraffinic solvent stream.
The first and second paraffinic solvents may be the same compositions, or may be different compositions. They may comprise butane, pentane, hexane, heptanes, or mixtures thereof.
It has been found that when certain low quality oil sand ores are processed using a hot water process and paraffinic solvent froth treatment, that settling rates in the paraffinic solvent treatment process are undesirably slow. By contacting the froth with an amount of paraffinic solvent that is less than an amount of paraffinic solvent that results in precipitation of asphaltenes in a froth pretreatment step according to the present invention, it has been found that low quality oil sand ores may be processed in the paraffinic solvent forth treatment process without having reduced settling rates. By low quality oil sand ore, it is meant that the oil sand contains less than ten percent by weight bitumen. In some circumstances, modifications and/or simplification to the oil sands water extraction processes, with a goal of optimizing tailings management and reducing costs, may result in low-quality froth (i.e., low bitumen content, high water and solids contents in froth) even when a high-grade ore is processed. An example is the overflow product of oil sands water extraction using hydrocyclones. The pre-treatment step of this invention can be applied to pre-treat the resulted low-quality bitumen froth.
The pretreatment of the present invention could also be incorporated in a deaeration apparatus.
Addition of the first paraffinic solvent to the froth prior to deaeration may enhance deaeration because of the effects of the solvent on the density, viscosity and surface tension of the bitumen in the froth.
Deaeration could also be accomplished to a greater degree which could reduce the opportunity for sufficient amounts of oxygen to be present in downstream froth treatment circuit and solvent recovery units to form explosive mixtures. A smaller deaeration vessel may be acceptable. Further, if the deaeration can be accomplished at a lower temperature, at least some direct heating by contact with steam may be avoided, and the froth and first solvent mixture could be heated utilizing heat exchangers downstream of the pretreatment.
The solvent utilized to pretreat the forth according to the present invention could be fresh solvent, or could alternatively be a slip stream of hydrocarbon phase recovered from the last of multiple stages of counter-current contacting of solvent and froth, thus the final tailings is contacted with the total amount of fresh solvent utilized, recovering more bitumen from the tailings.
The first and second paraffinic solvents may be the same compositions, or may be different compositions. They may comprise butane, pentane, hexane, heptanes, or mixtures thereof.
It has been found that when certain low quality oil sand ores are processed using a hot water process and paraffinic solvent froth treatment, that settling rates in the paraffinic solvent treatment process are undesirably slow. By contacting the froth with an amount of paraffinic solvent that is less than an amount of paraffinic solvent that results in precipitation of asphaltenes in a froth pretreatment step according to the present invention, it has been found that low quality oil sand ores may be processed in the paraffinic solvent forth treatment process without having reduced settling rates. By low quality oil sand ore, it is meant that the oil sand contains less than ten percent by weight bitumen. In some circumstances, modifications and/or simplification to the oil sands water extraction processes, with a goal of optimizing tailings management and reducing costs, may result in low-quality froth (i.e., low bitumen content, high water and solids contents in froth) even when a high-grade ore is processed. An example is the overflow product of oil sands water extraction using hydrocyclones. The pre-treatment step of this invention can be applied to pre-treat the resulted low-quality bitumen froth.
The pretreatment of the present invention could also be incorporated in a deaeration apparatus.
Addition of the first paraffinic solvent to the froth prior to deaeration may enhance deaeration because of the effects of the solvent on the density, viscosity and surface tension of the bitumen in the froth.
Deaeration could also be accomplished to a greater degree which could reduce the opportunity for sufficient amounts of oxygen to be present in downstream froth treatment circuit and solvent recovery units to form explosive mixtures. A smaller deaeration vessel may be acceptable. Further, if the deaeration can be accomplished at a lower temperature, at least some direct heating by contact with steam may be avoided, and the froth and first solvent mixture could be heated utilizing heat exchangers downstream of the pretreatment.
The solvent utilized to pretreat the forth according to the present invention could be fresh solvent, or could alternatively be a slip stream of hydrocarbon phase recovered from the last of multiple stages of counter-current contacting of solvent and froth, thus the final tailings is contacted with the total amount of fresh solvent utilized, recovering more bitumen from the tailings.
3 TH4057(US) Brief description of the Figure Fig. 1 is a process flow drawing for the process of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a process flow drawing for an alternative of a portion of the process of the present invention.
Detailed Description of the Invention Referring now to the Figure, an oil sand ore stream, 101, is contacted with water 102 in a mixer 120, to form a slurry 103. The oil sand ore can be a mined bitumen ore from a formation such as oil sands found in the Athabasca area near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. The ratio of oil sand ore to water may be, for example, in the range of I to 6 or I to 2. The oil sands may contain between 75 and 95 percent by weight of mineral solids, and may contain between 10 and 20 percent by weight hydrocarbons.
The hydrocarbon portion of the oil sands may have a gravity of between 7 and 10 API and may contain from 10 to 25 percent by weight of asphaltenes. Other components of the hydrocarbon portion of the oil sand ore may be 10 to 40 percent by weight aliphatics, 5 to 20 percent by weight aromatics, and 10 to 50 percent by weight polar compounds. The mixer 120 may agitate the slurry to break up solids and to increase the area of contact between the solids and the water. The mixer may also heat the slurry to a temperature of, for example, between 40 and 90 C to enhance separation of the hydrocarbons from the solids. Air and chemicals such as caustic or surfactants maybe added to the slurry to further enhance separation of the hydrocarbons from the solids. Alternatively, liberation of hydrocarbon from mineral material may be accomplished in a slurry conditioning transportation line. The water and oil sand slurry optionally may be screened in a screener 121 to remove larger solids 104 from a remaining slurry stream 105.
Remaining slurry stream 105 may be further processed to provide an initial solids separation in a first separator 123 producing an underflow 114, containing solids and water with some bitumen, and a froth 106. The froth contains a majority of the hydrocarbons from the oil sands stream, along with entrained water and solids. Typically, the froth contains about 60 weight percent bitumen, about 30 weight percent water, and about 10 weight percent mineral solids. The first separator may include additional steps and equipment, such as, for example, flotation cells, to increase the bitumen recovery and de-aerators to remove excessive air.
Froth, 106, from the first separator may be contacted with a first paraffinic solvent, 108 to form a froth and first solvent mixture 107. The froth and first solvent mixture 107 may be separated in a
Fig. 2 is a process flow drawing for an alternative of a portion of the process of the present invention.
Detailed Description of the Invention Referring now to the Figure, an oil sand ore stream, 101, is contacted with water 102 in a mixer 120, to form a slurry 103. The oil sand ore can be a mined bitumen ore from a formation such as oil sands found in the Athabasca area near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. The ratio of oil sand ore to water may be, for example, in the range of I to 6 or I to 2. The oil sands may contain between 75 and 95 percent by weight of mineral solids, and may contain between 10 and 20 percent by weight hydrocarbons.
The hydrocarbon portion of the oil sands may have a gravity of between 7 and 10 API and may contain from 10 to 25 percent by weight of asphaltenes. Other components of the hydrocarbon portion of the oil sand ore may be 10 to 40 percent by weight aliphatics, 5 to 20 percent by weight aromatics, and 10 to 50 percent by weight polar compounds. The mixer 120 may agitate the slurry to break up solids and to increase the area of contact between the solids and the water. The mixer may also heat the slurry to a temperature of, for example, between 40 and 90 C to enhance separation of the hydrocarbons from the solids. Air and chemicals such as caustic or surfactants maybe added to the slurry to further enhance separation of the hydrocarbons from the solids. Alternatively, liberation of hydrocarbon from mineral material may be accomplished in a slurry conditioning transportation line. The water and oil sand slurry optionally may be screened in a screener 121 to remove larger solids 104 from a remaining slurry stream 105.
Remaining slurry stream 105 may be further processed to provide an initial solids separation in a first separator 123 producing an underflow 114, containing solids and water with some bitumen, and a froth 106. The froth contains a majority of the hydrocarbons from the oil sands stream, along with entrained water and solids. Typically, the froth contains about 60 weight percent bitumen, about 30 weight percent water, and about 10 weight percent mineral solids. The first separator may include additional steps and equipment, such as, for example, flotation cells, to increase the bitumen recovery and de-aerators to remove excessive air.
Froth, 106, from the first separator may be contacted with a first paraffinic solvent, 108 to form a froth and first solvent mixture 107. The froth and first solvent mixture 107 may be separated in a
4 TH4057(US) pretreater seperator 124 into a first tailings stream 109 and a first hydrocarbon mixture 110. The first hydrocarbon mixture 110 may contain 0.2 to 6 percent by weight mineral solids, and 35 to 80 percent by weight bitumen, and 2 to 15 percent by weight water and 15 to 55 percent by weight first solvent.
Between 10 and 97 percent of the mineral solids in the froth 106 and between 20 to 97 percent by weight of the water in the froth 106 may be removed from the pretreater separator 124 with the first tailings stream 109. The amount of the first paraffinic solvent may be sufficient to result in a weight ratio of first paraffinic solvent to bitumen in the froth and first solvent mixture of 0.2 to 1.5. This amount of first paraffinic solvent should be less than the amount that would result in precipitation of ashphaltenes from the bitumen. The froth and first solvent mixture, 107, when further processed, will behave like a froth from a higher quality oil sand ore, wherein solids separate significantly faster from the hydrocarbons.
The paraffinic solvents may contain between about 80 and 100 percent by weight of saturated hydrocarbons that do not contain rings. The paraffinic solvents may contain less than about 2 percent by weight of aromatic hydrocarbons and less than about 8 percent by weight cycloparaffins. The paraffinic solvents may include more than 90 percent by weight hydrocarbons having from four to seven carbon atoms, or optionally five or six carbon atoms. In one embodiment of the present invention, the paraffinic solvents are more than 90 percent by weight pentane.
The amount of paraffinic solvent required to cause precipitation of asphaltenes can be determined by trial and error under operating conditions of the separator.
The first hydrocarbon mixture 110 may contain a majority of the first paraffinic solvent 108, optionally at least 60 percent of the solvent in the froth and first solvent mixture 107. The first hydrocarbon mixture 110 also contains a majority of the bitumen present in the froth and first solvent mixture 107. Optionally, the first hydrocarbon mixture may contain at least 90 percent of the bitumen present in the froth and first solvent mixture. The first tailings stream may contain a majority of the inorganic solids and a majority of the water present in the froth. In some embodiments of the invention, the first tailings stream may contain more than 35 percent of the solids present in the froth and first solvent mixture, or in other embodiments, at least 50 percent of the mineral solids from the froth and first solvent mixture.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the pretreater separator 124 may also function as a deaerator. Presence of the first paraffinic solvent in the hydrocarbon phase in the pretreater separator 124 may decrease the viscosity of the hydrocarbon phase sufficiently so that air entrained in the froth would be readily separated from the hydrocarbon phase. The temperature of the pretreater separator which is effective todeaerate the froth and first solvent mixture 107 may be lower than the temperature of a typical froth deaerator, reducing the need for utilization of heating by direct contact with steam. For example, the TH4057(US) temperature of the pretreater separator may be between 35 and 60 C. The froth and first solvent mixture may then be heated with a heat exchanger 130, optionally using heat from a product stream to improve thermal efficiency of the process and reduce dilution of the stream by condensation of steam.
When the pretreater separator 124 also functions as a deaerator, vent stream 128 may be produced. Vent stream 128 may be incinerated, cleaned in, for example, an activated carbon bed, vented directly to the atmosphere, or treated in a vapor recovery unit to recover hydrocarbons.
A second paraffinic solvent 1 1 1 may be added to the first hydrocarbon mixture 110 to form a second hydrocarbon mixture 112, which may be heated in heat exchanger 130 with heat medium stream 129, and then passed to a froth separator 125. Heat medium stream 129 may be steam, or a hot product stream such as bitumen product 117. The heat exchanger may be effective to heat the second hydrocarbon mixture from the pretreater temperature to a desirable temperature for the froth separator 125, for example from a temperature in the range of 40 to 50 C to a temperature of greater than 70 C, for example, between 70 and 190 C. Because a majority of solids have been removed from the froth and are not present in the first hydrocarbon mixture, heating the first hydrocarbon mixture, or the second hydrocarbon mixture by heat exchanges to a desirable froth separation temperature is possible without resulting in unacceptable fouling of the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger could be one heat exchanger, for example, a tube in shell type heat exchanger, or could be a series of heat exchangers to provide heat from various sources of heat. The heat exchanger could provide heat to the first hydrocarbon mixture 110 prior to combining the first hydrocarbon mixture 110 with the second paraffinic solvent 111 if, for example, the second paraffinic solvent 111 is already at an elevated temperature in which case, it may be energy efficient to at least partially heat the cooler first hydrocarbon mixture 110 prior to combining the first hydrocarbon mixture with the second paraffinic solvent 111.
Froth separator 125 may be effective to separate the second hydrocarbon mixture 112 into a second tailings stream 115 and a solvent diluted bitumen 113. The froth separator 125 may be, for example, multiple settlers with counter current contact between solvent and tailings to achieve more than 90 percent recovery of non-asphaltene bitumen, and optionally at least 97% of non-asphaltene bitumen, to the solvent diluted bitumen 113. The amount of second paraffinic solvent may be enough to achieve a mass ratio of solvent to bitumen of between 1:1 and 6:1. This ratio may be sufficiently high to result in at least partial precipitation of asphaltenes, resulting in recovery of a solid asphaltene phase either from the froth separator 125 or subsequently from the second tailings stream.
Alternatively, the precipitated asphaltenes could be disposed of with mineral solids such as the solvent free tailings stream 118. Because the pretreater 124 may remove enough water so that the second tailings stream would not have sufficient TH4057(US) water to enable transportation of the second tailings stream, it may be advantageous to add additional water and/or route a portion of the first tailings stream 109 to froth separator 125 feed, or to the separator 125, or to the second tailings stream 115, to improve mobility of solids separated by the froth separator 125.
Partitioning of at least some asphaltenes from the bitumen product may be useful when decreasing the asphaltene content of the bitumen increases options for marketing the bitumen product.
For example, the asphaltenes removed from the bitumen and not recovered with the bitumen product may be between ten and eighty percent of the asphaltenes present in the oil sand composition. The bitumen product may be processed in an existing catalytic resid upgrader processes.
Separated asphaltenes, when the pretreatment of the present invention is utilized, may be recoverd with consideralty less mineral solids than a process not utilizing the pretreater. The recovered asphaltense may therefore be utilized directly, without a need for further processing to remove asphaltenes from solids.
For simplicity, a single froth separator is shown in Fig. 1, although it is to be understood that the froth separator could be a series of separation stages optionally including multi stage, counter-current contacting with solvent. For example, there may be two or three stages of counter-current contacting of solvent with underflow from the earlier stage so that the final tailings stream is contacted with fresh solvent. The froth seperator may be, for example, settler(s), hydrocyclone(s), inclined plate separator(s), centrifuges, or combinations thereof.
The solvent diluted bitumen 113 may be processed in a solvent recovery unit 126, producing a recycleable solvent 114 and leaving a bitumen product 117. The bitumen product may have less than about 15 percent by weight asphaltene content, and less than 1 percent by weight water content. Some solvent may optionally remain in the bitumen product, for example, to facilitate pipeline transportation of the bitumen product.
First tailings stream 109 and the second tailings stream 115 may be processed in a tailings solvent recovery unit 127 to remove at least a portion of the solvent present in the tailings as tailings solvent recycle 119 and a solvent free tailings stream 118. The recovered solvent from the tailings solvent recovery unit may be combined with recyclable solvent 114 and make-up solvent 116 to form source of the first paraffinic solvent 108 and the second paraffinic solvent 111.
The solvent recovery unit 126 may use known methods to remove more volatile hydrocarbons from less volatile hydrocarbons such as distillation and supercritical solvent separation. The tailings solvent recovery unit 127 may utilize known methods to remove volatile hydrocarbons from solids and/or aqueous streams such as using the heat present in the tailings stream for vaporization of the solvent. An asphaltene product, 131 may be recovered, for example, from the second tailings stream 115 by the solvent recovery unit 127, or upstream of the solvent recovery unit in a separate operation.
TH4057(US) Water in the tailings may be at least partially separated from the solids and recycled, for example, to the slurry of oil sand slurry 103. Recycling water from the tailings reduces the need to provide additional water 102. Recycling this water as hot water also provides additional heat to the front- end water extraction process and improves energy efficiency of the overall process. Alternatively, at least a portion of the heat in the tailing stream 118 can be recovered using heat exchangers, for example, heat exchanger 130, before the solvent free tailings stream 118 is sent to the tailings pond or otherwise disposed of.
Optionally, the tailings stream 115 can be treated to recover the asphaltenes for combustion for energy and/or for gasification. Since a large portion of the mineral solids in bitumen from is removed with the first tailings stream 109, the asphaltenes recovered from the second tailings stream 115 are of low mineral solids content. For example, the weight ratio of mineral solids to asphaltene in the recovered asphaltene stream may be between 1:20 to 1:1, or in other embodiments, between 1:10 and 3:10. The low solids content of the second tailings stream, and high asphaltene content of the second tailings stream, is a significant advantage of the use of the pretreater according to the present invention. The asphaltenes separated from the froth in a paraffinic solvent froth treatment process comprise a significant amount of hydrocarbons from the oil sand ore. But in a typical paraffinic solvent froth treatment process, these aphaltenes are separated with a significant amount of solids. The the value of the asphaltene stream is significantly diminished by the solids content of the ashphaltenes.
Alternatively, a significant amount of capital and operating expense is required if the asphaltense are to be sufficiently separated from mineral solids to form a useful hydrocarbon stream.
In other embodiments of the present invention, precipitated asphaltenes may be recovered from the solvent free tailings stream 118 or as a separate product from the froth separator 125.
The invention also includes the apparatus capable of performing the method.
The concentration of asphaltenes in the bitumen product may be below about 15 percent by volume, or below about 10 percent by volume, or between 6 and 12 percent by volume.
Referring now to Fig. 2, an alternative process for the practice of the present invention is shown wherein the first paraffinic solvent 108 is not fresh solvent recycle, but an intermediate solvent from a multistage counter current froth separation process. In the embodiment of Fig.
2, froth 106 is combined with first paraffinic solvent 108 and routed to the pretreatment separator 124 as in the embodiment of Fig, 1, but the first paraffinic solvent 108 and the second paraffinic solvent 111 are solvent recovered from a second stage froth separator 221. First hydrocarbon mixture 110 is combined with the second paraffinic solvent 111 to form a second hydrocarbon mixture 112. The second hydrocarbon mixture 112 is routed to a first stage froth separator 220, to produce a first stage tailings stream 201 and a solvent diluted bitumen 113.
TH4057(US) The first stage tailings stream 201 is combined with fresh solvent 202 to form second stage feed 203. The second stage feed goes to the second stage froth separator 221, wherein the hydrocarbon phase is separated as the second stage solvent 204 and the second tailings stream 115, which is routed to the tailings solvent separation unit 127. The tailings solvent recovery unit 127 produces a tailings solvent recycle 119 and a solvent free tailings stream 118.
The solvent diluted bitumen 113 contains bitumen, and paraffinic solvent, with less than one percent by weight of water and less than one percent by weight solids. The solvent diluted bitumen 113 is processed in a solvent recovery unit 126 to produce a recycle solvent114 and a bitumen product 117.
The embodiment of Fig. 2 utilizes paraffinic solvent for the pretreatment that has already been contacted with tailings, so the tailings see all of the fresh solvent, improving recovery of hydrocarbons from the tailings. Alternatively, the froth treatment separators 125 may have more than two stages in counter-current configuration.
The addition of a pretreatment separator 124 to an existing paraffinic solvent froth treatment system may enable the exiting paraffinic solvent froth treatment system to handle oil sand compositions having lower levels of richness than the existing facilities could have handled. For example, a low-grade oil sand composition having less than 10 wt% of bitumen content might be handled in the existing facility having paraffinic solvent froth treatment, after an addition of the pretreatment system of the present invention. Alternatively, for a new facility, the first stage froth separator and second stage froth separator may be provided with less residence time, and therefore at a lower expense.
The addition of a pretreatment system according to this invention may enable modifications and/or simplification of the oil sands water extraction processes that optimize tailings hand ling/management and reduce capital and operating costs. These modifications and simplifications may necessarily produce low-quality bitumen froth (i.e., low bitumen content and high water and solids contents in froth) even when high-grade oil sands ores are processed.
Between 10 and 97 percent of the mineral solids in the froth 106 and between 20 to 97 percent by weight of the water in the froth 106 may be removed from the pretreater separator 124 with the first tailings stream 109. The amount of the first paraffinic solvent may be sufficient to result in a weight ratio of first paraffinic solvent to bitumen in the froth and first solvent mixture of 0.2 to 1.5. This amount of first paraffinic solvent should be less than the amount that would result in precipitation of ashphaltenes from the bitumen. The froth and first solvent mixture, 107, when further processed, will behave like a froth from a higher quality oil sand ore, wherein solids separate significantly faster from the hydrocarbons.
The paraffinic solvents may contain between about 80 and 100 percent by weight of saturated hydrocarbons that do not contain rings. The paraffinic solvents may contain less than about 2 percent by weight of aromatic hydrocarbons and less than about 8 percent by weight cycloparaffins. The paraffinic solvents may include more than 90 percent by weight hydrocarbons having from four to seven carbon atoms, or optionally five or six carbon atoms. In one embodiment of the present invention, the paraffinic solvents are more than 90 percent by weight pentane.
The amount of paraffinic solvent required to cause precipitation of asphaltenes can be determined by trial and error under operating conditions of the separator.
The first hydrocarbon mixture 110 may contain a majority of the first paraffinic solvent 108, optionally at least 60 percent of the solvent in the froth and first solvent mixture 107. The first hydrocarbon mixture 110 also contains a majority of the bitumen present in the froth and first solvent mixture 107. Optionally, the first hydrocarbon mixture may contain at least 90 percent of the bitumen present in the froth and first solvent mixture. The first tailings stream may contain a majority of the inorganic solids and a majority of the water present in the froth. In some embodiments of the invention, the first tailings stream may contain more than 35 percent of the solids present in the froth and first solvent mixture, or in other embodiments, at least 50 percent of the mineral solids from the froth and first solvent mixture.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the pretreater separator 124 may also function as a deaerator. Presence of the first paraffinic solvent in the hydrocarbon phase in the pretreater separator 124 may decrease the viscosity of the hydrocarbon phase sufficiently so that air entrained in the froth would be readily separated from the hydrocarbon phase. The temperature of the pretreater separator which is effective todeaerate the froth and first solvent mixture 107 may be lower than the temperature of a typical froth deaerator, reducing the need for utilization of heating by direct contact with steam. For example, the TH4057(US) temperature of the pretreater separator may be between 35 and 60 C. The froth and first solvent mixture may then be heated with a heat exchanger 130, optionally using heat from a product stream to improve thermal efficiency of the process and reduce dilution of the stream by condensation of steam.
When the pretreater separator 124 also functions as a deaerator, vent stream 128 may be produced. Vent stream 128 may be incinerated, cleaned in, for example, an activated carbon bed, vented directly to the atmosphere, or treated in a vapor recovery unit to recover hydrocarbons.
A second paraffinic solvent 1 1 1 may be added to the first hydrocarbon mixture 110 to form a second hydrocarbon mixture 112, which may be heated in heat exchanger 130 with heat medium stream 129, and then passed to a froth separator 125. Heat medium stream 129 may be steam, or a hot product stream such as bitumen product 117. The heat exchanger may be effective to heat the second hydrocarbon mixture from the pretreater temperature to a desirable temperature for the froth separator 125, for example from a temperature in the range of 40 to 50 C to a temperature of greater than 70 C, for example, between 70 and 190 C. Because a majority of solids have been removed from the froth and are not present in the first hydrocarbon mixture, heating the first hydrocarbon mixture, or the second hydrocarbon mixture by heat exchanges to a desirable froth separation temperature is possible without resulting in unacceptable fouling of the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger could be one heat exchanger, for example, a tube in shell type heat exchanger, or could be a series of heat exchangers to provide heat from various sources of heat. The heat exchanger could provide heat to the first hydrocarbon mixture 110 prior to combining the first hydrocarbon mixture 110 with the second paraffinic solvent 111 if, for example, the second paraffinic solvent 111 is already at an elevated temperature in which case, it may be energy efficient to at least partially heat the cooler first hydrocarbon mixture 110 prior to combining the first hydrocarbon mixture with the second paraffinic solvent 111.
Froth separator 125 may be effective to separate the second hydrocarbon mixture 112 into a second tailings stream 115 and a solvent diluted bitumen 113. The froth separator 125 may be, for example, multiple settlers with counter current contact between solvent and tailings to achieve more than 90 percent recovery of non-asphaltene bitumen, and optionally at least 97% of non-asphaltene bitumen, to the solvent diluted bitumen 113. The amount of second paraffinic solvent may be enough to achieve a mass ratio of solvent to bitumen of between 1:1 and 6:1. This ratio may be sufficiently high to result in at least partial precipitation of asphaltenes, resulting in recovery of a solid asphaltene phase either from the froth separator 125 or subsequently from the second tailings stream.
Alternatively, the precipitated asphaltenes could be disposed of with mineral solids such as the solvent free tailings stream 118. Because the pretreater 124 may remove enough water so that the second tailings stream would not have sufficient TH4057(US) water to enable transportation of the second tailings stream, it may be advantageous to add additional water and/or route a portion of the first tailings stream 109 to froth separator 125 feed, or to the separator 125, or to the second tailings stream 115, to improve mobility of solids separated by the froth separator 125.
Partitioning of at least some asphaltenes from the bitumen product may be useful when decreasing the asphaltene content of the bitumen increases options for marketing the bitumen product.
For example, the asphaltenes removed from the bitumen and not recovered with the bitumen product may be between ten and eighty percent of the asphaltenes present in the oil sand composition. The bitumen product may be processed in an existing catalytic resid upgrader processes.
Separated asphaltenes, when the pretreatment of the present invention is utilized, may be recoverd with consideralty less mineral solids than a process not utilizing the pretreater. The recovered asphaltense may therefore be utilized directly, without a need for further processing to remove asphaltenes from solids.
For simplicity, a single froth separator is shown in Fig. 1, although it is to be understood that the froth separator could be a series of separation stages optionally including multi stage, counter-current contacting with solvent. For example, there may be two or three stages of counter-current contacting of solvent with underflow from the earlier stage so that the final tailings stream is contacted with fresh solvent. The froth seperator may be, for example, settler(s), hydrocyclone(s), inclined plate separator(s), centrifuges, or combinations thereof.
The solvent diluted bitumen 113 may be processed in a solvent recovery unit 126, producing a recycleable solvent 114 and leaving a bitumen product 117. The bitumen product may have less than about 15 percent by weight asphaltene content, and less than 1 percent by weight water content. Some solvent may optionally remain in the bitumen product, for example, to facilitate pipeline transportation of the bitumen product.
First tailings stream 109 and the second tailings stream 115 may be processed in a tailings solvent recovery unit 127 to remove at least a portion of the solvent present in the tailings as tailings solvent recycle 119 and a solvent free tailings stream 118. The recovered solvent from the tailings solvent recovery unit may be combined with recyclable solvent 114 and make-up solvent 116 to form source of the first paraffinic solvent 108 and the second paraffinic solvent 111.
The solvent recovery unit 126 may use known methods to remove more volatile hydrocarbons from less volatile hydrocarbons such as distillation and supercritical solvent separation. The tailings solvent recovery unit 127 may utilize known methods to remove volatile hydrocarbons from solids and/or aqueous streams such as using the heat present in the tailings stream for vaporization of the solvent. An asphaltene product, 131 may be recovered, for example, from the second tailings stream 115 by the solvent recovery unit 127, or upstream of the solvent recovery unit in a separate operation.
TH4057(US) Water in the tailings may be at least partially separated from the solids and recycled, for example, to the slurry of oil sand slurry 103. Recycling water from the tailings reduces the need to provide additional water 102. Recycling this water as hot water also provides additional heat to the front- end water extraction process and improves energy efficiency of the overall process. Alternatively, at least a portion of the heat in the tailing stream 118 can be recovered using heat exchangers, for example, heat exchanger 130, before the solvent free tailings stream 118 is sent to the tailings pond or otherwise disposed of.
Optionally, the tailings stream 115 can be treated to recover the asphaltenes for combustion for energy and/or for gasification. Since a large portion of the mineral solids in bitumen from is removed with the first tailings stream 109, the asphaltenes recovered from the second tailings stream 115 are of low mineral solids content. For example, the weight ratio of mineral solids to asphaltene in the recovered asphaltene stream may be between 1:20 to 1:1, or in other embodiments, between 1:10 and 3:10. The low solids content of the second tailings stream, and high asphaltene content of the second tailings stream, is a significant advantage of the use of the pretreater according to the present invention. The asphaltenes separated from the froth in a paraffinic solvent froth treatment process comprise a significant amount of hydrocarbons from the oil sand ore. But in a typical paraffinic solvent froth treatment process, these aphaltenes are separated with a significant amount of solids. The the value of the asphaltene stream is significantly diminished by the solids content of the ashphaltenes.
Alternatively, a significant amount of capital and operating expense is required if the asphaltense are to be sufficiently separated from mineral solids to form a useful hydrocarbon stream.
In other embodiments of the present invention, precipitated asphaltenes may be recovered from the solvent free tailings stream 118 or as a separate product from the froth separator 125.
The invention also includes the apparatus capable of performing the method.
The concentration of asphaltenes in the bitumen product may be below about 15 percent by volume, or below about 10 percent by volume, or between 6 and 12 percent by volume.
Referring now to Fig. 2, an alternative process for the practice of the present invention is shown wherein the first paraffinic solvent 108 is not fresh solvent recycle, but an intermediate solvent from a multistage counter current froth separation process. In the embodiment of Fig.
2, froth 106 is combined with first paraffinic solvent 108 and routed to the pretreatment separator 124 as in the embodiment of Fig, 1, but the first paraffinic solvent 108 and the second paraffinic solvent 111 are solvent recovered from a second stage froth separator 221. First hydrocarbon mixture 110 is combined with the second paraffinic solvent 111 to form a second hydrocarbon mixture 112. The second hydrocarbon mixture 112 is routed to a first stage froth separator 220, to produce a first stage tailings stream 201 and a solvent diluted bitumen 113.
TH4057(US) The first stage tailings stream 201 is combined with fresh solvent 202 to form second stage feed 203. The second stage feed goes to the second stage froth separator 221, wherein the hydrocarbon phase is separated as the second stage solvent 204 and the second tailings stream 115, which is routed to the tailings solvent separation unit 127. The tailings solvent recovery unit 127 produces a tailings solvent recycle 119 and a solvent free tailings stream 118.
The solvent diluted bitumen 113 contains bitumen, and paraffinic solvent, with less than one percent by weight of water and less than one percent by weight solids. The solvent diluted bitumen 113 is processed in a solvent recovery unit 126 to produce a recycle solvent114 and a bitumen product 117.
The embodiment of Fig. 2 utilizes paraffinic solvent for the pretreatment that has already been contacted with tailings, so the tailings see all of the fresh solvent, improving recovery of hydrocarbons from the tailings. Alternatively, the froth treatment separators 125 may have more than two stages in counter-current configuration.
The addition of a pretreatment separator 124 to an existing paraffinic solvent froth treatment system may enable the exiting paraffinic solvent froth treatment system to handle oil sand compositions having lower levels of richness than the existing facilities could have handled. For example, a low-grade oil sand composition having less than 10 wt% of bitumen content might be handled in the existing facility having paraffinic solvent froth treatment, after an addition of the pretreatment system of the present invention. Alternatively, for a new facility, the first stage froth separator and second stage froth separator may be provided with less residence time, and therefore at a lower expense.
The addition of a pretreatment system according to this invention may enable modifications and/or simplification of the oil sands water extraction processes that optimize tailings hand ling/management and reduce capital and operating costs. These modifications and simplifications may necessarily produce low-quality bitumen froth (i.e., low bitumen content and high water and solids contents in froth) even when high-grade oil sands ores are processed.
Claims (21)
1. A method to separate a bitumen product from an oil sand compositions wherein the oil sand composition comprises mineral solids, water and bitumen, the bitumen containing asphpaltenes, the method comprising the steps of:
contacting the oil sand composition with water to form a slurry;
separating the slurry into a froth comprising a majority of the bitumen from the slurry, and an underflow stream comprising a majority of the mineral solids and water from the slurry;
contacting the froth with a sufficient amount of a first paraffinic solvent to achieve a solvent to bitumen weight ratio of at least 0.2 but less than the amount of paraffinic solvent that would cause asphaltenes to precipitate, to form a froth and first solvent mixture;
separating the froth and first solvent mixture into a first hydrocarbon mixture containing a majority of the first paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the froth and first solvent mixture, and a first tailings stream containing at least 35 percent by weight of the mineral solids and a majority of the water present in the froth;
contacting the first hydrocarbon mixture with a sufficient amount of a second paraffinic solvent to reach at least partial asphaltene precipitation, forming a second hydrocarbon mixture;
separating the second hydrocarbon mixture into a solvent diluted bitumen containing a majority of the first and second paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the oil sand composition, and a second tailings stream containing a majority of solids and a majority of the water present in the second hydrocarbon mixture; and separating the solvent diluted bitumen into a bitumen product and a recyclable paraffinic solvent stream.
contacting the oil sand composition with water to form a slurry;
separating the slurry into a froth comprising a majority of the bitumen from the slurry, and an underflow stream comprising a majority of the mineral solids and water from the slurry;
contacting the froth with a sufficient amount of a first paraffinic solvent to achieve a solvent to bitumen weight ratio of at least 0.2 but less than the amount of paraffinic solvent that would cause asphaltenes to precipitate, to form a froth and first solvent mixture;
separating the froth and first solvent mixture into a first hydrocarbon mixture containing a majority of the first paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the froth and first solvent mixture, and a first tailings stream containing at least 35 percent by weight of the mineral solids and a majority of the water present in the froth;
contacting the first hydrocarbon mixture with a sufficient amount of a second paraffinic solvent to reach at least partial asphaltene precipitation, forming a second hydrocarbon mixture;
separating the second hydrocarbon mixture into a solvent diluted bitumen containing a majority of the first and second paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the oil sand composition, and a second tailings stream containing a majority of solids and a majority of the water present in the second hydrocarbon mixture; and separating the solvent diluted bitumen into a bitumen product and a recyclable paraffinic solvent stream.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the paraffinic solvent comprises butane, pentane, hexane, heptane or a combination thereof.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the second paraffinic solvent comprises at least ninety percent by weight of combined pentane and hexane, and a ratio of the second paraffinic solvent to bitumen product is between 1:1 and 6:1.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the second paraffinic solvent comprises at least ninety percent by weight of pentane.
5. The method of claim 3 wherein the second paraffinic solvent comprises at least ninety percent by weight of hexane.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of removing at least a portion of the precipitated asphaltenes from the second hydrocarbon mixture.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein the precipitated asphaltenes comprise between ten and eighty percent of the asphaltenes present in the oil sand composition.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the asphaltenes precipitated from the first hydrocarbon mixture are recovered from the second tailings stream.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the asphaltense precipitated from the first hydrocarbon mixture are recovered from the solvent free tailings stream.
10. The method of claim 6 wherein the weight ratio of mineral solids to asphaltenes in the removed asphaltenes is between 1:20 and 1:1.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein the weight ration of mineral solids to asphaltenes in the removed asphaltenes is between 1:10 and 3:10.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of contacting the hydrocarbon phase with a sufficient amount of a second paraffinic solvent to reach at least partial asphaltene precipitation comprises a multi-stage counter-current contacting process.
13. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of separating the solvent diluted bitumen into the bitumen product and a recyclable paraffinic solvent stream by a distillation process.
14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of recycling at least a portion of the recyclable solvent removed from the hydrocarbon phase.
15. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of separating the froth and first solvent mixture into a first hydrocarbon mixture containing a majority of the paraffinic solvent, a majority of the bitumen from the froth and first solvent mixture, and a first tailings stream containing a majority of solids and a majority of the water present in the froth, also deaerates the froth and first solvent mixture.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein the deaeration removes at least one percent by volume of gas from the froth and first solvent mixture.
17. The method of claim 15 wherein the step of separating the froth and first solvent mixture into a first hydrocarbon mixture, and a first tailings stream, is done at a temperature between 35 and 60°C.
18. The method of claim 16 wherein, after the step of separating the froth and first solvent mixture into a first hydrocarbon mixture, and a first tailings stream, the first hydrocarbon mixture is heated by a heat exchanger.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein the first hydrocarbon mixture is heated to a temperature of at least 70°C
by the heat exchanger.
by the heat exchanger.
20. The method of claim 17 wherein the second hydrocarbon mixture is heated by a heat exchanger.
21. The method of claim 20 wherein the second hydrocarbon mixture is heated by a heat exchanger to a temperature of at least 70°C by the heat exchanger.
Applications Claiming Priority (4)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US40545510P | 2010-10-21 | 2010-10-21 | |
| US61/405,455 | 2010-10-21 | ||
| US40724710P | 2010-10-27 | 2010-10-27 | |
| US61/407,247 | 2010-10-27 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2755634A1 true CA2755634A1 (en) | 2012-04-21 |
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| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2755634 Abandoned CA2755634A1 (en) | 2010-10-21 | 2011-10-19 | Paraffinic froth treatment with bitumen froth pretreatment |
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| Country | Link |
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| CA (1) | CA2755634A1 (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US10954448B2 (en) | 2017-08-18 | 2021-03-23 | Canadian Natural Resources Limited | High temperature paraffinic froth treatment process |
-
2011
- 2011-10-19 CA CA 2755634 patent/CA2755634A1/en not_active Abandoned
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US10954448B2 (en) | 2017-08-18 | 2021-03-23 | Canadian Natural Resources Limited | High temperature paraffinic froth treatment process |
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