CA2704175C

CA2704175C - Removing hydrophilic minerals from bitumen products

Info

Publication number: CA2704175C
Application number: CA2704175A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Jan Kruyer
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-05-18
Filing date: 2010-05-18
Publication date: 2015-08-18
Anticipated expiration: 2030-05-18
Also published as: CA2704175A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to removing hydrophilic minerals from oil sand raw bitumen products. Water flows through a restriction in a pipe to form a vena contracta where the water velocity is high and the pressure is low. Warm bitumen product is introduced into the flowing water near the vena contracta to disperses bitumen product in water. A target downstream from the vena contracta creates high turbulence to help the transfer of hydrophilic mineral particulate from the bitumen phase to the aqueous phase. Reagents may be added to convert bi-wetted and hydrophobic minerals to become water wetted and be transfer to the aqueous phase. After that, the dispersion is agglomerated in a rotating aglomerator and then separated by a revolving apertured oleophilic screen where bitumen adheres to the screen surfaces for subsequent removal as a bitumen product whilst water and hydrophilic mineral particles pass through the screen apertures. Chemical demulsifiers may be added to the agglomerator as needed. Air is removed before a bitumen froth product is processed in the methods of present invention.

Description

Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 REMOVING HYDROPHILIC MINERALS FROM
BITUMEN PRODUCTS
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to Canadian Patent applications number 2,690,951 filed January 27th, 2010 entitled "Endless Cable Belt Alignment Apparatus and Methods for Separation", number 2,666,025 filed May 19th, 2009 entitled "Pond Sludge Bitumen and Ultrafines Agglomeration and Recovery", number 2,653,058 filed February 16th, 2009 entitled "Dewatering Oil Sand Fine Tailings Using Revolving Oleophilic Apertured Wall", number 2,647,855 filed January 15th, entitled "Design of Endless Cable Multiple Wrap Bitumen Extractors" and number 2,638,596 filed August 6th , 2008 entitled "Endless Cable System and Associated Methods", which are referenced in these specifications.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to process devices and methods for removing hydrophilic particulate mineral matter from bitumen products that result from separating aqueous slurries or suspensions of oil sand bitumen, and discloses methods to temporarily disperse bitumen product in continuous aqueous phase to form a dispersion and transfer solids from the dispersed bitumen phase to the aqueous phase of the dispersion, followed by agglomerating the dispersed bitumen in a revolving agglomerator and thereafter separating the agglomerated bitumen from the aqueous phase as a bitumen product of agglomeration. Accordingly, the present invention involves the fields of process engineering, chemistry and chemical engineering.

Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A detailed description of oil sand, tar sand or bituminous sand deposits, and of the processing of these ore deposits to produce bitumen product is provided in the above referenced patent applications. Some authors report that the Northern Alberta oil sands resource contains almost half of the remaining world oil reserves recoverable by current methods.
Alberta oil sand ore consist of sand grains covered with a thin envelope of water, with the voids between the grains filled with mineral fines, water and bitumen.
Between 10 and 15 percent of the oil sand ore is close enough to the surface to be strip-mined. With current technology some of the remainder may be recovered by in situ methods that use steam or combustion to bring bitumen products to the surface.
The current commercial method for processing mined oil sand, invented by Karl Clark about 75 years ago, mines the oil sand and mixes it with water, process aid and air to form an aerated slurry that is flooded with water and then is separated in large flotation vessels where aerated bitumen particles rise to the top and are skimmed off to become the bitumen products of separation. Air is removed from the bitumen products before these are cleaned. The de-aerated bitumen product, containing water and mineral particulates, is processed further to eventually yield refinery oil products.
An alternate process developed by the present inventor does not use bitumen froth flotation or flotation vessels but screens bitumen product out of aqueous oil sand mixtures. This process is described in patents granted to the present inventor and in his pending patents referred to above.
In nearly all cases, bitumen products recovered from aqueous oil sand streams contain water and mineral particulates. Some of these mineral particulates are hydrophilic; some are oleophilic and some are bi-wetted, in which part of a particle is water wetted and another part of the particle is bitumen wetted. It is the objective of the present invention to remove water wetted mineral particles from oil sand bitumen products. It also is the objective of the present invention to convert some of the

2 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 bitumen wetted mineral particles to make them water wetted and then remove them from the bitumen products.
CURRENT COMMERCIAL PROCESSES
In accordance with one commercial application of the Clark process, the oil sand is mixed with hot water, air and a small amount of "process aid" (usually NaOH) to produce an aqueous slurry in which sand grains, fines, bitumen droplets and air bubbles are suspended in warm water. The oil sand slurry is formed by tumbling in a drum with water and process aid or by turbulently mixing the ore with water and process aid in a long distance pipeline. Flotation air enters the slurry in the drum or in the pipeline after which the slurry is diluted with additional water and introduced into a primary separation vessel known as a "PSV". Additional air may be required to cause bitumen droplets to attach to air bubbles and rise to the top of the vessel to be skimmed off as the "primary bitumen froth" product.
Process aid normally has a high p1-1 and reacts with the ore to form carboxylic (naphthenic) and sulfate/sulfonate detergents that encourage disengagement of bitumen from the sand grains, and provide the mineral surfaces in the slurry with a strong negative potential which disperses these minerals in the slurry, and yet encourages the adhesion of bitumen to gas bubbles to allow aerated bitumen to rise to the top of separation vessels. The resulting aqueous phase pH in the Clark process averages about 8.5 . The chemistry of the process is very complex and has been the topic of many publications. After operating for a while, the commercial oil sand plant operators try to limit the use of fresh water for processing oil sand ore by using a large amount of recycle water from the top of the associated tailings ponds.
This also reduces the amount of process aid required for extracting bitumen from oil sand ore since the recycle water already may contain residual process aid and detergents.
Most of the oil sand bitumen is recovered in the PSV and is skimmed off the top as the "primary froth". The coarse sand, together with water, some fines, some

3 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 bitumen, some process aid, and some surfactants, sink and leave the PSV
through a bottom outlet. This stream is referred to as "primary tailings".
Some bitumen and some fines leave the extraction process with the primary tailings, but most of the slurry fines and some bitumen in aqueous suspension collect in the mid section of the PSV. This suspension is removed from the PSV mid section in the form of an aqueous drag stream called "middlings" and is introduced into a series of induced air flotation cells. Here the middlings are contacted with a flood of minute air bubbles to cause a large portion of the residual bitumen to attach to these air bubbles and float to the top of the cells to be skimmed off as the "secondary bitumen froth" product. For most processed ores, secondary froth contains more mineral matter than primary froth and makes up only a small portion of the total bitumen recovered. A tailings product, referred to as "secondary tailings", leaves from the bottom outlet of the flotation cells, is combined with the primary tailings and is sent to a tailings pond by slurry pipeline. The secondary tailings contain water, some fines, some bitumen, some process aid, and some surfactants. In more recent developments the tailings are processed further to recover additional bitumen.
The combined tailings are discharged onto the shore of a large tailings pond with or without the use of hydro cyclones. Here the coarse sand grains are deposited on the beach, leaving a fluid suspension of bitumen, fine solids, process aid and surfactants. This fine mixture flows into the sedimentation portion of the tailings pond where mineral fines and residual bitumen settle. Some water is released and rises to the top of the tailings pond, and this water is used is recycle water. The process water used in the current commercial extraction plants consists of about 10 percent fresh water from the Athabasca River and about 90 percent recycle water form the tailings ponds. This recycle water can contain up to about 2 percent solids.
A higher solids content tends to interfere with oil sands processing in the Clark process. Water containing a high solids content remains in the ponds where the particulate minerals and bitumen suspension go through a sorting process and slowly settle until the settled suspension, called "fluid tailings", "fine tailings"
or "tailings pond sludge", reaches a solids content of about 30 weight percent and a bitumen

4 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 content of around 2 to 6 weight percent, and sometimes as high as 10 percent due to extraction plant upsets or bitumen migration in the pond. The settled fine tailings are then called "mature fine tailings" which form microscopic card-house structures of clay due to the plate-like character of electrically charged clay.
Ultrafine mineral particles, bitumen and biwetted solids in the mature fine tailings suspension have a strong tendency to form colloidal thixotropic gel structures that limit further settling of mature fine tailings. Some of the residual bitumen particles and oleophilic and biwettede clay particles are believed to form plugs that prevent the escape of water through pores of the card house structures.
Subsequent compaction of the sediment, after that, results from the combined weight of the accumulating sediment and from fine sand and silt settling into the sediment from above, and from wind blown sand from tailings pond dykes raining down into the pond. It has been suggested that coarse mineral particles, such as sand, could break through the existing card house and colloidal gel structures and open up dewatering channels in the thixotropic sediment while the finer sand and silt particles become trapped in the gel, densify it, and provide some assistance in its very slow compaction. This natural compacting is so slow that most estimates suggest that many hundreds of years will pass before undisturbed mature sludge will reach consolidation.
Problems with the accumulation of settling oil sand fine tailings problem were not realized until about a decade after the first commercial oil sand plant started its operation. Initially it was assumed that the tailings would settle by gravity in the tailings ponds into a solid material that could be covered effectively by sand and overburden for subsequent site remediation. The possibility of gel forming structures in settled fluid oil sand tailings was not contemplated beforehand. This unexpected problem has resulted in decades and many millions of dollars of research devoted to try and eliminate the fluid tailings problem after it had come to the fore.
This research is still ongoing and has resulted in a large number of master's theses, doctor's theses, research publications, and a number of patents to overcome the problems of an environmentally flawed process. By the year 2010 about 750 million

5 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 cubic meters of tailings pond sludge had accumulated and were stored in huge ponds.
This sludge is toxic. For example, when 10% pond water is mixed with 90% fresh water, about 50% of fingerling fish entering and remaining in this water mixture will die within 96 hours. Seven hundred and fifty million cubic meters is sufficient to cover a two-lane highway, 10 meters wide, up to the rafters of a 6 story building, 15 meters high, 5000 kilometers all the way across Canada from Victoria to Halifax.
Should one of the pond dykes ever break due to seismic or other activity it would devastate the surrounding landscape.
Research has been conducted by universities and oil sands companies on overcoming the fluid tailings problem. Being committed to the Clark process, that research has been devoted mainly to solving piece meal the problems within the framework of that established commercial process Much research time and funding has been spent on gaining an understanding of how to modify fluid tailings, how to accommodate these, how to reduce the amount of fluid tailings (sludge) produced, or how to chemically treat the sludge in the hope of consolidating it into a solid mass for oil sand lease remediation. Great strides have been made in understanding the physics, chemistry, mechanism and behaviour of fluid tailings; but no conclusive and satisfactory solution has yet been found. Confirmation of this may be found in published literature and in the fact that Syncrude Canada Ltd., the company at the forefront of sludge research, recently asked for and received permission from the Alberta government to expand its tailings pond.
The granted and pending patents of the present inventor take mined oil sand processing in a very different direction. Instead of solving the problems that are surfacing in an existing commercial process, he has developed a competing process that does not have the problems inherent in bitumen froth flotation.
Currently the most effective method for recovering bitumen product from deeper oil sands deposits was invented by Roger Butler a few decades ago and is called the SAGD process. In this process two wells are drilled by means of directional drilling to form two horizontal pipes inside an oil sand formation, one located above the other. Portions of the horizontal pipes are perforated and steam is

6 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 injected into the upper horizontal pipe to heat the oil sand formation and cause bitumen of the formation to become amenable to flow due to the elevated temperature of the formation as a result of the steam injection. Warm bitumen flows by gravity through perforations into the lower horizontal pipe and is pumped out of the formation as bitumen product from the deep oil sand formation. This bitumen also contains water and some mineral particulates and must be processed before it can be converted into useful hydrocarbon refinery products. The Butler process, and for that matter any other steam driven bitumen recovery process from deep oil sand deposits, is very energy intensive since large amounts of steam are required to heat deep oil sand formations to cause bitumen to flow from ore in close proximity to the perforated pipes. Systems still need to be developed to collect bitumen from the deep formations not close to the perforated pipes. Subsurface mining and hydraulic mining methods have been proposed in patents to more efficiently recover a larger portion of bitumen from deep oil sand resource but these methods have yet to be commercialized.
In the processes developed by the present inventor for mined oil sand processing, oil sand slurries of water and mined oil sand ore are passed through a revolving apertured oleophilic screen to recover the contained bitumen. The oversize material is removed first, after which the slurry is passed through the screen in one or more separation zones. In separation zones, bitumen is captured and adheres to surfaces of the screen whilst debituminized water and fine solids of the slurry pass through apertures of the screen to disposal. In bitumen removal zones the captured bitumen is removed from the screen surfaces. The process is very efficient and is about an order of magnitude faster than the current commercial Clark process, which floats off aerated bitumen from an oil sand slurry. Since the screening process achieves higher bitumen recovery than bitumen froth flotation, the solids content of the bitumen product often is somewhat higher than the bitumen product of oil sand slurry separation by froth flotation and needs to be cleaned to remove excess solids.
The bitumen screening process was also piloted for the recovery of bitumen from tailings pond sludge and averaged 85 percent bitumen recovery in a small pilot

7 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 plant. In a larger companion pilot plant, tailings pond sludge separation was attempted by means of bitumen froth flotation but it failed until the oleophilic sieve (bitumen screening) pilot plant was integrated into this large pilot plant.
When separating tailings pond sludge containing by weight 6 % bitumen, the bitumen product recovered independently by the small bitumen screening pilot plant contained by weight 58.11 % bitumen, 27.02 % water and 14.87 % mineral solids. Simply mixing this product with water in a stirred tank and separating this mixture by bitumen sieving achieved 99% bitumen recovery and resulted in a product that contained 60.8 % bitumen, 28.8% water and 10.4% mineral solids. The present invention goes much further than simply mixing bitumen product with water in a stirred tank and screening the resulting mixture to remove solids.
Thus, in most separations described above, bitumen recovered from mined oil sands, from deep oil sand formations and from tailings pond sludge contains hydrophilic mineral particulates which preferably are removed. Removing such solids from bitumen product has at least two advantages. First, the removal of hydrophilic solids from bitumen product reduces the cost of subsequent dilution centrifuging of the bitumen products. The solids loading in a centrifuge is lower when a hydrophilic portion of the solids has been removed prior to dilution and centrifuging. This allows for a higher centrifuge throughput and lowers the cost of bitumen clean up. Second, the bitumen products from separating oil sand slurries and tailings pond sludge contain a considerable amount of ores of titanium and zirconium and, in some cases, trace amounts of gold and silver. These ores and precious minerals normally are oleophilic and remain with the bitumen products when these products are processed by the methods of the present invention. When hydrophilic minerals are removed from these bitumen products, the titanium and zirconium ores in the bitumen products are beneficiated. Then when the bitumen products are cleaned thereafter by, for example, dilution centrifuging or straight chain hydrocarbon dilution and settling, the concentration of potentially valuable mineral ores recovered from bitumen products during the clean up has increased.

8 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Most raw bitumen products produced from oil sands contain solid mineral particulates. Some of these particulates are hydrophilic, some are oleophilic and some are biwetted by water and bitumen. The present invention makes use of water flowing at high velocity past a restriction in a pipe to disperse raw bitumen in flowing water in the proximity of a vena contracta resulting from the restriction. The restriction may be an orifice, a converging conical restriction, a flow nozzle or any type of pipe restriction that causes a significant increase in the local water velocity at and past the restriction. Water flowing in a pipe past a restriction will generate a vena contracta a small distance downstream from the restriction, since fluid streamlines cannot abruptly change direction. Depending on the size of the restriction and the water flow rate in the pipe, the local water velocity near the vena contracta is much faster than elsewhere in the pipe and the local pressure is much lower. In some cases the pressure near the vena contracta is below the vapour pressure of water, causing cavitation of water near the vena contracta. In the present invention bitumen product is introduced into the flowing water as close as possible to the vena contracta, causing dispersion of bitumen in the flowing water past the pipe restriction.
A target may be mounted in the pipe a short distance downstream from the vena contracta to disrupt the fluid streamlines and cause a high degree of local turbulence to complete the desired dispersion of bitumen product into the flowing water. The target may be an orifice that has a solid centre but has apertures around its circumference near the pipe wall. Or the target may be an ultrasonic horn that reduces the size of the dispersed bitumen particles approaching the horn. Alternately, two opposing fluid streams containing dispersed bitumen may impact on each other to cause the desired high degree of turbulence to break up the dispersed bitumen particles into smaller dispersed particles in the flowing water.
It is not the objective of the present invention to create a tight emulsion that is hard to break, but rather a temporary emulsion that lasts long enough to remove as many of the hydrophilic mineral particles as possible from the dispersed bitumen

9 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 product before the dispersed particles recombine and are agglomerated to yield a cleaner bitumen product. For that reason chemicals are not added to the process that would create tight emulsions. However, chemicals may be added to the process to convert biwetted or oleophilic minerals to become hydrophilic during the dispersion process and transfer these minerals to the water phase.
Raw bitumen product feed entering flowing water near the vena contracta may contain fine hydrophilic mineral particulate matter that were part of water droplets dispersed in the raw bitumen product, or raw bitumen may contain larger hydrophilic particulates that were trapped in viscous bitumen by occlusion. It is the objective of the present invention to free oleophilic particulate matter from raw bitumen feed through temporarily dispersing the feed so well and into such small bitumen particles that these hydrophilic solid particulates transfer to the water phase before the bitumen phase particles are subsequently agglomerated. After dispersion the bitumen in water mixture flows into a rotating agglomerator that contains oleophilic surfaces.
These surfaces capture bitumen particles in increasingly thicker layers until shear in the agglomerator causes bitumen phase to slough off the oleophilic surfaces in the form of enlarged bitumen. This agglomerated mixture is passed to a revolving apertured oleophilic screen where bitumen adheres to the screen surfaces and water and hydrophilic minerals pass through the screen apertures to disposal. Bitumen recovery in this cleaning process normally is very high, close to 99%. A chemical demulsifier may be added to the aglomerator to further improve bitumen recovery or to reduce water content in the cleaned bitumen product In some cases, the water and hydrophilic minerals effluent of bitumen clean up passing through the screen apertures may be used as recycle water to produce oil sand slurry for mined oil sand separation. Doing so will provide process water to the slurry making process and will also allow the capture any unrecovered bitumen leaving the bitumen cleaning process as effluent.

10 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig.1 is a sectional drawing of a flange mounted pipe restriction in the form of a converging cone with water flowing through the cone with bitumen product injection facility near the vena contracta and a flange mounted flat target after the vena contracta to more intimately mix the dispersed bitumen in water by impact.
Fig.2 is a sectional drawing of two opposing flange mounted pipe restrictions in the form of converging cones with bitumen product injection facility near each vena contracta wherein water flows through the cones in opposite direction to create opposing streams of flowing water and dispersed bitumen product to more intimately mix the dispersed bitumen in water by impact between the opposing streams, and provided with an exit pipe for the produced dispersion.
Fig. 3 is a sectional drawing of a flange mounted pipe restriction in the form of a converging cone with water flowing through the cone with bitumen product injection facility near the vena contracta and a flange mounted vibrating ultrasonic generator with horn target downstream from the vena contracta to reduce the particle size of dispersed bitumen in water.
Fig. 4 is a schematic drawing of a sharp edge orifice with fluid flowing through the orifice and showing the vena contracta that results from fluid flowing through the orifice.
Fig. 5 is a schematic drawing of a converging cone with fluid flowing through the cone and showing the vena contracta that results from fluid flowing through the converging cone.
Fig. 6 is a simplified illustration of the inside of a conventional homogenizer to produce a dispersion of cream into milk in which a disk of rotating teeth passes by a

11 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 disk of stationary teeth to provide shear in the cream and milk mixture passing through the spaces between the teeth and thereby emulsify cream into milk.
Fig. 7 is a schematic drawing, not to scale, of a flange mounted pipe restriction in the form of a converging cone with water flowing through the cone with bitumen product injection facility near the vena contracta and a flange mounted flat target downstream from the vena contracta to reduce the particle size of bitumen dispersed in water.
From there the dispersion flows to a rotating agglomerator where dispersed bitumen particles recombine. A revolving apertured oleophilic screen is mounted around the apertured cylindrical agglomerator exit wall to separate enlarged bitumen phase from aqueous phase.
DEFINITIONS
Before the present invention is described in greater detail, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the particular structures, process steps, or materials disclosed herein, but is extended to equivalents thereof as would be recognized by those ordinarily skilled in the relevant arts. It should also be understood that terminology employed herein is used for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting It must be noted that, as used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a splice"
includes one or more of such splices, reference to "an endless cable" includes reference to one or more of such endless cables, and reference to "the material" includes reference to one or more of such materials.
In describing and claiming the present invention, the following terminology will be used in accordance with the definitions set forth below. When reference is made to a given terminology in several definitions, these references should be considered to augment or support each other or shed additional light.

12 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOG 2P0 "agglomerating" refers to a process in which a dispersed bitumen product is contacted by oleophilc surfaces, such as from a bed of oleophilic balls tumbling in a drum agglomerator, wherein bitumen coats the ball surfaces in increasing thickness until shear forces strip enlarged bitumen particles from the ball surfaces. In many cases bitumen that coats oleophilic balls tumbling in a drum aglomerator will fill the voids between the balls and this bitumen will be moved and extruded out of these voids by the kneading action of the moving bed of balls surrounded by an apertured cylindrical wall. The agglomerated bitumen normally is extruded to an apertured oleophilic screen along the bottom of an apertured cylindrical aglomerator exit wall.
Grinding balls, bearing balls, rubber coated balls or a mixture of light balls, for example golf balls, and steel balls may be used for such bed of balls. The average density of the balls must be large enough that the bed will tumble inside the drum agglomerator in the presence of viscous bitumen. However the average ball density must be low enough to prevent an agglomerator drum to take on the weight of a ball mill. Hence, a agglomerator drum is not a ball mill but is of much lighter construction. The bed of balls (including voids between the balls) may fill between 5 and 85 percent of the volume of the drum, depending on the shape of the agglomerator and on the desired amount of agglomeration desired. When a conical drum agglomerator is used with balls of various sizes, larger balls will tend to reside in the large diameter section of the agglomerator and smaller balls will tend to reside in the small diameter section of the agglomerator with intermediate size balls in between. Having large balls near the entrance of an agglomerator will enhance capture of bitumen from the aqueous mixture since the mixture readily can pass into the large voids between large balls. Aqueous phase then is gradualy squeezed out of the smaller ball voids further down the conical aggomerator where the balls are smaller and bitumen fills the voids between the smaller balls to a larger degree. Near the agglomerator exit the collected bitumen is squeezed out of the ball voids by the kneading action of the revolving bed of balls.

13 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 A demulsifier may be used to enhance the capture of dispersed bitumen particles. Many demulsifiers are commercially available. Some of these demulsifiers may be very simple multivalent hydroxides, oxides or salts.
"agglomeration" refers agglomerating, which is to increasing the size of bitumen particles in an aqueous mixture by means of a drum agglomerator prior to the removal of enlarged bitumen particles from the mixture by an oleophilic apertured wall, such as a sieve, screen, belt or cable wraps. When a bed of tumbling oleophilic balls is used in the drum, these balls agglomerate the bitumen and also knead the collected bitumen. This kneeding does not occur when, instead of tumbling balls, tower packings are used in the drum aglomerator, fill the drum completely and remain stationary with respect to the drum wall. Such tower packings have been used in prior art of the present inventor but endless cable belts have not been used as sieves in his prior art.
"aqueous phase" or water phase refers to water that may contain solids.
"bitumen phase" refers to bitumen that may contain dispersed water and solids.
"bitumen removal zone" refers to a section along an apertured oleophilic screen. In a bitumen removal zone, adhering bitumen phase is removed from the screen surfaces to become the product of separation.
"oleophilic apertured wall" refers to oleophilic sieve, to oleophilic apertured screen, to oleophilic mesh belt, or to oleophilic endless rope or wire rope cable formed into an apertured oleophilic belt by means of wrapping the cable multiple times around two or more rollers or drums. When using oleophilic apertured walls to separate bitumen from an aqueous mixture, water and suspended hydrophilic solids pass through the apertures of the belt or through the slits between sequential wraps of the oleophilic endless cable, whilst bitumen and oleophilic solids are captured by the oleophilic belt surfaces or cable wrap surfaces. The captured bitumen is subsequently removed from these surfaces to become the bitumen product of separation. Mesh belts were used in the prior art of the inventor, but in many cases mesh belts did not last very long in the presence of abrasive sand. For that reason,

14 Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 mesh belts were replaced by endless rope belts, which made the technology more versatile.
"bitumen" refers to a viscous hydrocarbon that contains maltenes and asphaltenes and is found originally in oil sand ore interstitially between sand grains.
Maltenes generally represent the liquid portion of bitumen in which asphaltenes of extremely small size are thought to be dissolved or dispersed. Asphaltenes contain the bulk of the metals of bitumen and probably give bitumen its high viscosity. In a typical oil sands plant, there are many different streams that may contain bitumen particles that have disengaged from the sand grains. These streams may, but do not have to contain sand grains. Asphaltenes may be removed from bitumen by dissolving bitumen in straight chain hydrocarbons, resulting in precipitation of asphaltenes.
"bitumen product" or "raw bitumen" refers to a feedstock of bitumen derived from an oil sand deposit and may be the raw uncleaned bitumen product of separating oil sand slurry from mined oil sand ore, may be the raw bitumen product of in situ bitumen production or may be the raw bitumen product of separating oil sand tailings pond sludge (fluid tailings). The raw bitumen may be obtained by means of an oleophilic sieve, by means of bitumen froth flotation or by in situ methods.
Bitumen froth obtained by means of bitumen froth flotation contains air. This air must be removed before this bitumen can be considered to be bitumen product as defined in the present specifications and be suitable for processing by the methods of the present invention. Air may be removed from bitumen froth by means of steam or by means of passing the froth through a fine screen to collapse the air bubbles. In the present invention it often is advantageous to heat the bitumen product before it is processed by the methods of the present invention. Such heating may be done, for example, by sparging live steam into the bitumen product before it is processed by the present invention.
"bitumen recovery" or "bitumen recovery yield" refers to the percentage of bitumen removed from an original mixture or composition. Therefore, in a simplified example, a 100 kg mixture containing 45 kg of water and 40 kg of bitumen where Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 kg of bitumen out of the 40 kg is removed, the bitumen recovery or recovery yield would be a 95%.
cable" refers to a non metalic rope, a metal wire rope, a single wire, a monofilament or a multistrand filament rope.
"cable wraps" refers to the wraps of endless cable wrapped around two or more rollers where the spaces between sequential cable wraps form apertures through which aqueous phase can pass, giving up most of its bitumen content to the wraps as it passes through the apertures.
"cleaned bitumen product" refers to bitumen product that has been dispersed in water, has been aglomerated and has been removed from the surfaces of an apertured oleophilic screen.
conditioning" in reference to mined oil sand is consistent with conventional usage and refers to mixing a mined oil sand with water, air and caustic soda to produce a warm or hot slurry of oversize material, coarse sand, silt, clay and aerated bitumen suitable for recovering bitumen froth from said slurry by means of froth flotation. Such mixing can be done in a conditioning drum or tumbler or, alternatively, the mixing can be done as it enters into a slurry pipeline and/or while in transport in the slurry pipeline. Conditioning aerates the bitumen for subsequent recovery in separation vessels by bitumen froth flotation. Likewise, referring to a composition as "conditioned" indicates that the composition has been subjected to such a conventional conditioning process.
confined" refers to a state of substantial enclosure. A path of fluid may be confined if the path is, e.g., walled or blocked on a plurality of sides, such that there is an inlet and an outlet, and the flow is controlled to some degree by the shape of the confining material, enclosure or housing. Confined path refers to a path that is confined by an enclosure. For example, a fluid flowing in a pipe is confined by the walls of the pipe.
"conventional mineral froth flotation depressing chemicals" or depressants refers to chemicals that are used in conventional mineral froth flotation to change the surfaces of certain particulate minerals from oleophilic to hydrophilic before or Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 during froth flotation. These chemicals may be very selective and are commonly used to improve the separation of one type of mineral particles from another type of mineral particles during mineral ore froth flotation. In mineral froth flotation, oleophilic minerals may float to the top of separation vessels due to pine oil and air adhesion while hydrophilic minerals remain with the aqueous phase and do not float.
Since bitumen product normally contains a variety of captured oleophilic and hydrophilic particulate minerals, using conventional mineral froth flotation depressants in the methods of the present invention will selectively or generally cause a portion of the oleophilic particulate mineral surfaces to become to hydrophilic.
Thus, using depressants in the present invention will allow the removal of some initially oleophilic minerals along with hydrophilic minerals from the raw bitumen and cause these to report to the aqueous phase.
"cylindrical" as used herein indicates a generally elongated shape having a circular cross-section of approximately constant diameter. The elongated shape has a length referred herein also as a depth as calculated from a defined end wall.
"disperse the bitumen product" refers to breaking up the bitumen product into particles small enough in the water stream to allow transfer of hydrophilic particles from the bitumen phase to the water phase. Oleophilic particles may be made hydrophilic by the use of a conventional mineral froth flotation depressing chemical and thereby may transfer from the bitumen phase to the water phase.
"endless cable" or "endless wire rope" is used in this disclosure to refer to a cable having no beginning or end, but rather the beginning merges into an end and vice-versa, to create an endless or continuous cable. The endless cable can be, e.g., a wire rope, a non metallic rope, a carbon fiber rope, a single wire, compound filament or a monofilament which is spliced together to form a continuous loop, e.g. by a long splice, by several long splices, or by welding or by adhesion.
"enlarged bitumen" refers to bitumen particles that have been agglomerated in an agomerating drum to form enlarged bitumen phase particles or bitumen phase fluid streamers for subsequent capture by an apertured oleophilic wall, for example by oleophilic cable wraps.

=

Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 "generally" refers to something that occurs most of the time or in most instances, or that occurs for the most part with regards to an overall picture, but disregards specific instances in which something does not occur.
"fluid" refers to flowable matter. Fluids specifically includes water, bitumen, slurries, suspensions or mixtures, and combinations of two or more fluids. In describing certain embodiments, the terms sludge, slurry, mixture, mixture fluid and fluid are used interchangeably, unless explicitly stated to the contrary.
"mesh belt" refers to a revolvable flexible belt woven into a mesh belt and spliced to make it endless. For example, a nomex mesh belt is commercially available that is woven from strong artificial fibres with the cross members re-enforced with thin strands of berylium copper wire woven in the fabric to keep the belt more rigid. Alternately polyesther monofilaments may be woven into a mesh belt comprising long logitudinal strands of polyesther with short polyesther filaments woven into the longitudinal strands to form cross members. The edges of such a belt may be heated to weld the cross members to the outer longetudinal members. The monofilaments may be 1 to 3 millimeters in diameter and the apertures may be between 0.5 and 2 square centimeters. When mesh belt are used, automatic tracking of the belt is required to keep the belt from running off the belt supports.
"mineral particulate matter" refers to the mineral matter found in bitumen and may include titanium ore particles, zirconium ore particles, sand particles, silt particles and clay particles; and may include other components including in silver, gold, aluminum, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, sodium, silica, titanium and zirconium in measurable quantity. Particle sizes may vary between less than 44 microns and up to 1000 microns. Bitumen product obtained from separating a tailings pond sludge (fluid tailings) by means of an apertured oleophilic screen or sieve was found to be high in rutile, which is a premium ore of titanium.
"multiple wraps of endless metal cable" or "multiple wraps of endless plastic rope" refers to a revolvable endless belt formed from metal or plastic rope.
Tracking is not required since the wraps are guided by grooves in rollers and by combs on apertured drum surfaces. However, when multiple wraps of a single Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 endless rope are used, guide rollers are required to prevent the endless rope from running off the drum and rollers.
"multiple wrap endless cable" as used in reference to separations processing refers to a revolvable endless cable that is wrapped around two or more drums and/or rollers a multitude of times to form an endless belt having spaced cables. Proper movement of the endless belt can be facilitated by at least two guide rollers or guides that prevent the cable from rolling off an edge of the drum or roller and guide the cable back to the opposite end of the same or other drum or roller.
Apertures of the endless belt are formed by the slits, spaces or gaps between sequential wraps. The endless cable can be a single wire, a wire rope, a plastic rope, a compound filament or a monofilament which is spliced together to form a continuous loop, e.g. by splicing, welding, etc. As a general guideline, the diameter of the endless cable can be as large as 3 cm and as small as 0.01 cm or any size in between, although other sizes might be suitable for some applications. Very small diameter endless cables would normally be used for small separation equipment and large diameter cables for large separating equipment. A multiwrap endless cable belt may be formed by wrapping the endless cable multiple times around two or more rollers. The wrapping is done in such a manner as to minimize twisting of and stresses in the individual strands of the endless cable. An oleophilic endless cable belt is a cable belt made from a material that is oleophilic under the conditions at which it operates. For example, a steel cable is formed from a multitude of wires and the cross section of a cable is not perfectly round but contains surface imperfections because of the warp of the individual wires. Bitumen captured by such a cable may at least partly fill the voids between the individual wires along the cable surface, and will remain captured there while the bulk of the bitumen is removed from the cable surface in a bitumen recovery zone. This residual bitumen keeps the cable oleophilic even after the bulk of the bitumen has been removed from the cable and this bitumen serves as a nucleus for capturing more bitumen in a separation zone.
"oleophilic" as used in these specifications refers specifically to bitumen attracting. Most dry surfaces are bitumen attracting or can be made to be bitumen Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 attracting. A plastic rope, or a metal wire rope normally is bitumen attracting and will capture bitumen upon contact unless the rope is coated with a bitumen repelling coating. A plastic rope or metal wire rope that is coated with a thin layer of bitumen normally is oleophilic or bitumen attracting since this layer of bitumen will capture additional bitumen upon contact. A plastic rope or metal wire rope will not attract bitumen when it is coated or partly coated with light oil since the low viscosity of the light oil will not provide adequate stickiness for the adhesion of bitumen to the rope.
Similarly, a rope covered with a thin layer of hot bitumen will not be very oleophilic until the thin layer of bitumen has cooled down sufficiently to allow bitumen adhesion to the rope under the conditions of the claimed methods.
"oil sand bitumen product of separation" as used herein refers to any bitumen product that results from processing an oil sand mixture by any method including sieving of the mixture. The oil sand mixture may be a slurry of oil sand and water, it may be the tailings of separating an oil sand slurry, it may be the middlings of separating an oil sand slurry, it may be tailings pond sludge and it may be bitumen froth that has resulted from separating an oil sand slurry. For suitable processing by the method of the present invention, a bitumen froth normally is de-aerated.
"oversize solids" refers to any solids that are larger in size than the linear distance between adjacent cable wrap surfaces and preferably refers to any solids that are larger than 10% of the linear distance between adjacent cable wrap surfaces.
Such solids tend to be abrasive and may cause damage to the wraps. In case of a mesh belt, oversize is similarly defined in relation to the size of the mesh apertures.
"residence time" refers to the time span taken for a mixture to leave a system, a process, a vessel or an apparatus after it has entered the system, process, vessel or apparatus. It is assumed that during this time span the desired separation, compaction, settling or processing has been achieved.
"recovery" and "removal" of bitumen as used herein have a somewhat similar meaning. Bitumen recovery generally refers to the recovery of bitumen from a bitumen containing mixture and bitumen removal generally refers to the removal of adhering bitumen from the surfaces of a mesh belt or from the oleophilic wraps of an Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 endless cable. Bitumen is recovered from a mixture by an oleophilic screen or sieve when bitumen is "captured" by the screen or sieve in a separation zone and adheres to the screen surfaces. Bitumen is stripped or removed from an apertured oleophilic wall in a bitumen removal zone. A bitumen recovery apparatus is an apparatus that recovers bitumen from a mixture.
"retained on" refers to association primarily via simple mechanical forces, e.g. a particle lying on a gap between two or more cables. In contrast, the term "retained by" refers to association primarily via active adherence of one item to another, e.g. retaining of bitumen by an oleophilic cable or adherence of bitumen coated balls to bitumen coated internal walls of an agglomerator. In some cases, a material may be both retained on and retained by cable wraps or by a mesh belt.
"roller" indicates a revolvable cylindrical member or a drum, and such terms are used interchangeably herein.
"separation zone" refers to a section along an apertured oleophilic screen. In a separation zone, bitumen adheres to the surfaces of the screen and aquesous phase passes through the apertures of the screen.
"target" refers to an obstruction in a pipe downstream from a vena contracta.
The target serves to create additional turbulence in the pipe after bitumen product is dispersed in flowing water. It serves to more intimately mix bitumen product into the flowing water and assists in transferring hydrophilic mineral particles from bitumen product to the flowing water stream.
"tower packings" are light plastic extrusions, with large apertures, normally used to provide oleophilic surfaces in extraction towers. When used in rotating bitumen agglomerators, the tower packings completely fill the agglomerator drum and the dispersion flows through the apertures of the tower packings. Bitumen adheres to the oleophilic tower packing surfaces in increasing thickness until shear from the flowing dispersion strips enlarged bitumen from the packing surfaces.

"turbulently mixing" bitumen product with water refers to introducing bitumen product into a stream of high velocity water downstream from a restriction in a pipe and near the vena contracta. The high velocity and low pressure of the flowing Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOG 2P0 water near the vena contracta often results in cavitation and high water turbulence which is conductive to dispersing bitumen product into the flowing water, in particular when the bitumen product is warm and of reduced viscosity. Normally the water stream at moderate or ambient temperatures will cool down the dispersed bitumen product so that the dispersed mixture of bitumen product in water will suitably agglomerate thereafter in an agglomerator.
"screen" refers to an apertured wall, sieve or cable belt. Apertures of a wall, of a screen or of a sieve are the holes or slits through which aqueous phase can pass.
"sieve" refers to an apertured oleophilic wall and is used interchangeably with oleophilic "screen" unless specifically stated to the contrary. However, a screen may also be used to remove oversize particulates and in that case may not be oleophilic and is not a sieve as defined in these specifications.
"single wrap endless cable" refers to an endless cable which is wrapped around two or more cylindrical members in a single pass, i.e. contacting each roller or drum only once. Single wrap endless cables do not require a guide or guide rollers to keep them aligned on the support rollers but may need methods to provide cable tension for each wrap when sequential cable wraps are of different lengths.
Single wrap endless cables may serve the same purpose as multiple wrap endless cables for separations. When multiple wrap endless cables are specified, single wrap endless cables may be used in stead unless specifically excluded.
"sludge" as used herein refers to any mixture of fine solids in water and contains residual bitumen. In describing or claiming certain embodiments, the term sludge, fluid tailings, fine tailings, mature fine tailings, bitumen containing suspensions and mixture are used interchangeably, unless explicitly stated to the contrary. In the oil sands industry, sludge is a term that used to be reserved for a mixture of bitumen and dispersed solids in a continuous water phase in a mined oil sands tailings pond but more recently "fluid tailings", "fine tails", "fresh fine tails" or "mature fine tails" have come in vogue for political reasons and also to provide a distinction as to how long this sludge has resided in a tailings pond.

Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 "slurry" as used herein refers to a mixture of solid particulates and bitumen particulates or droplets in a continuous water phase In the oil sands industry it normally is used to describe an oil sand ore that has been or is in the process of being digested with water to disengage bitumen from sand grains. A process aid normally is used when a slurry is produced for subsequent bitumen froth flotation. When a slurry is produced for separation by an oleophilic sieve, a process aid may not be required.
"sparging" or "sparged" as used herein refers to the introduction of a gas, such as steam, carbon dioxide or other gas under pressure into a bitumen containing mixture or into fluid tailings or effluents through tubes, pipes, enclosure openings, perforated pipes or porous pipes. The type of gas used for sparging normally is described in the specifications. When steam is the sparging gas it may be used to increase the temperature of bitumen to reduce its viscosity. Live steam may also serve to both heat bitumen and to add water to bitumen.
"substantially" refers to the complete or nearly complete extent or degree of an action, characteristic, property, state, structure, item, or result. For example, an object that is "substantially" enclosed would mean that the object is either completely enclosed or nearly completely enclosed. The exact allowable degree of deviation from absolute completeness may in some cases depend on the specific context.
However, generally speaking the nearness of completion will be so as to have the same overall result as if absolute and total completion were obtained. The use of "substantially" is equally applicable when used in a negative connotation to refer to the complete or near complete lack of an action, characteristic, property, state, structure, item, or result.
"surface speed" is the speed of movement of the surface of an apertured agglomerator outlet or is the speed of movement of an apertured oleophilic wall, sieve or oleophilic screen.
"ultrasonic generator" is a generator made from a stack of piezoelectric crystals that may be electrically excited. For example, lead zirconate titanate crystals will exhibit a maximum shape change of 0.1 percent of the original dimension when =

Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 electrically excited. A stack of very thin slices of such a crystal, each mounted between electrodes can produce an ultrasonic generator when excited by sine wave electricity. Expansion and contraction of the stack very closely follows the frequency of the sine wave. Normally the since wave has a frequency above 20 kilohertz, which generates a vibration in the stack that is above the audible range, but the vibrations may go to much higher frequencies. The force of crystal expansion and contraction is a function of the strength of electrical excitation of the stack and can reach several thousand Newtons. A number of other crystalline materials have properties similar to lead zirconate titanate. An extension may be attached to the stack to prevent liquid contact with the electrodes and crystal slices. This extension normally is called an acoustic horn and is made from abrasion resistant and corrosion resistant metal and may be used to propagate the acoustic waves into a liquid. Normally the horn is provided with a seal to prevent liquid contact with the stack. The acoustic waves can be very intense and may create rapidly cavitating and imploding bubbles of vapour in the contacting liquid. These acoustic waves are used in one application of the present invention to provide a more comprehensive dispersion of bitumen phase in water after it has been dispersed in flowing water near a vena contracta.
"velocity" as used herein is consistent with a physics-based definition;
specifically, velocity is speed having a particular direction. As such, the magnitude of velocity is speed. Velocity further includes a direction. When the velocity component is said to alter, that indicates that the bulk directional vector of velocity acting on an object in the fluid stream (liquid particle, solid particle, etc.) is not constant. Spiraling or helical flow-patterns in a conduit are specifically defined to have changing bulk directional velocity.
"vena contracta" is the region in a flowing liquid stream where the diameter of the stream is the least in size, such as in the case of a restriction in a pipe containing flowing liquid issuing out of a pipe restriction which restriction, for example, is in the form of an orifice, a nozzle or a converging cone. The reason for a vena contracta is that fluid streamlines cannot abruptly change direction since converging streamlines tend to follow a smooth path. A restriction in a pipe Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 containing flowing liquid causes an increase in the local fluid velocity through, and immediately past, the restriction. Consistent with the Bernoulli equation for fluid flow in a pipe, an increase in local liquid velocity results in a decrease in local fluid pressure. In some cases this decrease in local pressure can result in a local pressure that is below the vapour pressure of the flowing liquid. In that case, cavitation of the flowing liquid results at and near the vena contracta. The inventor has found that such cavitation is very effective for dispersing bitumen product in a high velocity water stream when the bitumen product is introduced into the water stream near the vena contracta.
"wrapped" or "wrap" in relation to a wire, rope or cable wrapping around an object indicates an extended amount of contact. Wrapping does not necessarily indicate full or near-full encompassing of the object.
As used herein, a plurality of components may be presented in a common list for convenience. However, these lists should be construed as though each member of the list is individually identified as a separate and unique member. Thus, no individual member of such list should be construed as a de facto equivalent of any other member of the same list solely based on their presentation in a common group without indications to the contrary.
Concentrations, amounts, volumes, and other numerical data may be expressed or presented herein in a range format. It is to be understood that such a range format is used merely for convenience and brevity and thus should be interpreted flexibly to include not only the numerical values explicitly recited as the limits of the range, but also to include all the individual numerical values or sub-ranges encompassed within that range as if each numerical value and sub-range is explicitly recited. As an illustration, a numerical range of "about 1 inch to about 5 inches" should be interpreted to include not only the explicitly recited values of about 1 inch to about 5 inches, but also include individual values and sub-ranges within the indicated range. Thus, included in this numerical range are individual values such as 2, 3, and 4 and sub-ranges such as from 1-3, from 2-4, and from 3-5, etc. This same principle applies to ranges reciting only one approximate numerical value.

Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOG 2P0 Furthermore, such an interpretation should apply regardless of the breadth of the range or the characteristics being described.
Bold text in the present disclosure is provided for convenience only.
MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
Fig.1 is a sectional drawing of a flange mounted pipe restriction (4) in the form of a converging cone with water flowing through the cone with bitumen product (9) injection facility near the vena contracta (8) and a flange mounted flat target (13) downstream from the vena contracta (8) to increase dispersion of the bitumen product (9) in water by impact. A pipe (1) is shown provided with two sets of flanges (2 and 3). A flange mounted converging cone (4) pipe restriction is mounted between the first set of flanges (2), and resilient seals (5) prevent leakage of fluid out of the pipe past the flanges (2). Bolts (6) are used to align and attach the flanges (2), seals (5) and converging cone (4) and to prevent leakage of pipe fluid. The converging cone (4) is in shape similar to the shape of the converging cone at the entrance of a Dall tube. Dall tubes normally contain a converging cone followed by a diverging cone and are used for the measurement of flow in pipes in stead of orifices or ventury tubes. The pipe contains flowing water (7) which accelerates while passing through the converging cone (4) and forms a vena contracta (8) just past the exit of the converging cone. Simulated fluid flow lines (12) are shown in the drawing.
Bitumen product (9) is introduced through a fitting (10) in the pipe wall and enters an annular chamber (11) surrounding the flowing water near the vena contracta (8). The annular chamber (11) is provided with flow passages (12) that allow bitumen product (9) to enter the flowing water stream very close to the vena contracta (8) In this region, the high water velocity results in very low water pressure and high shear rates, causing bitumen product (9) entering the high velocity water stream to be broken up into small bitumen phase particles dispersed in the water stream. A metal target (13) is mounted in the pipe a small distance downstream from the vena contracta (8) and is mounted in flanges (3) with seals (14) to prevent leakage of fluid from the pipe. The Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 flanges (3), target (13) and seals are aligned and fastened together by means of bolts

(15). The target is provided with a series of holes (16) arranged in a circumferential manner near the inside pipe wall (17) In this manner the target (13) provides a central restriction in the pipe (1) to the flowing stream leaving the vena contracta (8) and provides additional fluid disturbance and turbulence in the flowing water stream containing dispersed bitumen product particles to further enhance or improve dispersing of the bitumen product in water. The series of holes (16) in the target near the inside pipe wall allow water and dispersed bitumen to pass through the target and continue to flow in the pipe (1) towards an agglomerator (not shown).
Fig.2 is a sectional drawing of two opposing flange mounted pipe restrictions in the form of converging cones with bitumen product ( 39 and 40) injection facility at or near each vena contracta (41 and 42) wherein water flows through the two converging cones in opposite direction to create opposing streams of flowing water containing dispersed bitumen product to cause impact and increase dispersion of the bitumen products in water in the opposing and impacting streams, and provided with an exit pipe (45) for the combined dispersion streams. This figure is very similar to Fig. 2 with the exception that two opposing streams of water (31 and 32) pass through two pipe restrictions (33 and 34) mounted in flanges (35 and 36) and provided with bitumen distributors (37 and 38) that introduce bitumen product (39 and 40) at or near the two vena contracta (41 and 42). The resulting two streams of dispersed bitumen particles in water impinge upon each other (43) to enhance or improve dispersing of the bitumen products (39 and 40) in water (31 and 32). A
third pipe (45) allows flow of bitumen dispersed in water to flow (46) to an agglomerator (not shown).
Fig. 3 is a sectional drawing of a flange mounted pipe restriction in the form of a converging cone (51) with water (65) flowing through the cone (51) with bitumen product (64) injection facility (52) at or near the vena contracta and a flange mounted vibrating ultrasonic generator (53) with horn target (54) after the vena Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 contracta to increase dispersion of the bitumen product (64) in water. This Figure is very similar to Fig.2 with the exception that only one converging nozzle (51) is used and only one bitumen product distributor (52) and one vena contrata. The second converging nozzle of Fig. 2 and the attendant bitumen product distributor are replaced by an ultrasonic horn (54) and generator (53) that is excited by electric sine wave power of the desired frequency to optimize dispersion and release of mineral particles from the dispersed bitumen. Electrical connections (55) between the electric power supply (not shown) and the sonic generator (53) which may be mounted to the pipe (56) by means of flanges (57) and seals (62). Additional seals (58) allow exposure of the horn (54) to the suspension but prevent exposure of the generator (53) to the suspension. A third pipe (60) allows flow of bitumen dispersed in water to flow (61) to an agglomerator (not shown).
Fig. 4 is a schematic drawing of a sharp edge orifice with water flowing through the orifice and showing a vena contracta that results from water flowing through the orifice. The drawing shows that the vena contracta is some distance downstream from the orifice plate since fluid flow lines can not abruptly change direction.
Fig. 5 is a schematic drawing of a converging cone with water flowing through the cone and showing the vena contracta that results from water flowing through the converging cone. The drawing shows that the vena contracta is some distance downstream from the exit of the converging cone.
Fig. 6 is a simplified illustration of the inside of one type of homogenizer to produce a dispersion of, for example, cream in milk in which a disk of rotating teeth passes by a disk of stationary teeth to provide shear in the cream and milk mixture (67) passing through the spaces between the teeth and thereby emulsify the mixture.
The direction of rotation of the inner row of teeth is shown by the arrow (68). Unlike cream and milk, bitumen product contains particulate mineral matter which would Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 very quickly wear out the teeth of a conventional homogenizer. For that reason, a conventional homogenizer is not suitable for dispersing bitumen product into water.
Fig. 7 is a schematic drawing, not to scale, of a flange mounted pipe restriction in the form of a converging cone (70) with water (71) flowing through the cone (70) with bitumen product (72) injection facility (73) at or near the vena contracta and a flange mounted flat target (74) after the vena contracta to increase dispersion of the bitumen product in water. This part of Fig. 7 is identical to the system illustrated in Fig. 1. After passing the target (74), the dispersion (85) flows to an agglomerator (75) containing a bed of balls (76) where the dispersed bitumen particles combine and where bitumen particle size is increased. Reagent (86) may be added to help break the dispersion. An apertured oleophilic screen (78) is mounted around an apertured cylindrical agglomerator exit wall (77) to separate bitumen phase from aqueous phase. In the separation zone (80) bitumen phase adheres to the apertured oleophilic screen (78) or sieve, and debituminized aqueous phase passes through the apertures of the screen (78) to become the effluent (81) of separation.
Since the sieve is not immersed, a baffle plate (82) may be used to direct the flowing effluent. The apertures of the cylindrical agglomerator exit wall preferably line up with the longetudinal strands or ropes of the sieve (78) to optimize the capture of bitumen phase by the sieve. The clean bitumen product (93) is removed from the sieve (78) in a bitumen removal zone illustrated by the roller (79) above the agglomerator (75). The agglomerator (75) may be completely cylindrical or it may be conical as illustrated in Fig. 7. Balls (88) of various sizes may be used in such an aglomerator and when the agglomerator is conical, the larger balls will tend to congregate in the large diameter section of the concial agglomerator whilst the smaller balls will tend to congregate in the smaller diameter section of the conical agglomerator and in the apertured cylindrical exit section of the agglomerator. Balls of intermediate size will tend to fill the middle section of the agglomerator.
This sorting of balls by size due to the conical shape of the agglomerator results in large voids between the large balls near the entrance and small voids between the small Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 balls near the exit of the agglomerator and encourages dispersed bitumen in water to come in intimate contact with oleophilic surfaced balls at the entrance of the agglomerator. Debituminized aqueous phase is squeezed out of the voids in those sections of the agglomerator where the voids are smaller and are partly or completely filled with bitumen. For an agglomerator rotating in counter clockwise direction, a large portion of the debituminized aqueous phase flows out through open apertures of the cylindricial exit wall along the left half of the apertured drum wall and through adjacent open apertures of the sieve while agglomerated bitumen flows through bitumen filled drum exit apertures along the bottom right quadrant of the agglomerator exit wall. This bitumen flows to the adjacent screen (sieve) surfaces along the bottom right quadrant of the drum exit due to the kneading action of the balls. More details are provided in copending patent applications describing agglomerators and apertured oleophilic screens for separating oil sand slurries, emulsions and fluid tailings.
The thus described agglomerators and screens may be used for separating aqueous oil sand mixtures and the same agglomerators and apertured oleophilic screens may be used to clean bitumen products in the present invention.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: A quantity of 129.35 metric tons of tailings pond sludge are shipped 460 kilometers by highway in trailer driven tankers from the Fort McMurray tailings ponds to Edmonton to be separated in the Kruyer pilot plant. Due to vibration during transport, a mat of bitumen has floated on top of the sludge in each tanker, which is removed before the sludge is processed in the pilot plant. The total bitumen mat amounts to 9.27 metric tons and contains by weight 24.59% bitumen, 19.18%
mineral matter and 56.23 % water. Remaining is 120.08 metric tons of sludge feedstock that is separated in the pilot plant and contains by weight 6.07%
bitumen, 23.27% mineral matter, and 70.66% water. The pilot plant consists of a rotating drum with apertured cylindrical apertured wall, 1.108 meter in diameter and 0.095 long that Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOG 2P0 is filled to 60 percent of its volume with a bed of tumbling oleophilic steel balls with an average diameter of 0.037 meters. The drum was designed to be large enough to handle a maximum of 2 cubic meters of sludge per hour but small enough to conserve the available sludge supply, since the cost of obtaining and transporting each 15 cubic meter load of sludge to Edmonton was approximately $2000. The drum rotates in counter clockwise direction. An oleophilic mesh belt covers about 75 percent of the cylindrical drum agglomerator surface, to separate the sludge, and is guided over support rollers above the agglomerator. Its is contacted by pressure rollers that serve to remove bitumen from the mesh belt and produce the bitumen product of separation.
The product contains by weight 58.11% bitumen, 14.87% mineral matter and 27.02%
water. Debitumenized sludge generally leaves through the drum cylindrical apertured wall along the bottom left quadrant and aglomerated bitumen generally through the drum apertures along the bottom right quadrant. Both aqueous phase and bitumen flow to the mesh belt. Bitumen is captured by the mesh belt surfaces but debitumenized sludge passes through the mesh apertures to disposal and is returned to empty tankers that transport it back to Fort McMurray. The mesh belt is an open weave mesh belt made of 2 mm monofilament polyester strands with 52% open area and heat welded along the edges to join the outer longetudinal polyester strands to the polyester cross members. The de-bituminized sludge contains by weight 1.11%
bitumen, 24.02% mineral matter and 74.87% water. The average bitumen recovery of the actual sludge feedstock (not counting the bitumen mats that have been removed beforehand) is 85 percent. A variable frequency excited 1.0 horsepower AC
electric motor and gear box drive the drum at between 1 and 3 RPM, depending on the amount of bitumen collecting on the screen, and this motor is operating' well below capacity. A mechanical mount that can swing a few degrees supports the rollers and is controlled by air to keep the mesh belt in proper alignment with the drum and the rollers. A receptacle below the drum agglomerator collects the debituminized sludge.
Since the drum is not immersed in sludge, a fine streams of debituminzed sludge can be observed flowing through the drum and screen apertures along the bottom left quadrant, and a thick layer of bitumen can be observed collecting on the revolving Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 screen along the bottom right quadrant where it leaves the agglomerator through the apertures of the drum cylindrical surface.
Bitumen product from the above pilot plant run is collected in open top 45 gallon drums for use in the clean up experiments. Live steam is slowly sparged into the collected bitumen to heat it up and reduce its viscosity so that it can be pumped easily. Two cubic meters of fresh water per hour at 25 centigrade is pumped through a converging nozzle in a pipe and is joined by 0.75 cubic meters of bitumen product at 50 centigrade per hour at and close to the vena contracta to disperse the bitumen product. From there the mixture impinges on a target consisting of a plate that is solid at the centre but is provided with apertures near the pipe wall to thoroughly disperse the bitumen product in water and allow the flow to continue. A small amount of sodium silicate is added to and mixed with the bitumen product as it is pumped to the vena contracta to encourage the transfer of minerals from the dispersed bitumen particles to the water phase. After passing the target the mixture flows to the entrance of the same agglomerator/separator described above and is separated into cleaned bitumen product and water effluent. Clean bitumen product is removed from the mesh surfaces in a bitumen recovery zone formed by rollers. Water and minerals pass through the drum and mesh apertures to disposal. Bitumen recovery is about 99 percent. The clean bitumen contains by weight 63% bitumen, 8% mineral material and 29% water. The mineral material contains a high percentage of rutile, a premium titanium ore. It may be recovered by dilution centrifuging the bitumen product followed by washing the resulting centrifugal solids with water and a detergent to remove residual bitumen, followed by conventional mineral beneficiating methods.
Alternately it may be roasted to mineral ash before beneficiating.
Example 2. Low grade oil sand is processed by means of a 0.7 meter diameter, 0.6 meter long slurry preparation drum revolving at aproximately 4 RPM to mix mined oil sand with water to produce an oil sand slurry. This slurry is pumped to a 0.7 meter diameter, 0.1 meter long drum agglomerator filled about 50% of its volume with a bed of 0.0125 meter diameter steel balls, and flows out of the Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 apertured wall of the agglomerator onto a slowly revolving 0.25 meter wide apertured oleophilic screen belt not in contact with the aglomerator wall. The results are tabulated in the following table:
Kilograms Total Bitumen Minerals Water Feedstock 1929 175 1654 100 Product 363 167 79 117 Fresh water 508 Recirculating water 391 1 85 305 Oversize reject 28 1 24 3 Tailings 2007 2 1553 452 Total in is 2828kg Total out is 2796kg Sampling of the streams for analyses and water evaporation accounts for about 32 to 36 kg.
Based on these data of processing oil sand ore containing 9.1% bitumen, the bitumen recovery is 95.4% resulting in a bitumen product containing 46.2%
bitumen, 21.7% solids and 32.1% water. Recycle water containing 22% mineral solids does not interfere with the 95% recovery efficiency of the oleophilic bitumen screening process but does increase the minerals content of the bitumen product. The tailings flow onto a slowly revolving inclined conveyor belt that allows water to drain from the tailings for use as recycle water. The resulting solid tailings contain 22.5% water, and the drained water is returned immediately and continuously to the separation process. Using recycle water in this manner saves on energy requirements since the water is recycled before it cools significantly.
About 363 kg of bitumen product removed from the surfaces of the apertured oleophilic screen is collected in open top 45 gallon drums for subsequent clean up experiments. It contains almost 22 wt% mineral particulates. Live steam is slowly sparged into the collected bitumen to heat it up and reduce its viscosity so that it can be pumped easily. About 700 kg of fresh water at 30 centigrade is pumped through a converging nozzle in a pipe and is joined by the bitumen product heated to Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 centigrade by pumping this bitumen into the pipe near the vena contracta to disperse this bitumen product. From there the mixture impinges on a target consisting of a plate that is solid at the centre but is provided with apertures near the pipe wall to thoroughly disperse the bitumen product in water and allow exit. A small amount of sodium silicate is added to and mixed with the water before it enters the vena contracta to encourage the transfer of hydrophilic minerals from the dispersing bitumen particles in the water phase near the vena contracts and near the target. After passing the target the mixture flows to the entrance of the same drum aglomerator and screen separator described above in this example and is separated into cleaned bitumen product and water effluent. In this case, solid tailings are not produced.
Clean bitumen product is removed from the apertured oleophilic screen surfaces in the bitumen recovery zone and water and minerals pass through the screen apertures to disposal in the separation zone. Bitumen recovery is very close to 99 percent. The clean bitumen product contains by weight approximately 65% bitumen, 7% mineral material and 28% water. The aqueous effluent leaving the process through the screen apertures is suitable for return to the process for producing more oil sand slurry for separation by a revolving apertured oleophilic screen.
Example 3: Several metric tons of very low grade oil sand ore from a beach type deposit are processed by the same method as in Example 2. The ore contains by weight 6.5% bitumen, 85.0% mineral solids and 8.5% water. Pilot plant bitumen recovery is 64 percent and the bitumen product contains by weight 43.5%
bitumen, 25.3% solids and 31.2% water. As obtained by bitumen cleaning method described above, the cleaned bitumen product contains 58% bitumen, 12% mineral solids and 30% water. Identical samples of this oil sand ore are submitted to the Albert Research Council for separation by conventional pot tests to compare these pilot plant results with the results of bitumen froth flotation. Pot tests are acceptable tests to simulate conventional commercial froth flotation. The results reported by the Alberta Research Council oil sands department were as follows. Bitumen recovery by froth flotation of the same oil sand ore was 16.8 percent and bitumen product quality Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 by weight was 5.5% bitumen, 12.0% mineral solids and 82.5% water. Reportedly the bitumen product from the pot test with this very hard to separate oil sand ore resembled watery foam. Clearly, bitumen screening of this oil sand ore proved to be far superior to bitumen froth flotation.
Example 4: A small pilot plant test was conducted to separate high-grade oil sand by means of a revolving apertured oleophilic screen. Samples were submitted to the analytical laboratories of the Alberta Research Council.
During analyses, the bitumen sample was taken without mixing and thus the analytical laboratory data reported for solids and water of the bitumen product are supposedly equilibrium values after any settling of the large particles at room temperature for about a week. As a result, the minerals content of the bitumen product of oleophilic sieve separation was much lower than has ever been reported for bitumen products from froth flotation. This illustrates that that bitumen product from oleophilic sieving is amenable to simple processing for the removal of solids. The obtained analytical results are reported below in weight percent.
Oil sand ore: 80.7% mineral 15.3% bitumen 3.9% water Solid tailings: 78.7% mineral 0.2% bitumen 21.6% water Circulating water 1.0% mineral bit. undetectable 99.0%
water Bitumen product 2.8% mineral 81.6% bitumen 15.6% water Example 5 Drum quantities of middlings from a froth flotation pilot plant processing low grade oil sand (8.6% bitumen in the original ore) are shipped to the Kruyer Edmonton pilot plant. Just prior to processing by the revolving apertured oleophilic screen each open top 45 gallon drum is sealed and placed in a revolvable frame that can tilt at any incline between vertical and horizontal and then is rotated horizontally to thoroughly mix the contents. The frame is then tilted vertically and a funnel with central outlet is attached securely to the top of the barrel During the test run the incline of the rotating frame was gradually changed from positive to negative Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 to provide a constant stream of middlings from the barrel while maintaining proper mixing of the middlings for separation by a revolving oleophilic apertured screen.
The average middlings feed composition during the test run by weight is 6.55%
bitumen, 40.9% mineral solids and 53.36% water. The bitumen product composition is 50.68% bitumen, 17.65% solids and 31.67% water. The average bitumen recovery is 79.0%. Bitumen clean up tests are not performed during this test program but based on the previous examples, such bitumen clean up will result in a major improvement in the bitumen product quality.
Example 6 Four 45 gallon drums of bitumen in water emulsion from a deep deposit oil sand ore steam drive arrive at the Kruyer Edmonton pilot plant for separation by means of a revolving apertured oleophilic screen. It is a very tight emulsion. Samples of the emulsion in glass jars have been observed on the shelf for months and no separation of the emulsion was noted. A small centrifugal pump is used to transfer 30 gallons of emulsion per hour to a bitumen agglomerator.
The agglomerator is filled to 50% of its volume with a bed of steel balls 1 centimeter in diameter and the agglomerator rotates at 4 RPM. One hundred grams of gypsum per hour is added to the agglomerator in the form of a gypsum in water suspension representing a concentration of about 0.6% gypsum added to feedstock to break the emulsion while agglomerating the mixture. The agglomerated feed flows to a revolving apertured oleophilic screen where bitumen adheres to the screen surfaces and water and fine clay particles pass through the apertures to disposal.
Bitumen recovery is 98% and the bitumen product contains by weight 65% bitumen, 5%
mineral particles and 30% water. Bitumen clean up is not attempted in this test program.
The above examples represent result from a series of bench scale and pilot plants for oleophilic sieve separation of a large range of feedstocks. In some cases, equipment sizes, equipment configurations, feed rates and analytical data were not recorded in detail, or funding was not available for obtaining more precise analytical laboratory test results. For that reason the present tense was used in these examples.

Mr. Jan Kruyer, P Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOC 2P0 SUMMARY
There have thus been described various methods for removing mineral solids from bitumen products in which the bitumen product is dispersed near the vena contracta in a stream of high velocity low pressure water. After the bitumen is dispersed in water, dispersing may be further enhanced, if so desired by, exposing the dispersion to very high turbulence by means of a target obstructing the flow of the dispersion. The target may be an plate that has a solid centre but holes aligned in an approximately annular configuration near the pipe wall to allow the dispersion to leave the dispersion apparatus. Alternately the target may be an excited ultrasonic horn that creates cavitation, gas bubble implosion and turbulence in the dispersion.
Another alternate method disclosed for enhancing the dispersion is the use of two vena contracta in which two streams of dispersion impact on each other to create a high degree of turbulence and mixing. The objective of the present invention is to thoroughly but only temporarily disperse bitumen product in water to allow the transfer of hydrophilic solids from bitumen phase to the water phase.
Conventional chemical froth flotation depressant reagents may be added to convert oleophilic or partly oleophilic mineral surfaces to become hydrophilic mineral surfaces.
Soluble sodium silicate is one such reagent to make silica type minerals hydrophilic.
Furthermore, years of minerals froth flotation development in the minerals processing industry has identified a whole range of flotation suppressors which make the surfaces of selected minerals hydrophilic so that these minerals do not float in aerated flotation vessels but transfer to or remain with the aqueous phase. The same reagents may be used in the present invention to transfer minerals from dispersed bitumen product to aqueous phase of the dispersion. Some of these reagents are well known in the flotation industry and are very selective in changing the oleophilicity or oleophobicity of the surfaces of certain minerals without changing the surfaces of other minerals found in the same ores slated for processing by froth flotation. Other reagents are proprietary reagents that may be sold to mineral froth flotation plants after these reagents have been formulated by the companies that supply such proprietary reagents.

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Mr. Jan Kruyer, P.Eng. Box 138 Thorsby, Canada TOG 2P0 The mineral particulates found in bitumen products of separating oil sand streams can vary significantly depending on the type and location the original oil sand ore deposit that has yielded directly or indirectly the bitumen product.
Consequently, the reagents required to selectively transfer minerals from dispersed bitumen product to aqueous phase cannot be specified beforehand but must be determined by laboratory testing based on the composition of the mineral particulates in the raw bitumen product.
Also, suitable reagents may be used during the agglomeration process to quickly break the dispersion. Gypsum was used in example 6 but other multivalent hydroxides, oxides or salts may be used instead of gypsum. There also are many commercial emulsion breakers on the market that may be used to break bitumen in water emulsions. These emulsion breakers may be especially formulated to minimize the amount of water trapped in a cleaned bitumen product, and some of these are proprietary formulations and are sold by trade name only.
While the present disclosure has concentrated on the use of an agglomerator in the form of a truncated conical vessel with central mixture inlet and apertured cylindrical wall outlet, the present invention also includes the use of a more conventional bitumen agglomerator disclosed by the inventor in copending patent applications, shaped in the form of a uniform cylindrical vessel with end walls, a central inlet and an apertured cylindrical wall that forms the agglomerated mixture outlet. Such more conventional bitumen agglomerators may be used instead;
however a conical agglomerator in some cases may provide for better agglomeration of dispersed bitumen phase.

Claims

1. A method for removing hydrophilic mineral matter from raw bitumen comprising injecting the raw bitumen into at least one vena contracta of high velocity flowing water through a pipe restriction to disperse the raw bitumen into the flowing water and to thereby release at least some hydrophilic matter from the raw bitumen into the high velocity flowing water by forming a mixture of dispersed bitumen and dispersed hydrophilic matter in the flowing water followed by agglomerating the mixture in a revolving agglomerator having at least one apertured wall to form an agglomerated bitumen phase in the presence of an agglomerated water phase said agglomerated water phase containing hydrophilic matter originally present in the raw bitumen and to separate the agglomerated bitumen phase from the agglomerated water phase.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a feed of raw bitumen is injected into a first vena contracta of flowing water to form a dispersed first mixture and wherein another feed of raw bitumen is injected into a second vena contracta of flowing water to form a dispersed second mixture and wherein the first mixture impacts on and combines with the second mixture to form a combined mixture and wherein the combined mixture is agglomerated in a revolving agglomerator.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the raw bitumen is injected into a vena contracta of water flowing through a pipe restriction to form a dispersed mixture of bitumen and mineral matter in a continuous water phase and wherein the mixture impact on a target downstream from the vena contracta to further disperse the mixture followed by agglomeration to produce a continuous bitumen phase from which at least some hydrophilic matter has been removed and to produce a continuous water phase that contains hydrophilic matter originally present in the raw bitumen.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the target is a flat plate provided with holes along its periphery near the inside wall of the pipe.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the target is a vibrating acoustic horn.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein a chemical is added to encourage dispersion of the raw bitumen in the flowing water.

7. The method as of claim 1 wherein a chemical is added to encourage agglomeration of the dispersion in an agglomerator.

8. An apparatus comprising at least one pipe restriction suitably fabricated to form a vena contracta when water flows through said restriction at high velocity and wherein provision is made to inject raw bitumen into the at least one vena contracta to disperse said raw bitumen in the flowing water to form a dispersion and wherein said apparatus is combined with an agglomerator to allow agglomeration of the dispersion into agglomerated continuous bitumen phase and continuous water phase and separation of the bitumen phase from the water phase.

9. An apparatus as in claim 8 suitably fabricated to form one vena contracta of water flowing through one pipe restriction at high velocity and a second vena contracta of water flowing through a second pipe restriction at high velocity and wherein in operation water leaving the first vena contracta impacts on water leaving the second vena contracta to form the dispersion.

10. An apparatus as in claim 8 suitably fabricated so that during operation, water leaving a vena impacts on a target.

11. An apparatus as in claim 10 wherein the target is a flat plate with holes along is periphery but not near the center of the flat plate.

12. An apparatus as in claim 10 wherein the target is an ultrasonic horn.