Petro-canada

Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd.

Pan Canadian Petroleum Limited

Esso Resources Canada Limited

Alberta Energy Company Ltd.

Hbog-oil Sands Limited Partnership

Gulf Canada Resources Limited

Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of Alberta, As

Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, As Represented by the Minister

Gulf Canada Corporation

Antony H Leung

George J Cymerman

Waldemar B Maciejewski

Teddy K Kwong

As-mined, naturally water-wet oil sand is mixed at the mine site with hot water and NaOH to produce a slurry containing entrained air. The slurry is pumped through a pipeline and is fed directly to a conventional gravity separation vessel. The pipeline is of sufficient length so that, in the course of being pumped therethrough, sufficient coalescence and aeration of bitumen occurs so that, when subsequently retained in the gravity separation vessel under quiescent conditions, a viable amount of the bitumen floats, forms froth, and is recovered.

Pipeline conditioning process for mined oil-sand

An improvement is provided to the known hot water process for extracting bitumen from mined oil sand. More particularly, a methodology is provided for the production of microbubbles of air, and it has been found that the so-produced microbubbles can be used in the primary flotation/settling step of the hot water process to yield increased bitumen recovery. More particularly, a steam stream and an air stream in admixture are injected via a submerged nozzle into a flowing aqueous stream. A plurality of finely dispersed microbubbles are formed. These microbubbles have a diameter less than about 100 microns. The stream of microbubbles is injected into the diluted aqueous tar sand slurry formed in the hot water process. The injection is practiced following the conditioning step and prior to the introduction of the slurry into the flotation/settling step.

Microbubble flotation process for the separation of bitumen from an oil

Froth, produced by induced air flotation in the hot water process circuit for extracting bitumen from tar sand, is recycled and added to the fresh slurry being introduced to the primary separation vessel. An increase in bitumen recovered as primary froth from the circuit is produced.

Recycle of secondary froth in the hot water process for extracting

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Sherwood Park, Canada

Antony H Leung