Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company

Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Syncrude Canada Ltd. in Trust for the Owners of the Syncrude Project As Such Owners Exist Now and in the Future

Murphy Oil Company Ltd.

Mocal Energy Limited

Imperial Oil Resources

Nexen Corporation

Canadian Oil Sands Limited

Petro-canada Oil and Gas

Conocophillips Oilsands Partnership II

Ace Oil Sands, L.p.

Canadian Oil Sands Commerical Trust

Aec Oil Sands, L.p.

Canadian Oil Sands Commercial Trust

Brian Knapper

Yin Ming Ng

Darwin Edward Kiel

Jennifer McMillan

Jonathan Tyler

Tam Tran

Rathna P Davuluri

Sujit Bhattacharya

George Cymerman

Craig McKnight

Yin Ming Samson Ng

Daniel Bulbuc

Jason Wiens

Edward W Chan

Robert William Skwarok

George Burton Jones

Christian Wolfgang Schroeter

Larry P Hackman

Michael Wormsbecker

Gary Anthieren

Edward Chan

Eberhard Mueller

Jim Kresta

Steven McDougall

Nicholas Prociw

Allan Yeung

Steven Mcdougall

Yong Gu

Dena Rossiter

A method for processing bitumen froth comprised of bitumen, water and solids to produce a final diluted bitumen product having a reduced water content is provided whereby demulsifier is added to the bitumen froth after a first separation stage and prior to a second separation stage to produce the final diluted bitumen product having reduced water content.

Diluted bitumen product water reduction

A feed injector for a circulating fluid bed reactor is fitted with a discharge nozzle with a circular, radially notched discharge orifice to improve the surface-to-volume ratio of the spray pattern formed by the nozzle. The feed injector is useful for injecting fluids into various types of circulating fluid bed reactors in which good contact between the components of the fluidized bed and the injected fluid is required. It is particularly useful in fluid coking reactors.

Fluid injection nozzle for fluid bed reactors

The liquid feed nozzle assemblies for a circulating fluid bed reactor comprise (i) a throttle body premixer to combine liquid feed with atomization steam upstream of a nozzle body to form a liquid feed/steam mixture comprising liquid feed droplets; (ii) a conduit connected to the venturi premixer and to a discharge nozzle body to convey a flow of the liquid/steam mixture created by the premixer to the nozzle body; (iii) a discharge nozzle connected to the flow conduit to shear the liquid feed/steam mixture to create liquid feed droplets of reduced size and (iv) a disperser at the outlet of the discharge nozzle to provide a spray jet of liquid feed having an increased surface area relative to a cylindrical jet. The nozzle assembles are particularly useful in fluid coking units using heavy oil feeds such a tar sands bitumen.

The invention is directed to a process for cleaning bitumen froth by mixing a sufficient amount of naphtha with the bitumen froth to provide a naphtha-to-bitumen ratio within the range of about 4.0 (w/w) to about 10.0 (w/w) and separating substantially dry diluted bitumen from the water and solids. Also provided is a process for cleaning diluted bitumen by mixing a sufficient amount of naphtha with the diluted bitumen to provide a naphtha-to-bitumen ratio equal to or greater than about 1.8 (w/w) and separating marketable fungible raw bitumen from the water and solids.

Naphtha based fungible bitumen process

Fouling in the scrubber section of a fluid coker unit is reduced by providing perforated baffles to improve the uniformity of the gas flow profile in the scrubber by reducing the gas velocity of the cyclone outlet gases in the scrubber section of the unit. These baffles are located with the objective of reducing the rotational component of the gas flow in the scrubber created by the alignment of the gas outlets of the cyclones. The baffles are preferably located in the shed section of the scrubber and comprise upstanding perforated plates located at the periphery of the scrubber section to disrupt high velocity gas jets in the region of the interior wall of the scrubber.

Scrubber for fluid coker unit

A bitumen/steam pre-mixer and atomizing nozzle combine to produce a jet of minute liquid droplets (bitumen) in carrier gas (steam). The jet is injected into a draft tube mixer positioned in a fluid bed of hot coke particles suspended in steam and contained within a fluid coking reactor. The movement of the jet through the draft tube passageway induces a stream of coke particles in steam to be drawn into the passageway, where the jet and stream mix vigorously and bitumen droplets have an enhanced probability of contacting coke particles.

Nozzle/mixer assembly

Growing community of inventors

Edmonton, Canada

Brian Knapper