Kraftwerk Union Aktiengesellschaft

Herbert Gottschlich

Christian Koch

Konrad Kunstle

Otto Abel

Alfred E Behrmann

Recovering liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons from solid raw materials containing hydrocarbons such as oil shale or coal by treating with a solvent oil at a temperature of 610.degree. K.-690.degree. K. and under pressure in the presence of hydrogen. The oil solvent is introduced into a heated vessel in vapor form. The raw material is introduced into the heated reaction vessel at a temperature below the condensation temperature of the oil to cause the oil vapor to condense at the surface of the raw material. The reaction vessel is heated to cause the raw material leaving the reaction vessel to be at a temperature above the condensation temperature of the oil at the pressure prevailing in the reaction vessel.

Recovery of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons from raw materials

System for recovering oil products from oil sands in which superheated steam from a nuclear reactor is mixed with water in a chamber under high superatmospheric pressure to obtain hot water at a temperature near the boiling point at the prevailing pressure. The hot water enters a reaction tube which has an input screw conveyor for feeding oil sands into the reaction tube in contact with the hot water to effect release of the oil from the sands. The outlet of the reaction tube opens into a hydrocyclone into which the reaction products of oil and sand and water are discharged. A screw conveyor at the bottom of the hydrocyclone discharges separated sand and some water which passes into a settling tank to settle the sand and the clarified water is filtered and returned to the pressure chamber. The separated oil together with some water from the hydrocyclone flows to an oil separator where the oil separates from the water, which latter is also returned to the pressure chamber. The oil may be separated into fractions in a fractionating column and the column bottoms may be hydrogenated and returned to the fractionating column. Better oil recovery from the oil sand can be achieved and more efficient operation attained.

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Uehlfeld, Germany

Herbert Gottschlich