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

Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Syncrude Canada Ltd. in Trust for the Owners of

Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company

Alfa Laval Corporate Ab

Syncrude Canada Ltd. in Trust for the Owners of the Syncrude Project As

Kevin Reid

Jonathan Spence

Barry Bara

Jun Long

Yin Ming Samson Ng

Shane Hoskins

Konstantin Pougatch

Stephen Forward

Leonard Borgström

Sujit Bhattacharya

Daniel Bulbuc

Robert Siy

Stefano Chiovelli

Jennifer McMillan

Jason Schaan

Sean Sanders

James Lorentz

Lasse Hurnasti

Gary Anthieren

David Childs

Martha Salcudean

Tim Revega

Thaddeus Eugene Kizior

Parinaz Makhtoumi

Trevor Hilderman

David Harold Childs

Daniel John Bulbuc

Leonard Borgstrom

Jie Zheng

Olle Tornblom

A feedwell is provided for an inclined plate separator having a separation chamber containing parallel plates defining separation passages. The feedwell includes a plenum defining a plenum chamber external to the separation chamber, an upward-facing deflector surface in the plenum chamber, an inlet for discharging influent fluid onto a receiving region of the deflector surface, and an outlet for discharging the influent fluid out of the plenum and transversely into the separation chamber. The feedwell also includes parallel fins. The fins define between them plenum passages that extend from a fin end to outlet. The fin ends are disposed between the outlet and the receiving region, and are arranged in a horizontal semi-elliptical path defining a center that horizontally coincides with the receiving region.

Feedwell for an inclined plate separator

A method for transporting a bitumen froth having coarse solids having a particle size&#x3e;180 &#x3bc;m through a pipeline is provided comprising injecting into the pipeline a bitumen froth slug having a lower temperature or a lower water content or both that the bitumen froth.

Transporting bitumen froth having coarse solids through a pipeline

A method for controlling the solids distribution in a bitumen froth produced when processing an oil sands ore having a dof about 250 &#x3bc;m or greater and a dof about 450 &#x3bc;m or greater is provided comprising adding a high-fines material having a dof about 50 &#x3bc;m or less and a fines content of about 40% of the solids or greater to the oil sands ore to form an ore blend; and processing the ore blend in a water-based bitumen extraction process to produce the bitumen froth.

Managing ore blending for froth solids control

A process for extracting bitumen from mined oil sand is provided, comprising: preparing an oil sand slurry comprising oil sand and water; conditioning the oil sand slurry by pumping the oil sand slurry through a hydrotransport pipeline under shear conditions that reduce the formation of water-in-bitumen emulsions in the conditioned oil sand slurry and increase the size of bitumen-air aggregates; and subjecting the conditioned oil sand slurry to gravity separation to produce a bitumen froth having enhanced bitumen recovery and reduced water-in-bitumen emulsions, a middlings layer and sand tailings.

Bitumen extraction using reduced shear conditions

A process for operating multiple oil sand mine sites for extracting bitumen from oil sand is disclosed, comprising preparing a first conditioned oil sand slurry at a first location using a first oil sand slurry preparation and slurry conditioning process; preparing a second conditioned oil sand slurry at a second location using a second oil sand slurry preparation and slurry conditioning process; combining the first conditioned oil sand slurry and the second conditioned oil sand slurry in at least one slurry distributor to produce a combined oil sand slurry; and distributing the combined oil sand slurry to at least one separation vessel to produce bitumen froth.

Bitumen production from single or multiple oil sand mines

The liquid feed nozzle assemblies for a circulating fluid bed reactor comprise (i) a throttle body premixer to combine liquid feed with atomization steam to form a liquid feed/steam mixture comprising gas bubbles in liquid; (ii) a conduit connected to the premixer and to a discharge nozzle 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.

Fluid injection nozzle for fluid bed reactors

A process for operating a settling slurry transportation pipeline is provided, comprising: determining the deposition velocity for a particular slurry being transported through the pipeline; and operating the pipeline at an operating velocity at or near the deposition velocity to form a stationary or near stationary bed of solids that will still allow the slurry to freely flow through the pipeline and not plug the pipeline.

Reduced pipe wear in slurry transport pipelines

The invention relates to a centrifugal separator comprising a rotor arranged to be rotatable around an axis of rotation (x). An inlet chamber is formed in the rotor and an inlet pipe extends into the rotor and has an opening in the inlet chamber for supply of a liquid mixture of components. An inlet arrangement is provided in the inlet chamber, comprising a set of annular discs coaxial with the rotor and forming passages for liquid between the discs, or a helically shaped element coaxial with the rotor and forming passages for liquid between the windings of the helically shaped element. The separator further comprises vanes arranged upstream of the inlet arrangement such as to cause a pre-rotation and pre-acceleration of the liquid mixture. The vanes may be provided on a removable element of the rotor.

Centrifugal separator with inlet arrangement in the form of a set of annular discs or a helically shaped element

Growing community of inventors

Edmonton, Canada

Kevin Reid