Fort Hills Energy L.p.

Tom Hann

Shawn Van Der Merwe

John Khai Diep

Mohammad Reza Shariati

John Khai Quang Diep

John Khai-Quang Diep

Ryan Duerr

The field of the invention is oil sands processing. A solvent treatment system and process for treating a bitumen-containing stream include contacting that stream with a solvent-containing stream to produce an in-line flow of solvent diluted material; supplying the solvent diluted material into a separation vessel with axi-symmetric phase and velocity distribution and/or particular mixing and conditioning features. The solvent addition, mixing and conditioning may be performed with particular CoV, Camp number, co-annular pipeline reactor, pipe wall contact of low viscosity fluid, flow diffusing and/or flow straightening. The processes enable improved performance of downstream unit operations such as separation of high diluted bitumen from solvent diluted tailings.

Process and system for solvent addition to bitumen froth

The field of the invention is oil sands processing. A solvent treatment system and process for treating a bitumen-containing stream include contacting that stream with a solvent-containing stream to produce an in-line flow of solvent diluted material; supplying the solvent diluted material into a separation vessel with axi-symmetric phase and velocity distribution and/or particular mixing and conditioning features. The solvent addition, mixing and conditioning may be performed with particular Co V, Camp number, co-annular pipeline reactor, pipe wall contact of low viscosity fluid, flow diffusing and/or flow straightening. The processes enable improved performance of downstream unit operations such as separation of high diluted bitumen from solvent diluted tailings.

A TSRU for recovering solvent from solvent diluted tailings includes a separation apparatus receiving the tailings and producing solvent and solvent recovered tailings. The separation apparatus includes a vessel, a tailings outlet, a solvent outlet, a tailings inlet for supplying a variable flow of the tailings to the vessel and a tailings recycle line connected to the tailings inlet for recycling part of the solvent recovered tailings into the variable flow of the diluted tailings to produce a flow rate controlled feed for introduction into the vessel. A tailings solvent recovery process includes separating the diluted tailings into recovered solvent and solvent recovered tailings, discharging the solvent recovered tailings, and recycling a portion of the solvent recovered tailings back into the variable flow of the diluted tailings. A method of controlling feed flow rate to a tailings solvent recovery vessel is also provided.

Process and unit for solvent recovery from solvent diluted tailings derived from bitumen froth treatment

A process for regionalization of mining bitumen-containing oil sands ore for extraction and conversion to produce dry bitumen comprises operating multiple separate oil sands ore mining and extraction facilities or in situ thermal recovery facilities, to produce separate bitumen froth streams; operating a regional paraffinic froth treatment (PFT) hub for receiving a portion of each of the separate bitumen froth streams and treating the bitumen froth streams to produce the dry bitumen; optionally providing a portion of the dry bitumen stream to the bitumen upgrading facility and another portion of the dry bitumen stream to a bitumen market pipeline or remote upgrading facility; and optionally comprising regionalization of water distribution where by-product waters are recovered from the PFT hub and the upgrading facilities and distributed to the mining and extraction facilities for use as extraction processing water to produce the bitumen froth streams.

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Onoway, Canada

Tom Hann