Other

Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Tom Tran

George Cymerman

Kevin Moran

Pat Dougan

Jim Lorenz

Corey Mayr

A process for removing contaminants, namely water and particulate solids, from hydrocarbon diluent-diluted bitumen froth ('dilfroth') is provided to produce hydrocarbon diluent-diluted bitumen ('dilbit'), comprising subjecting the dilfroth to gravity settling in a primary settler to produce an overflow stream of primary raw dilbit, comprising bitumen containing water and some fine solids, and an underflow stream of primary tails, comprising solids, water and residual bitumen; removing the overflow stream of primary raw dilbit and subjecting it to gravity settling in a clarifier vessel for sufficient time to produce an overflow first stream of cleaned dilbit and an underflow stream of clarifier sludge; diluting the primary tails with hydrocarbon diluent and subjecting the diluted primary tails to gravity settling in a secondary settler to produce an overflow second stream of cleaned dilbit and an underflow stream of secondary tails; and removing the clarifier sludge and diluting the clarifier sludge with a hydrocarbon diluent, if necessary, and subjecting the clarifier sludge to gravity separation to produce a third stream of cleaned dilbit.

Method for treating bitumen froth with high bitumen recovery and dual quality bitumen production

Diluent-diluted bitumen froth containing bitumen and naphtha diluent, hydrocarbons, water, sand and fines (collectively &ldquo;dilfroth&rdquo;) is fed into a vapor-tight gravity settler ('splitter') and temporarily retained to produce a bottom layer of tails comprising sand and middlings, a rag layer of discrete three-dimensional structures, each comprising hydrocarbons contained in a skin of fines, and a top layer of hydrocarbons containing small droplets of water and fines ('raw dilbit'). The flux in the splitter is less than 6 m /h of dilfroth fed per m of horizontal cross-sectional rag area. The in-coming dilfroth is fed directly into the splitter middlings. Demulsifier is added to the overflow stream of raw dilbit and the mixture is subjected to prolonged settling in a vapor-tight polisher tank, to produce polished dilbit containing less than 1.0 wt. % water and 0.3 wt. % solids. The splitter underflow tails, containing less than 15 wt. % bitumen, is mixed with additional diluent to raise the diluent/bitumen ratio to 4:1 to 10:1 and is gravity settled in a vapor-tight scrubber. Scrubber overflow, mostly diluent containing residual bitumen stripped from the tails, is recycled to the splitter. In concept, the sand is first separated from the bitumen in the stripper. The substantially sand-free bitumen can then feasibly be treated with chemical demulsifier and subjected to prolonged settling in the polisher to reduce water and fines contents to low levels. Bitumen lost with the splitter tails is recovered in the scrubber using a high concentration of diluent. The scrubber overflow of bitumen and diluent is recycled to the stripper to conserve diluent.

Staged settling process for removing water and solids from oils and extraction froth

Growing community of inventors

Edmonton, Canada

Tom Tran