Murphy Oil Company Ltd.

Mocal Energy Limited

Imperial Oil Resources

Petro-canada

Gulf Canada Resources Limited

Athabasca Oil Sands Investments, Inc.

Canadian Oil Sands Investments, Inc.

Aec Oil Sands, L.p.

Aec Oil Sands Limited Partnership

Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd.

Canadian Occidential Petroleum, Ltd.

Nexen Corporation

Canadian Oil Sands Limited

Petro-canada Oil and Gas

Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Waldemar Maciejewski

Jim McTurk

Derrick Kershaw

George Cymerman

Alan Ferre

Chris Mooney

Chad Larson

Darwin Edward Kiel

Barry Bara

Samson Ng

Michael Lipsett

Darwin Kiel

An aqueous aerated oil sand slurry is conditioned in a pipeline and then spun within an elongate vessel of circular cross-section, to cause bitumen droplets in the slurry to coalesce. This increases the probability that the droplets will become aerated by contact with air bubbles. The slurry is then subjected to separation of the sand and bitumen.

Apparatus and process for coalescing bitumen in an oil sand slurry

A large capacity cyclonic separator is used for desanding a conditioned aqueous oil sand slurry comprising aerated bitumen, water and sand to produce pumpable, pipelineable lean froth and sand tailings. The cyclone separator is a vessel which forms an elongated cylindrical separation chamber and has a tangential slurry inlet at one end and, at the opposite end, a peripheral sand removal outlet and a centrally positioned vortex finder. Oil sand slurry is continually tangentially introduced into the cyclone separator to form a rotating vortex, which generates a centrifugal force. The lean froth migrates to the center of the vortex to form an inner core and is removed via the vortex finder. The sand tailings migrate to the outer reaches of the vortex and are co-currently is removed via the sand removal outlet.

Cycloseparator for removal of coarse solids from conditioned oil sand

A large, mechanically agitated pump box is used between a mixer, for mixing oil sand and water to produce a slurry, and a pipeline for conveying the slurry to a processing facility. Prior to the aqueous slurry being discharged into the pump box from the mixer, it is screened to reject large solids. The oversize is directed to an impactor where it is comminuted and the comminuted product is screened again prior to being discharged into the pump box. The pump box is designed to increase the residence time of the slurry in the pump box and to separate the slurry into two phases, the suspended slurry and the larger lumps that cannot be suspended. The larger lumps that settle in the pump box are recycled to the impactor for comminution.

Agitated slurry pump box for oil sand hydrotransport

A mixer circuit, in the form of a vertically oriented stack of components, functions to slurry oil sand with water in preparation for pumping through a pipeline. The oil sand is initially dropped from the end of a conveyor. It is contacted in mid-air with a stream of water to distribute the water through the oil sand and to wet the latter. The mixture drops into a downwardly slanted trough. The water and oil sand mix as they move turbulently through the open-ended trough. The slurry is deflected as it leaves the trough and is spread in the form of a thin sheet on an apron. It is then fed over screens to reject oversize lumps. The screened slurry drops into a pump box. The rejected lumps are comminuted in an impactor positioned at the end of the screens. The comminuted oil sand is screened to remove remaining oversize lumps and the screened comminuted oil sands are delivered into the pump box. The structure is compact and the oversize reject loss is relatively low.

Slurrying oil sand for hydrotransport in a pipeline

A mixer circuit, in the form of a vertically oriented stack of components, functions to slurry oil sand with water in preparation for pumping through a pipeline. The oil sand is initially dropped from the end of a conveyor. It is contacted in mid-air with a stream of water to distribute the water through the oil sand and to wet the latter. The mixture drops into a downwardly slanted trough. The water and oil sand mix as they move turbulently through the open-ended trough. The slurry is deflected as it leaves the trough and is spread in the form of a thin sheet on an apron. It is then fed over screens to reject oversize lumps. The screened slurry drops into a pump box. The screened slurry drops into a box. The rejected lumps are comminuted in an impactor positioned at the end of the screens. The comminuted oil sand is screened to remove remaining oversize lumps and the screened comminuted oil sands are delivered into the pump box. The structure is compact and the oversize reject loss is relatively low.

Growing community of inventors

Edmonton, Canada

Waldemar Maciejewski