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

Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Yin Ming Samson Ng

Barry Bara

Sujit Bhattacharya

Kevin Reid

Jonathan Spence

Jun Long

Brian Knapper

Robert Siy

Shane Hoskins

James Lorentz

Wayne B Jansen

Kevin Liu

Shao-Shan Tang

Jim Kresta

Allan W K Leung

Allan Wk Yeung

Wayne Benidect Jansen

Sam Tang

Yong (joe) Gu

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 method for processing bitumen froth to produce a diluted bitumen product having a reduced water and solids content is provided, comprising: adding a sufficient amount of water to the bitumen froth and mixing the bitumen froth and water to form a froth/water mixture; diluting the froth/water mixture with naphtha to form a diluted froth; and separating the water and solids from the diluted froth to produce the diluted bitumen product.

Froth washing prior to naphtha dilution

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

A process for enhancing the froth quality, improving vessel operability and increasing the froth temperature from an oil sand slurry in a primary separation vessel is provided, comprising introducing the oil sand slurry into a separation vessel; retaining the oil sand slurry within the separation vessel so that separate layers of bitumen froth, middlings and sand tailings are formed; introducing sufficient heated water having a temperature greater than about 80&#xb0; C. as an evenly distributed underwash layer beneath the bitumen froth layer; and separately removing the bitumen froth, middlings and sand tailings from the separation vessel.

High temperature froth underwash in an oil sand bitumen extraction separation vessel

The invention is directed to a process for cleaning bitumen froth by mixing a sufficient amount of naphtha with the bitumen froth to provide a naphtha-to-bitumen ratio within the range of about 4.0 (w/w) to about 10.0 (w/w) and separating substantially dry diluted bitumen from the water and solids. Also provided is a process for cleaning diluted bitumen by mixing a sufficient amount of naphtha with the diluted bitumen to provide a naphtha-to-bitumen ratio equal to or greater than about 1.8 (w/w) and separating marketable fungible raw bitumen from the water and solids.

Naphtha based fungible bitumen process

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Sherwood Park, Canada

Yin Ming Samson Ng