The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 19, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 09, 1998
Waldemar Maciejewski, Edmonton, CA;
George Cymerman, Edmonton, CA;
AEC Oil Sands, L.P., Calgary, CA;
AEC Oil Sands Limited Partnership, Calgary, CA;
Athabasca Oil Sands Investments, Inc., Calgary, CA;
Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, CA;
Canadian Oil Sands Investments, Inc., Calgary, CA;
Gulf Canada Resources Limited, Calgary, CA;
Imperial Oil Resources, Calgary, CA;
Mocal Energy Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Murphy Oil Company, Ltd., Calgary, CA;
Petro-Canada, Calgary, CA;
Abstract
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.