| US 7,481,318 B2 | ||
| Apparatus and process for coalescing bitumen in an oil sand slurry | ||
| Barry Bara, Edmonton (Canada); Michael Lipsett, Fort McMurray (Canada); Waldemar Maciejewski, Edmonton (Canada); and Samson Ng, Sherwood Park (Canada) | ||
| Assigned to AEC Oil Sands, L.P., Calgary (Canada); Canadian Oil Sands Commercial Trust, Calgary (Canada); Canadian Oil Sands Limited, Calgary (Canada); Comocophillips Oilsands PartnershipII, Calgary (Canada); Imperial Oil Resources, Calgary (Canada); Mocal Energy Limited, Tokyo (Japan); Murphy Oil Company Ltd., Calgary (Canada); Nexen Inc., Calgary (Canada); and Petro-Canada Oil And Gas, Calgary (Canada) | ||
| Filed on Oct. 16, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/685,394. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2005/0082205 A1, Apr. 21, 2005 | ||
| Int. Cl. B04C 5/24 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 209—728 [209/725; 209/18; 210/787; 210/788; 210/800] | 20 Claims |
| 1. A continuous process for treating a stream of aqueous aerated oil sand slurry containing bitumen droplets and sand and
separating it in a separator, comprising:
providing an elongated closed vessel forming a chamber having a circular cross-section and a longitudinal axis, said vessel
having an inlet at one end and an outlet at its other end;
injecting the slurry stream through the inlet to cause the slurry to rotate as it advances longitudinally through the chamber,
so that under centrifugal force bitumen droplets move inwardly toward the chamber axis and are concentrated, thereby increasing
the probability of bitumen droplet contact, coalescence and growth, and producing a treated slurry stream;
expelling the treated slurry stream through the vessel outlet; and
introducing the expelled treated slurry stream into the separator, separating the sand from the bitumen, and recovering resultant
separated bitumen.
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