Bitumen froth treating process

Abstract

A process for treating a bitumen froth containing bitumen, solid mineral material and water, including subjecting a first mixture containing the bitumen froth and a first amount of a paraffinic solvent to first gravity separation, thereby producing a first overflow stream and a first underflow stream, wherein the first gravity separation is performed so that the first underflow stream contains between about 5 percent and about 40 percent by weight of the asphaltenes contained in the first mixture. A second mixture containing the first underflow stream and a second amount of the paraffinic solvent is subjected to second gravity separation in order to recover bitumen from the first underflow stream.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]A process for treating a bitumen froth to remove solid mineral material and water therefrom.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Bitumen is typically extracted from surface-mined oil sands by using water-based extraction processes. The mined oil sands are first mixed with hot or warm water to create a slurry, which is then conditioned in a piece of rotary equipment or in a slurry pipeline. Subsequently, the bitumen is separated from the bulk of the mineral material tailings and water in one or more separation vessels to produce bitumen froth.[0003]A typical good quality bitumen froth may be comprised of between about 50 percent and about 70 percent bitumen by weight, between about 10 percent and about 20 percent solid mineral material by weight, and between about 20 percent and about 35 percent water by weight. A typical poor quality bitumen froth may be comprised of relatively less bitumen and relatively more solid mineral material and / or water.[0004]Bitumen froth ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0041]As used herein, “gravity separation” includes any technique which utilizes gravity in order to achieve separation of a mixture of substances having different densities, but does not include “enhanced gravity separation techniques” such as centrifuge techniques, cyclone techniques etc. which may utilize other forces such as centrifugal forces in substitution for or in addition to forces due to gravity. Enhanced gravity separation techniques are generally not preferred for use in the invention because the relatively

Problems solved by technology

The naphthenic process typically results in a relatively high bitumen recovery from the bitumen froth, but also typically results i

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