Systems for the extraction of bitumen from oil sand material
AssigneeVivakor, Inc.
InventorMatt Nicosia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for separating bitumen from oil sands material is disclosed. The method may include mixing the oil sands material with a solvent in a mix tank then passing it through a centrifuge. The method may also include drying the clean oil sands material and recovering the vapors through a condenser unit. The system may further include passing the mixture of bitumen and solvent through a flash evaporator to produce pure bitumen or leaving it mixed with the higher API hydrocarbon condensate for the production of crude oil.
Claims30
A system for extracting bitumen from oil sands material, comprising:
- a mix tank that receives oil sands material consisting of sand that is contaminated with bitumen and mixes the oil sands material with a hydrocarbon solvent to form a first mixture of oil sands material and hydrocarbon solvent;
- a centrifuge that receives the first mixture from the mix tank and spins to thereby separate the first mixture into clean sand and a second mixture of bitumen and hydrocarbon solvent;
- a drying unit that receives the clean sand from the centrifuge, the drying unit being configured to collect residual hydrocarbon solvent from the clean sand;
- a flash evaporator that receives the second mixture from the centrifuge and separates the second mixture into hydrocarbon solvent and bitumen;
- and
- a hydrocarbon solvent tank that receives the hydrocarbon solvent after the hydrocarbon solvent has been separated from the bitumen, the hydrocarbon solvent tank providing the hydrocarbon solvent to the mix tank for use in forming the first mixture.
A system for extracting bitumen from oil sands material, comprising:
- a hydrocarbon solvent tank that stores hydrocarbon solvent;
- a mix tank that receives oil sands material consisting of sand that is contaminated with bitumen and also receives the hydrocarbon solvent from the hydrocarbon solvent tank, the mix tank mixing the oil sands material with the hydrocarbon solvent to form a first mixture of oil sands material and hydrocarbon solvent;
- a centrifuge that receives the first mixture from the mix tank and separates the first mixture into clean sand and a second mixture of bitumen and hydrocarbon solvent;
- a flash evaporator that receives the second mixture from the centrifuge and separates the second mixture into hydrocarbon solvent and bitumen;
- and
- a drying unit that includes a heating system for heating the clean sand to cause residual hydrocarbon solvent in the clean sand to be vaporized;
- wherein the hydrocarbon solvent tank receives the hydrocarbon solvent after the hydrocarbon solvent has been separated from the bitumen such that the hydrocarbon solvent is recycled within the system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.