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US 2014/0151269 A1Published application
Enhanced temperature control of bitumen froth treatment process
AssigneeFort Hills Energy L.P.
InventorsShawn Van Der Merwe, Thomas Hann
Life of this patent
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AssigneeFort Hills Energy L.P.
InventorsShawn Van Der Merwe, Thomas Hann
Estimating the term…
A method for pre-treating bitumen froth for mixing with solvent for froth treatment includes heating the froth to a froth-solvent mixing temperature below the solvent flash temperature and suitably high to provide reduced bitumen viscosity sufficiently low for complete mixing of the solvent and the froth prior to introduction into a separation apparatus. A method of improving energy use in froth treatment includes reducing heat provided to the solvent, increasing heat provided to the froth prior to adding the solvent to reduce bitumen viscosity and adding the temperature-reduced solvent to the heated froth. A froth treatment separation process includes trim heating first and second solvent streams to adjust the first and second stage separation temperatures.
A method for pre-treating bitumen containing froth for mixing with a paraffinic solvent containing stream to produce a diluted froth for introduction into a separation apparatus for separation into a diluted bitumen component and a solvent diluted tailings component, the method comprising heating the bitumen froth to produce a heated froth with a reduced viscosity and a froth-solvent mixing temperature that is below a flash temperature of the solvent and ranging from about 75° C. to about 95° C., the heated bitumen froth viscosity being at most about 700 cP higher than a solvent stream viscosity.
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A method of improving energy use in a froth treatment operation, the froth treatment operation comprising adding a paraffinic solvent containing stream to bitumen froth to produce a diluted froth, introducing the diluted froth into a separation apparatus and producing from the separation apparatus a diluted bitumen component and a solvent diluted tailings component, the method comprising:
(canceled)
A process for separating a bitumen froth into a diluted bitumen component and a diluted tailings component, the process comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.