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US 2014/0235908 A1Published application
Switchable hydrophilicity solvents and methods of use thereof
AssigneesGreenCentre Canada, Queen's University at Kingston
InventorsPhilip G. JESSOP, Lam N. Phan, Andrew J. Carrier, Rui Resendes, Dominik Wechsler
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Abstract
A solvent that reversibly converts from a hydrophobic liquid form to hydrophilic liquid form upon contact with water and a selected trigger, e.g., contact with CO2, is described. The hydrophilic liquid form is readily converted back to the hydrophobic liquid form and water. The hydrophobic liquid is an amidine or amine. The hydrophilic liquid form comprises an amidinium salt or an ammonium salt.
Claims20
(canceled)
A composition comprising:
- water or an aqueous liquid;
- dissolved CO2 from a source other than air;
- bitumen;
- and
- a switchable hydrophilicity solvent (SHS) that reversibly interconverts from a water-miscible, protonated form to a water-immiscible, liquid, unprotonated form when the amount of the dissolved CO2 is insufficient to maintain the protonated form of the SHS;
- wherein the dissolved CO2 can be removed by exposing the composition to (i) heat, (ii) a flushing gas, (iii) reduced pressure, or (iv) any combination thereof.
3 more elements
A method of extracting bitumen from oil sands comprising:
- (a) contacting an amount of the oil sands with a switchable hydrophilicity solvent (SHS) that is a water-immiscible, liquid, unprotonated amine to form a mixture comprising an SHS/bitumen solution and solids;
- (b) separating the SHS/bitumen solution formed in step (a) from the solids;
- (c) treating the SHS/bitumen solution with water and CO2 at an amount sufficient to reversibly switch the water-immiscible, unprotonated form of the SHS to its water-miscible, protonated form;
- and
- (d) separating the aqueous solution comprising said water-miscible, protonated form of the SHS from the bitumen.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.