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AssigneeECC International Limited
InventorChristopher Robin Langdon Golley
Estimating the term…
A method of treating a dilute aqueous suspension of solid particulate material comprising waste material from a process for recovering petroleum from oil sand includes diluting the suspension with at least 75% of its own volume of water thereby to increase the settling rate of the particulate material and allowing the particulate material to settle to form a concentrated solid sediment. The treated suspension may have been obtained from a process in which an alkaline solution is used to treat the oil sand. The water from which the concentrated solid sediment is separated may be returned to the process for recovering petroleum from oil sand. The solid sediment may be transferred to a separation vessel in which it is fractionated into a coarse particle fraction and a fine particle fraction. The fine particle fraction may comprise essentially particles having an equivalent spherical diameter not greater than 3 .mu.m. The concentrated solid material recovered may be calcined to form a pozzolanic material.
A method of treating an aqueous suspension of solid particulate material comprising waste material from a plant operating a process for recovering petroleum from oil sand, the suspension containing not more than 40% of solids on a dry weight basis which includes the steps of (a) diluting the suspension with at least 75 percent of its own volume of clean water to increase the settling rate of the particulate material and (b) leaving the suspension diluted in step (a) to settle by gravitational sedimentation so that the particulate material settles to form a concentrated solid sediment containing at least 50 percent by weight solids dilute aqueous layer and a layer of water on top of the concentrated solid sediment;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.