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US 8,771,503 B2Granted
Process and system for recovering oil from tar sands using microwave energy
AssigneeC-Micro Systems Inc.
InventorsChang Yul Cha, Paul Gil Vergnani
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for recovering an oil from a tar sand, including the steps of drying the tar sand to produce a dried tar sand, mixing the dried tar sand with a microwave absorbent to produce a mixed sand, and cracking the mixed sand with microwaves to produce an oil vapor product containing the oil.
Claims15
A process for recovering an oil from a tar sand, the process comprising the steps of:
- drying the tar sand to produce a dried tar sand;
- mixing the dried tar sand with a recirculated sand to produce a mixed sand, the mixed sand containing a ratio of from 1 to 5 parts of dried tar sand for each part of the recirculated sand;
- exposing the mixed sand to microwaves;
- increasing a temperature of the mixed sand through microwave absorption by the recirculated sand, the temperature of the mixed sand increasing at a higher rate than that of a same quantity of the dried tar sand exposed to the same microwaves;
- cracking the heated mixed sand with the microwaves to produce an oil vapor product containing the oil and a processed sand;
- and
- recirculating part of the processed sand as the recirculated sand into the dried tar sand.
4 more elements
A system for recovering oil from tar sand comprising:
- a tar sand dryer removing water from the tar sand and producing a dried tar sand;
- a mixing section connected to the dryer to receive the dried tar sand and mixing the dried tar sand with a recirculated sand to produce a mixed sand;
- a microwave cracker connected with the mixing section to receive the mixed sand, the cracker including a microwave guide directing microwaves to the mixed sand, the cracker increasing a temperature of the mixed sand through microwave absorption by the recirculated sand, and cracking the heated mixed sand with the microwaves to obtain a processed sand and an oil vapor product containing the oil;
- and
- a recirculation connection between an outlet of the cracker and the mixing section, the recirculation connection conveying part of the processed sand as the recirculated sand to the mixing section, the recirculation connection being sized to convey a quantity of the processed sand to the mixing section defining a ratio of from 1 to 5 parts of dried tar sand for each part of the recirculated sand.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.