Process for reducing sludge accumulation in the hot water extraction process for oil sands
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United States of America Patent
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Feb 20, 1996
Issued Date -
N/A
app pub date -
Oct 6, 1994
filing date -
Jun 11, 1993
priority date (Note) -
Expired
status (Latency Note)
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Abstract
A dispersant, such as sodium silicate, is added to the process water of the hot water extraction process which recovers bitumen from oil sands. The dispersant disperses the ultrafine (less than 300 nm) particles, to reduce the formation of flocs and sludge in the tailings pond. The volume of the pond is such that the retention time of process water is sufficiently short (less than 6 weeks when using sodium silicate) to avoid reforming flocs from the dispersed ultrafines. The ultrafines content in the process water builds up as the water is repeatedly recycled from the pond to the extraction process. The ultrafines content stabilizes at a steady state concentration as some ultrafines are continuously removed from the process water when the tailings are delivered onto the 'beach' of the pond and become trapped in the sand.
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- C02F Class
- 4.21 % this patent is cited more than
- 29 Age