Recovery of hydrocarbon diluent from froth treatment tailings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11566183-B2
Application number	US-202217580883-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 21, 2022
Priority date	Sep 11, 2019
Publication date	Jan 31, 2023
Grant date	Jan 31, 2023

Abstract

A method for recovering hydrocarbon diluent present in froth treatment tailings, comprising introducing the tailings into a vessel; adding a first portion of steam into the vessel to form a vapour-tailings interface; and operating the vessel to increase the exposure of the tailings to the vapour-tailings interface formed in the vessel.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for recovering hydrocarbon diluent present in froth treatment tailings, comprising;
adding a first portion of steam into the froth treatment tailings to form a tailings/steam mixture;
tangentially introducing the tailings/steam mixture into a conical vessel having a conical internal wall and a conical vessel bottom to create a rotational motion of the tailings/steam mixture; and
operating the conical vessel such that the tailings/steam mixture forms a thin layer on the conical internal wall, thereby increasing the exposure of the tailings to a vapour-tailings interface formed in the vessel.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pressure of the first portion of steam is 50 psig or higher.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a second portion of steam is added at the conical vessel bottom to provide additional heat to the tailings/steam mixture.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrocarbon diluent that has been stripped by the steam moves upwards through the vessel center and exits through a conduit for hydrocarbon diluent recovery by condensation and decantation to separate the hydrocarbon from water.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a hydrocarbon diluent depleted tailings formed in the conical vessel are removed from the conical vessel via a bottom conduit and conveyed to a tailings pond.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a portion of a hydrocarbon diluent depleted tailings formed in the conical vessel are removed from the conical vessel via a bottom conduit and tangentially reintroduced into the conical vessel.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the outside of the conical vessel is heated by means of an external heating device.

Assignees

• Syncrude Canada Ltd

Inventors

• Bhattacharya Sujit
• Mcknight Craig
• Salas Salvador Escobedo
• Delasa Hugo

Classifications

• C10G1/045 Primary

  Separation of insoluble materials · CPC title

• B01D1/20

  Sprayers (in general B05B) · CPC title

• B01D3/38

  Steam distillation · CPC title

• C10G2300/807

  Steam · CPC title

• B01D3/28

  Fractionating columns with surface contact and vertical guides, e.g. film action · CPC title