Processing hydrocarbon-containing materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9771520-B2
Application number	US-201514978497-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2015
Priority date	May 20, 2009
Publication date	Sep 26, 2017
Grant date	Sep 26, 2017

Abstract

Hydrocarbon-containing feedstocks are processed to produce useful intermediates or products, such as fuels. For example, systems are described that can process a petroleum-containing feedstock, such as oil sands, oil shale, tar sands, and other naturally-occurring and synthetic materials that include both hydrocarbon components and solid matter, to obtain a useful intermediate or product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A feedstock processing apparatus comprising:
a tank,
a feedstock delivery device configured to deliver a hydrocarbon-containing feedstock to the tank, and
a jet mixer that comprises a plurality of jet flow agitators each including an impeller mounted at a distal end of a shaft, and a shroud surrounding the impeller, the jet flow agitators each having a nozzle disposed within the tank and agitating the delivered feedstock with a fluid medium in the tank under jet flow conditions, and the jet flow agitators are configured to jet fluid upward during initial dispersion of the hydrocarbon-containing feedstock in a liquid medium within the tank.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the jet mixer further comprises a motor within each jet flow agitator, and the apparatus further comprises a torque monitor that monitors torque of the motor during mixing.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the tank has an arcuate bottom.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a pre-processing module configured to irradiate the hydrocarbon-containing feedstock prior to delivery to the tank.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising a controller that adjusts the operation of the feedstock delivery device based on input from the torque-monitoring device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a cooling module configured to cool the hydrocarbon-containing feedstock.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the jet flow agitators are further configured to switch between upward jet fluid flow and downward jet fluid flow during processing of the hydrocarbon-containing feedstock in the liquid medium within the tank.

Assignees

• Xyleco Inc

Inventors

• Medoff Marshall
• Masterman Thomas Craig

Classifications

• B01F5/0212

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• C10G1/047 Primary

  Hot water or cold water extraction processes · CPC title

• C10G1/00 Primary

  Production of liquid hydrocarbon mixtures from oil-shale, oil-sand, or non-melting solid carbonaceous or similar materials, e.g. wood, coal (mechanical winning of oil from oil-shales, oil-sand, or the like B03B) · CPC title

• E21B43/24

  using heat, e.g. steam injection · CPC title

• B01F5/10

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic