PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING BITUMEN AND DRYING THE TAILINGS
A process for separating bitumen from bitumen ore material includes extracting bitumen with a hydrocarbon solvent to produce a bitumen-enriched solvent phase and tailings. The tailings are dried or stripped in a dryer to remove any remaining hydrocarbon solvent. The amount of solvent discharged in the tailings may be less than 4 bbl per 1000 bbl of recovered bitumen.
1 . A method comprising:
forming a first mixture by mixing bitumen ore material with a hydrocarbon solvent;
separating the first mixture and producing first tailings;
separating the hydrocarbon solvent from the first tailings with a heated gas.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the heated gas includes the hydrocarbon solvent.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the hydrocarbon solvent included in the heated gas is superheated hydrocarbon solvent.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrocarbon solvent is a paraffinic solvent.
5 . The method claim 4 , wherein the paraffinic solvent is pentane.
6 . The method of claim 1 wherein the heated gas includes steam.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the steam is superheated steam.
8 . The method claim 1 , wherein the hydrocarbon solvent is separated from the tailings by passing the heated gas through the tailings.
9 . The method of claim 1 wherein the hydrocarbon solvent is separated from the tailings by:
loading the tailings in a vertical column; and
passing the heated gas through the tailings loaded in the vertical column.
10 . The method of claim 1 wherein the hydrocarbon solvent is separated from the tailings in a dryer that includes a plurality of separate drying trays.
11 . The method of claim 1 wherein separating the hydrocarbon solvent from the tailings includes moving the heated gas and the tailings in a countercurrent fashion.
12 . The method of claim 1 wherein the bitumen ore material includes oil sands.
13 . A method comprising:
mixing bitumen ore material with a heated hydrocarbon solvent and forming a mixture;
separating a hydrocarbon solvent enriched phase from the mixture and producing tailings;
passing a hydrocarbon solvent vapor through the tailings; and
removing hydrocarbon solvent from the tailings in a dryer.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the heated first hydrocarbon solvent is heated to a temperature in the range of from 30 to 60° C.
15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the bitumen ore material is at a temperature in the range of 0 to 4° C.
16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the heated hydrocarbon solvent is a paraffinic solvent.