Mineral oils: processes and products – Asphalts – tars – pitches and resins; making – treating and... – Solvent extraction
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-22
2002-10-15
Dang, Thuan (Department: 1764)
Mineral oils: processes and products
Asphalts, tars, pitches and resins; making, treating and...
Solvent extraction
C208S039000, C208S042000, C208S044000, C208S309000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06464856
ABSTRACT:
SPECIFICATIONS/BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the separation and isolation of oil sand aggregates into four components: 1) tars and pitches, 2) a kerosene fraction, 3) clays, silts (particle sizes of less than 80 &mgr;m) and 4) sand (particles sizes of greater than 80 &mgr;m).
It is known that oil sands can be separated and oil fractions isolated by one of many processes of which the ranked highest to lowest preference is the:
a) CHWE (Clark Hot Water Extraction Process) [1],
b) OSLO HWE (Oslo Hot Water Extraction Process) [2],
c) OSLO CWE (Oslo Cold Water Extraction Process) [2],
d) AOSTRA—Takiuk Process [3],
e) ZEFTE (Zero Fine Tailings Extraction Process) [4], and
f) BITMIN (Counter Current Desander Process) [5].
[1] FTFC (Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium) “Vol 4-29. Laboratory Experiments on the Clark Process” In:
Advances in Oil Sands Tailings Research
, Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands and Research Division, Publisher.
[2] FTFC (Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium) “Vol 4-9. OSLO Hot and Cold Water Extraction Processes” In:
Advances in Oil Sands Tailings Research
, Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands and Research Division, Publisher.
[3] FTFC (Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium) “Vol 4-6. AOSTRA—Takiuk Process” In:
Advances in Oil Sands Tailings Research
, Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands and Research Division, Publisher.
[4] FTFC (Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium) “Vol 4-8. Zero Fine Tailings Extraction (ZEFTE)” In:
Advances in Oil Sands Tailings Research
, Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands and Research Division, Publisher.
[5] FTFC (Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium) “Vol 4-8. BITMIN” In:
Advances in Oil Sands Tailings Research
, Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands and Research Division, Publisher.
This invention relates to the separation and isolation of resins and kerogens.
It is also known that resinous and wax like products can be separated from their host habitat by means of prolonged continuous Soxhlet extraction. The efficacy of extraction has been substantially increased by expanding the range of solvents used in analytical extraction tools such as Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) [6], Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) [7], Pressure Fluid Extraction (PFE) [8], Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) and Microwave—Accelerated Solvent Extraction (M-ASE) [9].
[6] Zief, M., Kieser, R.,
Solid Phase Extraction for Sample Preparation
. Mallinckrodt Baker Inc. 1997.
[7] R. E. Majors LC/GC 17(6s) 8-13 (1999)
[8] Richter, B. E. LC/GC 17(6s) 22-28 (1999)
[9] Le Blanc, G., LC/GC 17(6s) 32-36 (1999)
To date, applications have involved micro analytical extraction of organic analytes from solid phases. One commercial application (known as the ALCELL PROCESS) involves the extraction of lignin from wood. A solvent mixture of methanol, ethanol and water at a pressure of 35 atmospheres is used to extract lignin from wood fiber[10].
[10] Lora, J. H. et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,948
This invention, using thermal heating (preferably microwave), applies the micro analytical benefits of Accelerated Solvent Extraction to commercial applications. It extends the efficacy of the process of reduced extraction time, reduced solvent consumption and increased extraction efficiencies by introducing a temperature controllable biphasic solvent system i.e. a system that is the result of a mixture of an organic solvent and water which exhibits a Lower Critical Solution Temperature (LCST).
Some of the Inherent Problems Associated with Some or all of the Above Procceses (a-f) are:
Energy Usage
The processes require large net input of thermal and/or mechanical energy.[11]
[11] Strand, W. L.; Canadian Pat. 2 124 199 (1992 06 11)
Tailings and Storage Space
They also generate large quantities of tailings and require indefinite storage space. [11]
Bitumen Yields
Except for the AOSTRA-T Process, unacceptably low yields (54-92%) of bitumen are separable from the tar sands using present day technology. In fact, yields of 92-96% are considered to be high using the present art. [12]
[12] Sparks B. D., Majid A., Woods J.; Canadian Pat. 2 093 142 (1994 09 27)
In this invention yields of 99% are considered low from any and all of the ore bodies found in Alberta, Canada, the San Joaquin Valley of California and along the shores of the Orinoco River in Venezuela.
Hence, not only can more oil be squeezed out of less ore but utilization of the steps in our invention makes access to the lower grade ores economically viable.
Water Usage
Again, except for the AOSTRA-T Process in a-f above, large volumes of water are used in the extraction of bitumen. On average 0.7 to 3 MT of water are required per Metric Ton of ore (depending on the bitumen content of the ore). The lower the bitumen content the higher the volume of water required. Presently, in the case of the 12% bitumen content ore, 420,000 MT of water are required per day of full operation.[13]
[13] FTFC (Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium) “Vol. 2-3” In:
Advances in Oil Sands Tailings Research
, Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands and Research Division, Publisher.
Environmental Concerns
Because the spent water presently generated contains toxic naphthenates, oil residues, and fine tailings, storage and containment of the waste waters has become an integral part of the process. The presently projected required volume of settling ponds doubles every 400 days. This is expected to decrease to 300 days when the Aurora mine comes on stream in the year 2004 i.e. 460,000,000 m
3
per annum of new storage space for spent water shall be required.
It has been estimated that it will take 100-300 years for the colloidal of the fine tailings to agglomerate to a soft clay before release of the above mentioned waters shall be permitted to the environment. “Without further treatment of the existing fine tailings and without process modifications to reduce the rate of production of “new” fine tailings, by the year 2030, over one billion cubic meters of a non-consolidating fine tailings would exist at the bottom of these lakes.” . . . since “Containment of the entire water system with the operating process is required as part of the operating license agreement between the Provincial Government and the two commercial plants.” [14, 15]
[14]] FTFC (Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium) “Vol. 4-5.” In:
Advances in Oil Sands Tailings Research
, Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands and Research Division, Publisher.
[15] Mac Kinnon, M. and Sethi, A.; A Comparison of the Physical and Chemical Properties of the Tailings Ponds at the Syncrude and Suncor Oil Sands Plants, Oil Sands_Our Petroleum future Conference, Edmonton, Alberta, Apr. 4-7, 1993.
AOSTRA Taciuk Process [16]
An advantage of the AT Process is that no toxic tailings are generated. Extra energy costs incurred by the process are partially offset by elimination of treatment and maintenance costs of the wastewater containment ponds. Although the process is self sufficient, the expended energy and specialty equipment must be costed against the process. Our process minimizes such cost while providing the opportunity to sell the energy to the open market.
[16] FTFC (Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium) “Vol. 4-10.” In:
Advances in Oil Sands Tailings Research
, Alberta Department of Energy, Oil Sands and Research Division, Publisher.
Solid Phase Extraction Processes
Solid Phase Pressure Extractions have, to date, been limited to micro analytical applications. The ALCELL PROCESS has shown that high pressures can have economic restrictive effects on commercial applications.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a process whereby trapped and bound bitumen can be removed from an inorganic agglomerate of vario
Brown & Michaels PC
Dang Thuan
Deinking/ Solvent Extraction Technologies
Nguyen Tam M.
LandOfFree
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