Process for the Separation of Oil from Bituminous Sands and Like Oil Bearing Materials (Patent No: 602087)

Inventor: Can-Amera Oil Sands Development Ltd.

Location: Calgary

Comments: N/A

Description: embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
1. In the process of separating oil from bituminous sands which comprises adding sufficient diluent to the oil sands to reduce the specific gravity of the oil constituent thereof substantially below 1:00, thereafter introducing water in substantial excess of that required to saturate the sand, and forming a slurry thereby, subjecting said slurry to centrifugal force, and recovering separately the substantially solids free oil, water and sand; the improvement which comprises preliminarily separating said slurry, by densities, into a light component comprising the free oil and some water, and a heavy component comprising the saturated sands and some water, and subjecting said components separately to centrifugal action to remove, in both cases, a substantially solids free oil.
2. The improvement of Claim 1 wherein said slurry is separated by densities through a gravity settling of the constituents.
3. The improvement of Claim 1 wherein said slurry is separated by densities through the application of centrifugal force.