Suncor Energy has filed a patent for a non-aqueous process to produce bitumen from oil sands. The process involves contacting oil sands and solvent to produce solvent diluted bitumen and solvent diluted tailings. The solvent diluted bitumen is then subjected to fines separation stages and solvent recovery. The fines streams are washed to produce washed tailings and solvent wash liquor. This process aims to efficiently extract bitumen from oil sands. GlobalData’s report on Suncor Energy gives a 360-degree view of the company including its patenting strategy. Buy the report here.
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According to GlobalData’s company profile on Suncor Energy, oil well fracking was a key innovation area identified from patents. Suncor Energy's grant share as of June 2023 was 1%. Grant share is based on the ratio of number of grants to total number of patents.
The patent filed is for a non-aqueous process for producing bitumen from oil sands
A recently filed patent (Publication Number: US20230159833A1) describes a non-aqueous process for producing bitumen from oil sands. The process involves several stages to extract bitumen from the oil sands and separate it from other components.
In the first stage, the oil sands are mixed with a solvent to produce a solvent diluted bitumen and a solvent diluted tailings containing coarse mineral solids. The solvent diluted bitumen is then subjected to a fines separation stage to remove residual fines, resulting in a bottoms stream and an overflow solvent diluted bitumen stream. The overflow stream is further processed in a second fines separation stage to remove any remaining fines. The solvent diluted bitumen is then subjected to solvent recovery to produce a bitumen product and recovered solvent.
The fines streams, which contain residual bitumen, are subjected to a washing stage to remove the remaining bitumen. This process produces a washed tailings and a solvent wash liquor containing solvent and bitumen.
The patent claims also describe the specific equipment and methods used in the fines separation stages. The first fines separation stage utilizes gravity separation, while the second fines separation stage utilizes enhanced solid-liquid separation, such as a vertical centrifuge. The first stage may also use an inclined plate separator.
Additionally, the patent claims mention the combination of the solvent diluted tailings and the bottoms streams from the fines separation stages, which are supplied together to the washing stage. At least a portion of the solvent wash liquor can be supplied back into the extraction stage.
The extraction stage itself involves displacing the oil sands and a solbit liquid in a counter-current and generally horizontal fashion. This creates a lower sand zone and an upper solbit zone. The lower sand zone is subjected to mixing to extract bitumen, which dissolves into the solbit zone. The solvent diluted bitumen is then produced from the downstream solbit region of the upper solbit zone.
Overall, this non-aqueous process offers a method for efficiently producing bitumen from oil sands, with specific techniques for fines separation and solvent recovery. The process aims to maximize bitumen extraction while minimizing the presence of fines and other impurities in the final bitumen product.
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