CA2647855A1 - Design of endless cable multiple wrap bitumen extractors - Google Patents

Abstract

A separator is disclosed for separating bitumen from a bitumen containing aqueous mixture wherein an apertured endless screen formed from wraps of one or more endless cables inclined upward in the direction of screen movement is used to capture bitumen on the wraps in separation zones and to remove captured adhering bitumen from the wraps in bitumen removal zones. Tailings of the separation flow through the spaces between sequential cable wraps to disposal. An apertured drum with oleophilic surfaces may be used along the bottom flight of the screen to capture additional bitumen from the mixture. Construction details for a variety of mixture separators are disclosed.
As of the date of this filing, the present inventor has spent 34 rewarding and frustrating years of his professional life on the development of oleophilic sieve technology. Getting on in age he wishes to leave a record and teach to those after him an understanding of the great potential of this process for cost effective and environmentally responsible development of the Canadian oil sands. These oil sands were placed here for a purpose. When properly developed this resource will yield more oil than any other world oil reserve and will be of great benefit to many in the years to come.

Description

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada for very small separation equipment or may be as thick as 3 centimeters in diameter or larger for very large commercial oil sands separation units. The spaces between surfaces of sequential wraps may vary widely depending upon the application and on the mixture to be separated. These spaces may be as small as 10% of the cable, filament or wire diameter or smaller, or as large as 10 cable, filament or wire diameters.

FIG. 6a shows an internal cross sectional view of two agglomerator drums and shows the path of endless cable wraps 600 over drums 613 and 639 and over support rollers 606 and 607 in bitumen removal zones. In these zones, bitumen may be removed by combs or by squeeze rollers (not shown). As in previous Figures, these endless cable wraps 600 are shown in FIG. 6a as a dashed line to indicate that the wraps form a screen that has apertures in the form of slits between the wraps.
Since the screen uses a multi wrap endless cable, guide rollers are needed to prevent the cable from running off the rollers but these are not shown for simplicity of the Figure. The top drum 613 is filled with oleophilic tower packings and the bottom drum 639 is partly filled with a bed of oleophilic balls. This serves to illustrate that both packings and balls may be used in the same separator if desired. Mixture to be separated enters the top drum through a central inlet 690 from a feed pipe (610 of FIG. 6b) and passes through an apertured cylindrical wall 614 to prevent oversize particulate material from entering the zone of the drum filled with tower packings.
The separating mixture passes through the zone filled with tower packings and then leaves through the outside cylindrical wall at the bottom of the top drum. As illustrated in the Figure, the outside cylindrical walls of these drums are not made from perforated steel but are formed from by a multitude of notched cross bars 641.
These notched bars are attached to the drum end walls and may be supported by internal baffles, as well, as detailed in FIG. 5b. The tailings (not shown) from the top drum fall into the bottom drum past the notched bars 641 along the top of the drum 639 and mix with the bed of balls in the bottom drum for the removal of additional bitumen by bitumen agglomeration and bitumen kneeding that takes place in this bed.

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada The final tailings pass into a tailings receiver 620 to be removed as the final tailings 621 of the separation process.
FIG. 6b is a side view of FIG. 6a. without showing the tailings receiver.
Mixture to be separated flows into the interior of the revolving upper drum through a feed pipe 610 and tumbles inside the central portion which is bounded by a cylindrical apertured wall (614 of FIG 6a). Aqueous phase including particulate solids and bitumen that are smaller in size than the apertures of this apertured wall 614 pass through this wall into the annular area of the drum filled with tower packings, where bitumen particles are increased in size by agglomeration as the mixture comes in contact with the oleophilic surfaces of the tower packings.
Oversize in the form of solid particulates that are larger than the apertures of the apertured cylindrical wall 614 accumulate in the inside central portion and leave as oversize 653 through the funnel outlet 650 which prevents aqueous phase from leaving with the oversize before it flows through the apertured wall. Auger flights mounted on the inside funnel wall remove oversize but minimize the loss of water or bitumen. Alternately, a feed of mixture to be separated 652 may be introduced into the funnel cone 650 opening instead of through the feed pipe 610. The upper drum may be mounted on a turn table bearing 648 and may be driven by a gear 655 that engages gear teeth of the bearing 648. This gear 655 is mounted on a shaft 656 supported in pillow block bearings 657 that are mounted on structural beams 654 and is driven by a motor or motor and gear box (not shown). The turn table bearing also is mounted on structural beams 649 to support the rotating drum 602. The use of a turn table bearing for the drum support provides for easy access of mixture feed to the drum and also for easy removal of oversize 653 from the central portion of the drum. Alternately, slewing rings mounted on the drum side walls may be supported by ring rollers which may be driven, and/or the drum may be driven with the use of sprocket teeth and a roller chain.

The bottom drum 603 of FIG. 6b may be supported with a turn table bearing, or a central shaft with central heavy wall pipe may be used as disclosed with FIG. 5a.
In this case the central pipe 645 is mounted on a central shaft 644 similar to FIG. 4a, Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada 4b or 5a. and the shaft is mounted in pillow block bearings 646 which are supported by structural beams 647. Mixture that leaves from the bottom of the top drum will contain less bitumen than mixture entering the top drum and may also be smaller in particle size. This mixture falls onto the top of the bottom drum 603 and enters the interior of the drum 603 through its apertures at the top between the cross bars (641 of FIG 6a).
Again referring to FIG. 6a, this Figure illustrates that mixture leaving the bottom of the top drum, after passing through the endless cable screen, can fall directly into the bottom drum 639 through the top of that drum 639 and does not encounter an endless cable screen as it passes through the slits or apertures between the notched bars 641. From there the mixture encounters the bed of balls in the bottom drum and gives up most of its residual bitumen, for deposit on the endless cable screen around the bottom of this drum, as final tailings leave the bottom drum and flow into the tailings receiver 620 for removal by removal means 621 . As indicated by the directional arrow 601, bitumen leaving from the bottom drum adheres to the endless cable screen and is removed in a bitumen removal zone indicated by the support roller 606. Similarly, bitumen leaving from the top drum adheres to the endless cable screen and is removed in a bitumen removal zone indicated by the support roller 607. Bitumen removal from endless cable wraps has already been described in detail in the present patent or in the co-pending patent entitled "Endless Cable System and Associated Methods".
For short drums the end walls of the drums 602 and 603 of FIG. 6b may provide the required support for the endless cable screen without the need for the baffles described with FIG. 4b and 5b. In this case, notched cross bars may be directly welded to the end walls. Rectangular holes, precut into the end walls, may to accept these notched cross bars. These rectangular holes are approximately the same size as the ends 532 of notched bars of FIG. 5d. The shape of these cross bars are similar to the cross bars of FIG. 5d and 5e.

FIG. 7a shows in schematic form a method for heating with live steam bitumen captured by endless cable wraps prior to removal of bitumen from the wraps Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada for an inclined cable flight. Bitumen collected in a separation zone by an endless cable screen from bitumen containing mixtures at near ambient temperature is very viscous and may require considerable force and/or roller pressure to remove it from the cable wraps in bitumen removal zones. This may also add significant stress to the devices used to drive the revolving endless cable(s). Bitumen on the wraps, however, may be heated in a confined path after leaving a separation zone to facilitate removal in the bitumen removal zones. Heating bitumen while on the cable wraps is convenient and may also simplify subsequent handling of the removed bitumen. A
side view of the cable wraps 701 is illustrated by the heavy dashed line and the direction of wrap movement is shown by the arrow 702. A confined space is provided by a housing 703 that encloses the cable wraps. Bitumen 704 on the wraps fills the housing 703 which serves as a cold bitumen accumulator due to adhesion of bitumen to the stationary housing walls above and below the moving cable wraps to form a cold bitumen zone 705 which may have a temperature only slightly higher than the temperature of the separating mixture. If slightly higher, this increase in temperature is caused by conduction of heat by the housing 703 from a hot bitumen zone 706. Live steam 707 is sparged through the housing 703 into the confined path 708 to create a hot zone 706 of bitumen heated by steam 707 sparged into the bitumen directly or into an enlarged heating zone 709 . The cold zone 705 filled with viscous low temperature bitumen serves to prevent the flow of steam in a direction opposite to the direction 702 of movement of the cable wraps 701. Cold bitumen 704 is carried into the hot zone 706 by couette flow and is heated by live steam 707. Warm bitumen has a much lower viscosity than cold bitumen and couette flow and steam pressure causes the flow of warm bitumen from the hot zone 714 towards the rollers 710 and 711 and into the bitumen product receiver 712 to form a warm bitumen product 713.
In fact, couette flow in the cold zone can create pressure in the hot zone to force warm bitumen out of the enclosure towards the rollers. The stationary housing 703, in conjunction with the moving cable wraps 701 act like a combined couette and pressure flow pump that forces heated bitumen and condensing steam from the hot bitumen zone 714 to the upper outlet 716 of the confined space to flow towards the Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada bitumen product receiver 712 while cold bitumen 705 of high viscosity at the inlet 715 of the confined space prevents the downward flow of heated bitumen in a direction opposite to the direction of wrap movement 702. Any significant amounts of warm bitumen remaining on the cable wraps are squeezed off by the rollers and 711 or may be removed by a comb (not shown here but see FIG. 8 c,d,e) and flow into the bitumen product receiver 712 to be removed as the bitumen product 713.
Roller 710 and/or roller 711 may be chilled to cool down the cable wraps before these enter a subsequent separation zone. Chilling of the rollers, if desired, may be accomplished by the use of hollow roller rollers and shafts that allow entry of cool water or refrigerant into the rollers through one shaft end and removal of warmer water or refrigerant through the other shaft end of each roller. Suitable rotary seals may be provided on these roller shafts to prevent spillage or leakage of water or refrigerant.

Sparging condensing steam into a liquid filled enclosure can be very noisy due to the implosions of steam bubbles in a colder liquid. The enlarged heating zone 709 may be designed to reduce this noise of condensing steam.
FIG. 7b shows a graph of viscosity as a function of temperature for Athabasca bitumen. The viscosity versus temperature relation of oil sand bitumen varies somewhat with the location of the ore deposit but in all cases this relationship shows a dramatic reduction in viscosity as a function of temperature increase especially in the range between 0 and 100 degrees centrigrade. As seen from FIG. 7b, raising the temperature of bitumen by 40 degrees, from 20 degrees centigrade to 60 degrees centigrade results in viscosity reduction from about 470,000 cp to about 4,000 cp representing two orders of magnitude of viscosity reduction. In many cases, even a ten or twenty degree increase in bitumen temperature in the confined space is sufficient to simplify bitumen removal from the cable wraps.
FIG. 8a shows a method for heating with live steam bitumen captured by endless cable wraps prior to removal of bitumen from the wraps for a vertical or nearly vertical cable flight. It is similar to FIG. 7a in which couete flow causes bitumen 801 on the cable wraps 802 to enter the enclosure 803 in the direction shown Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada by the arrow 814. After entry into the enclosure, the enclosure walls collect bitumen to form a cold zone 804 where viscous bitumen comes in contact with stationary enclosure walls and flows upward at an average velocity that is less than the upward velocity of the cable wraps 802 and thus forms a plug of viscous bitumen that prevents the downward flow of low viscosity bitumen from a hot zone 807 that has been heated by steam 805 sparged into the hot zones through the walls of the enclosure 803 directly into the hot zone or in a mixing or heating chamber 806 where steam mixes with bitumen before the heated bitumen flows into the hot zone.
Bitumen flowing from the cold zone into the hot zone due to couette flow, and the entry of condensing steam into the hot zone forces bitumen out of the hot zone through outlet 808 to then flow by gravity into bitumen product receiver 812 from where it is removed as a warm bitumen product 813. A main roller 809 and a squeeze roller 810 may be used to squeeze warm bitumen from cable wraps and cause this bitumen to flow into the bitumen receiver 813. Alternately, bitumen may be removed from the cable wraps by means of a set of two engaged combs illustrated in FIG. 8c,d and e. The enclosure may be insulated (not shown) to reduce heat loss and the walls of the enclosure may be made movable to make adjustments in the chamber dimensions to accommodate any desired flow and accumulation of cold bitumen into the enclosure without spillage. Furthermore, the movement of these walls may be done under process control based on the amount of bitumen accumulating in the cold zone.

When live steam at 15 psig (about 100 kPag) is used for heating of viscous bitumen from 30 degrees centigrade to 80 degrees centigrade in the confined path of FIG. 7a or 8a about 1 kg of steam is needed to heat about 20 kg of bitumen, resulting in a 125 fold change in bitumen product viscosity from 100,000 cp. to 800 cp., making bitumen removal from the cable wraps very easy but increasing the water content of the product by about 5%. In many cases such a drastic viscosity change is not needed to achieve effective removal of bitumen from the cable wraps, and only a five or ten fold reduction in bitumen viscosity may suffice, requiring less live steam and resulting in less condensed water in the product.

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada Other methods may be used to heat bitumen in a confined path without adding water to the bitumen product. This is illustrated in FIG. 8b where other sources of heating are used. As in FIG. 7a and 8a, bitumen 821 may be carried into a cold zone 822 of a confined path enclosure by revolving cable wraps and may flow into a hot zone 823 enclosed by a source of heat 824 which conducts heat into the hot zone 823.
The source of heat may be one or more steam coils, infrared heaters, electric resistance heating elements, high frequency induction coils, or microwave wave energy sources. Similar to the illustrations of FIG. 7a and 8a, reduced viscosity bitumen product flows from the hot zone into a bitumen product receiver 825 .
Warm bitumen may be removed by a set of rollers, for example, 826 and 827 and these rollers may be cooled or chilled to cool the cable wraps passing between such grooved rollers. Cooled or chilled rollers generally allow warm bitumen to flow away from the pinch point between cool rollers into bitumen receivers because of the low conduction of heat in bitumen. The very close contact between cool roller surfaces and warm cable wraps for a more extended time (see contact distance between wraps and roller 826 surface in FIG. 8b) tends to cool the wraps significantly but the removed bitumen remains relatively warm.
A set of combs may be used instead of, or in addition to, squeeze rollers to remove bitumen from the wraps. Such combs are illustrated in FIG. 8c, d and f.
One comb is illustrated in FIG. 8c consisting of a strip of wear resistant metal, high density polyethylene or other material which has been formed, cast, cut or milled with slots that are contoured at the root 850 to accept a round cable and with tines 851 that keep cable wraps spaced and aligned. As shown in FIG. 8e, when two such combs are placed over each other with the tines in opposite directions, the tines overlap in a region 853 of overlap while providing openings for cable wraps 852 to pass.
Most of the bitumen adhering to these cable wraps is scraped off the wraps by the overlapping combs. During operation the cable wraps will wear against the combs and deepen the slots due to abrasion but most or some of this wear can be accommodated by making the overlap of the combs adjustable to maintain close contact between cable wraps and the comb surfaces. Bitumen product scraped from cable wraps may flow into Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada DESIGN OF ENDLESS CABLE MULTIPLE WRAP
BITUMEN EXTRACTORS

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to Canadian patent application number 2,638,474 filed 6 August 2008 entitled "Isoelectric Separation of Oil Sands", Canadian patent application Number 2,6538,550 filed August 7, 2008 entitled "Hydrocyclone and Associated Methods", Canadian patent application number 2,638,551 filed August 7, 2008 entitled "Sinusoidal Mixing and Shearing Apparatus and Associated Methods", Canadian patent application number 2,638,596 filed August 6, 2008 entitled "Endless Cable System and Associated Methods", and Canadian patent application number 2,644,793 filed October 29, 2008 entitled "Electrophoresis of Tailings Sludge using Endless Cable Wraps"
FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to process devices and methods for separating aqueous mixtures containing oil sand bitumen and discloses apparatus design and process considerations for the recovery of bitumen from such mixtures.
Accordingly, the present invention involves the fields of process engineering, chemistry and chemical engineering.
As of the date of this filing, the present inventor has spent 34 rewarding and frustrating years of his professional life on the development of oleophilic sieve technology. Getting on in age he wishes to leave a record and teach to those after him an understanding of the great potential of this process for cost effective and environmentally responsible development of the Canadian oil sands. These oil sands Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada were placed here for a purpose. When properly developed this resource will yield more oil than any other world oil reserve and will be of great benefit to many in the years to come.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A detailed description of oil sands, tar sands or bituminous sands deposits and of the processing of these sands to produce bitumen is provided in the above referenced applications. In Northern Alberta, there presently are several commercial facilities, which extract bitumen from mined oil sands using the commercial Clark Hot Water Extraction Process. These are very large plants, some of them producing more than 300,000 barrels of oil products per day each.
In accordance with the first step of one commercial application of the Clark process, the oil sand is mixed with hot water, air and a small amount of "process aid"
(usually NaOH) to produce an aqueous slurry in which sand grains, fines, bitumen droplets and air bubbles are suspended in hot water. This slurry is then diluted with water and introduced into a thickener-like vessel known as a "PSV" or primary separation vessel where bitumen droplets, attached to air bubbles, rise to the top and are skimmed off as the "primary bitumen froth" product. Most of the coarse sand, together with water, some fines, some bitumen, some process aid, and some surfactants produced by reaction of process aid and oil sand, sink and leave the PSV
through a bottom outlet. This stream is referred to as "primary tailings". A
large portion of the fines and some non-buoyant bitumen collect in the mid section of the PSV contents. An aqueous drag stream from this middle zone, termed "middlings"
is withdrawn and introduced into a series of induced air flotation cells. Here the middlings are contacted with a flood of minute air bubbles. Bitumen particles of the middlings attach themselves to these air bubbles and cause bitumen to float to the top of the cells where the aerated bitumen is skimmed off as the "secondary bitumen froth" product. A tailings product, referred to as "secondary tailings", leaves from the Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada bottom outlet of the flotation cells. These secondary tailings comprise water, some fines, some bitumen, some process aid, and some surfactants.
The primary and secondary tailings are combined and discharged onto the shore of a large tailings pond. Here the coarse sand grains settle out and form a beach, leaving a mixture of bitumen and fine solids in water, process aid and surfactants. This mixture flows into the tailings pond where mineral fines, being negatively charged due to the presence of chemical process aid and surfactants, settle.
Some water is released and rises to the top of the tailings pond whilst the rest slowly settles towards the bottom of the pond to form a mineral fines structure somewhat like a house of cards with water trapped in between. This is known in the industry as "tailings pond sludge", "sludge" or "fine tails" and comprises fines, a large amount of water, some bitumen and small quantities of NaOH and surfactants. The mineral content of this sludge ranges from less than 10% to about 40% by weight, depending on the time that has passed since it was deposited into the pond. For example, the 40% solids containing sludge is mature sludge and has probably resided in the ponds for about 35 years. The volume of sludge so formed is huge, in the order of about 2.5 barrels of sludge for every barrel of bitumen produced.
Most of the process water used for Alberta mined oil sands development comes from the Athabasca river. According to Alberta government reports, 66%
of the assigned annual flow of this river is allocated to oil sands development.
By the year 2005 the annual amount of water used in the oil sands had reached 360 million cubic meters. Only 10% of that was returned to the river, leaving 324 million cubic meters of water accumulating that year into tailings ponds. Currently these tailings ponds occupy an area exceeding 50 square kilometer and this area is expected to triple in size in the next two decades with current projected expanded oil sands development. By the year 2005 a total of about 2,600 million barrels of bitumen had been produced from the oil sands, and this had resulted in 650 million cubic meters of tailings pond sludge. That is enough sludge to fill a ditch 10 meters deep, meters wide and 6500 kilometers long; further than from Victoria to Halifax, all the way across Canada The ponds are massive structures surrounded by dykes towering Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada over the local topography. It has been reported that large amounts of toxic water leak through these dykes and leave the ponds to flow into the environment.
Eventually all the tailings ponds will have to be reclaimed and the sludge cleaned up to restore each mine site to a condition similar to or better than before mining started, to provide a suitable natural habitat. For that reason it would be desirable that sludge solids deposited on the land at the end of an oil sand lease should contain as little water as possible to make the reclaimed land able to support the weight of a man, of a vehicle or to support animal life.
Considering that the Clark process has achieved less than 90% average bitumen recovery from mined oil sands since 1968, the total amount of bitumen stored in the tailings ponds to date exceeds 200 million barrels. Currently that is considered to be lost or discarded bitumen. Water from pond sludge can not be recycled to the Clark process unless its solids content is reduced to about 4%
by weight or less, and then fresh water from the Athabasca, containing essentially no solids, is mixed with this recycle water for use in the process. It is anticipated that at the end of each mined oil sands lease, a huge amount of toxic water will be left behind in end pit lakes because much of this water contains too much mineral to be recycled in the Clark process. Kruyer technology for extracting bitumen from mined oil sand slurries is much more tolerant of fines and can efficiently accommodate a process water recycle that contains about 10% solid fines by weight.
For processing oil sands, the Clark process uses at least two stages of bitumen flotation to recover sufficient bitumen to make the process commercially viable.
Caustic soda is required to enhance bitumen flotation by giving the oil sand fines a negative electrical charge so that these fines will repel each other, to thin the fluid in the separating vessels to allow bitumen droplets attached to air bubbles and rise to the top of these vessels fast enough to achieve the desired bitumen recovery within the allowable residence time. Normally during bitumen extraction, the allowable residence time for separation in the primary vessel (PSV) is about 30 to 60 minutes and in flotation cells is again about the same for a total residence time of about 70 to 100 minutes. Hence, bitumen froth flotation is a very slow process that requires large Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada amounts of heat, large amounts of fresh water, while producing vast amounts of toxic tailings that lock in large amounts of water for a very long time. The resulting tailings ponds take several years before any significant amount of clarified water can be recycled to the Clark process to reduce its fresh water demand.
When the tailings of a Clark process flow into a tailings pond, tailings sand and some fines are deposited on the beach of the pond and water rises to the top of the pond after the remaining fines collect into layers of sludge at a given depth in the pond. The net effect of the removal of sand and water from the tailings is that the percent bitumen content in the resulting sludge layers of the pond is about an order of magnitude greater than the bitumen content of the original tailings deposited at the shore of the pond. In essence, a tailings pond serves as a very large bitumen concentrator. In many cases, and over time, some of the bitumen particles disengage from the sludge layers and form bitumen mats that float inside the sludge layers.
Most of this bitumen was too heavy to float in the Clark process since it contains some captured solids. It floats inside the sludge and finds a level that is a function of its density with respect to the density of the sludge layers in the pond.
Recovering bitumen from tailings pond sludge by froth flotation is not viable since such flotation also brings up huge amounts of dispersed clay that are difficult to keep separate from the bitumen product. Bitumen flotation requires sludge dilution with water and the input of heat, air and chemicals to achieve any acceptable degree of bitumen froth recovery. Currently only the Kruyer process is able to economically recover bitumen from tailings pond sludge at the year round pond temperature of about 12 degrees C
without bringing up large quantities of clay and without the need for dilution water or chemicals.
From the above provided information it appears clearly advantageous to develop a better method of bitumen extraction from oil sands that can do the separation faster, that reduces the production of toxic sludge, which uses less fresh water, is more tolerant of fines in the process water and requires less energy for bitumen extraction. Pilot test work has confirmed that the Kruyer bitumen screening process can recover bitumen from mined oil sand slurries much faster than the Clark Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada process. It does not produce a sludge that is very toxic, it uses less fresh water and is more energy efficient, which computes into lower green house gas emissions.
Unlike the 70 plus minute residence time required by the Clark process for extracting bitumen, the Kruyer process is about an order of magnitude faster and takes between 2 and 10 minutes to achieve the same bitumen recovery yield. Therefore, when commercially implemented in due time this process is expected to significantly reduce the cost of producing a barrel of bitumen from oil sand ore with less damage to the environment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to improvements to the 34 year old Kruyer bitumen sieving process for bitumen recovery from streams that contain oil sand bitumen. Such streams include oil sand slurries, process streams of a commercial oil sands plant that contain bitumen, fresh tailings pond sludge and mature tailings pond sludge that has settled and compacted for a few decades.
Several of the original Kruyer patents were based on thin oleophilic apertured sieve (mesh) belts that were made from plastic, had cross members and were used to captured bitumen from bitumen containing streams, such as oil sand slurries, middlings, tailings and tailings pond sludge. These mesh belts worked well in the pilot plant and confirmed the merits of Kruyer technology but did not last more than a few weeks of continuous operation. Residence times, bitumen recovery yield, operating temperature, water requirements and energy demands could be established accurately but long duration testing was not possible with these belts.
More rugged metal belts were subsequently tried as substitutes for the above mesh belts. The metal belts consisted of multiple pre-punched strips of metal bent into a truncated sinusoidal shapes. Cross rods were passed through the punched holes in these sinusoidal strips to allow these strips and rods to act like a multitude of sequentially joined hinges to form strong flexible conveyor belts.
Alternately, metal coils were used as multiple hinges by the use of cross rods that joined succeeding Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada coils to make long belts that were flexible and very strong and long lasting.
Both the strip type and the coil type of metal belts are standard belts used for commercial conveyors in bottling plants and in a large variety of other warehouse and plant operations that require conveyance of goods or components. These belts are much more rugged than mesh belts and would have stood up well for long duration testing in abrasive environments; but these belts were too thick for effective bitumen extraction from oil sand streams. It turned out that these belts could capture bitumen from the feed mixture streams but would not effectively release the captured bitumen quickly enough to produce a good quality bitumen product, and would tend to entrap too much undesirable solids and water in the bitumen product. This was further aggravated when bitumen in the feed stream contained entrapped air.
Based on that prior experience, much time and research was then devoted to the development of relatively thin apertured oleophilic belts that were very rugged and long lasting but yet were very flexible and would capture bitumen efficiently from a bitumen containing stream in separation zones and would quickly release this bitumen in bitumen removal zones. This was done to foster commercial development of bitumen extraction apparatus and methods that would allow efficient bitumen extraction from oil sand streams using very short residence times. Such development was encouraged by the prior pilot plant discovery that screening bitumen from a mixture with an oleophilic sieve or oleophilic apertured screen was much faster than froth flotation of bitumen in a settling vessel. In other words, the required apparatus residence of a mixture for bitumen sieving had turned out to be much shorter than the apparatus residence time required for bitumen froth flotation. As a result of these findings, a suitable oleophilic apertured belt was developed that used an endless cable wrapped multiple times around two or more revolving grooved rollers to form a sieve or apertured screen. The wraps of such endless cables were designed to collect bitumen from a bitumen containing aqueous mixture, allowing the resulting bitumen reduced mixture to flow through the slits or apertures between sequential wraps to become the tailings of separation.

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada Steel cables and multi strand ropes are in common use in industry, are strong, flexible and abrasion resistant, generally are oleophilic and have performed well during long operation cycles in many applications. As thus described, my research has resulted in the development of a new art by making these endless cables take the form of oleophilic sieves or apertured screens in which the cable wraps are oleophilic to capture bitumen and in which the spaces between the cable wraps become the apertures for the passage of bitumen reduced tailings. The size and construction of the cable, rope or wire for the multi wrap apertured screen can be selected for optimum strength and flexibility. The wraps can be suitably spaced to form the desired aperture width and allow the separating mixture to pass through these apertures after bitumen has been captured from the mixture by the oleophilic wraps. In this new art, guide rollers are provided which redirect the last wrap from one edge of the rollers to the other edge of the rollers to seamlessly become the first wrap, and prevent the cable, rope or wire from running off the rollers, etc. The resulting apertured oleophilic endless belt or sieve does not have cross members and this makes the rapid removal of bitumen easy to accomplish by the use of combs or squeeze rollers.
In contrast, cross members prevent the use of combs and require wider space between two rollers to allow the passage of belt cross members, making bitumen squeezing less effective. In the case of multiple cable wraps without cross members, grooves in one or both rollers provide for convenient passage of cable wraps between the roller surfaces while leaving minimal room for the passage of bitumen past the rollers. An isometric drawing of a multiwrap cable belt is shown in FIG. 1 and this belt is disclosed and claimed in detail in co-pending Canadian patent application number 2,638,596 filed August 6, 2008 entitled "Endless Cable System and Associated Methods". The concept of a revolving endless cable belt with multiple wraps has application in many fields of separation technology described in the above referenced patent applications. One specific application is disclosed in co-pending Canadian patent application entitled "Electrophoresis of Tailings Sludge using Endless Cable Wraps", filed October 29, 2008. In this application a DC current is used to separate Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada solids from tailings pond sludge using a revolving endless cable sieve, screen or belt without cross members.
Squeezing or combing bitumen from cable wraps removes most of the bitumen and yet leaves a thin layer of bitumen on the wraps at all times.
Eliminating cross members and using endless ropes or wire ropes with multiple wraps also facilitates the heating of captured bitumen on the wraps to reduce the viscosity of this bitumen for subsequent removal by combs or by cooled squeeze rollers in a bitumen removal zone. Cooling one or both rollers immediately after bitumen removal tends to cool down the bitumen-reduced wraps and can improve subsequent bitumen capture by the wraps in a separation zone As thus described, the new concept of apertured multi wrap endless cable belts is opening up a whole new area of separations engineering such as in the separation of mixtures by size, by magnetic attraction, by electrical attraction or repulsion by direct voltage, or particle vibration by alternating voltage, or of many other types of separation. It also provides a fertile field for technology development devoted to the preparation of mixtures for such separations. Applications suitable for use in these field are disclosed in several filed co-pending patent applications referenced above at the beginning of this application. These are further detailed in this present application, which teaches and gives guidance to apparatus design, applications and methods for using the endless cable belt concept for bitumen recovery from streams containing bitumen.

There have thus been outlined rather broadly, the pertinent features of the invention so that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and so that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.
While the focus of this disclosure is on the separation of bitumen from oil sand slurries and from tailings pond sludge, the instant invention has application in the separation of bitumen from any aqueous stream that contains bitumen or that contains any other type of oleophilic liquid, liquid particulates or oil wetted solids particles.
Other features of the present invention will become clearer from the following Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada detailed description of the invention, taken with the accompanying claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. Ia is an isometric drawing of a very basic endless wire rope or cable with wraps that form a screen described in the above referenced co-pending patent application entitled: "Endless Cable System and Associated Methods".
FIG. 2a is a schematic drawing of a sloping endless cable belt for bitumen capture and removal using 6 separation zones and 6 bitumen removal zones.
While this is not shown in the drawing, the tailings from one zone may be used as the mixture feed for another zone if more than one stage of separation is desired.
FIG. 2b is a schematic drawing of a sloping endless cable belt for bitumen capture and removal using 2 separation zones and 2 bitumen removal zones, one separation zone and one bitumen removal zone along the top flight, and one separation zone and one bitumen removal zone along the bottom flight, wherein the mixture to be separated is provided from a distributor above the top flight and from a distributor above the bottom flight.
FIG. 2c is a smaller scale isometric drawing of the rollers and of the endless cable belt of FIG. 2b providing a perspective view to provide more detail for the methods of FIG. 2b and FIG. 2d FIG. 2d is similar to FIG. 2b in providing 2 separation zones and 2 bitumen removal zones but in this case the tailings from the top flight flow into an agglomerator wherein residual bitumen particles of these tailings are increased in size before flowing to the bottom flight for capture by the endless cable belt along the bottom flight. Alternately a distributor may be used instead of an agglomerator above the bottom flight to provide two stage separation without agglomeration.
FIG. 3a is a schematic drawing of an multi wrap endless cable belt for separations using a sloping top flight for bitumen capture and removal, and a bottom Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada flight which supports an agglomerator for residual bitumen particle enlargement, followed by bitumen capture and removal by the bottom flight.
FIG 3b is an isometric drawing of the endless cable wraps and the three support rollers of FIG. 3a.
FIG. 4a to 4e provide details for the construction of an agglomerator and for roller support.
FIG. 4a is a small scale isometric drawing of the main central shaft of the drum of FIG. 4b, using a heavy wall pipe to provide the required core strength for the drum. Since the drum has an apertured cylindrical wall, and may be partly filled with heavy balls, a strong core is needed to support the cylindrical drum wall with tie bars or baffles and prevent deformation of the apertured wall under the weight of the balls.
FIG. 4b is as cross sectional drawing of suitable internals for an agglomerator drum.
FIG. 4c is an internal cross sectional view of an agglomerator drum through section A-A of FIG. 4b but not showing the support brackets between pipe core and cylindrical drum wall. The drum is partly filled with steel and plastic or rubber balls for agglomeration of bitumen from the mixture prior to separation.
FIG. 4d is an internal cross sectional view of an agglomerator drum through section A-A of FIG. 4b completely filled with light oleophilic tower packings.
FIG. 4e shown at the top of the page, is a detail showing brackets for mounting two rollers; one roller to support the endless cable wraps and the other to support a squeeze roller for removing bitumen from the endless cable wraps.
FIG. 5a to 5e provide additional details for the construction of an agglomerator drum.
FIG. 5a is an isometric drawing of an agglomerator drum for supporting endless cable wraps.
FIG. 5b is an internal sectional view of the agglomerator showing the shaft, a support pipe, support brackets, drum wall and the location of the notched bars in the cylindrical drum wall that keep the cable wraps in proper alignment.

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada FIG. 5c is an enlarged detail drawing of a section of the agglomerator drum wall showing notched bars mounted in the drum wall.
FIG. 5d is a detail drawing of a typical notched bar.
FIG. 5e is an alternate design of a notched bar.
FIG. 6a to 6b show two agglomerator drums supporting endless cable multiple wraps. In this case the endless cable screen is supported by an agglomerator drum along the top flight and also by an agglomerator drum along the bottom flight.
FIG. 6a shows a cross sectional internal view of the two agglomerator drums and shows the path of endless cable wraps over the cylindrical drum walls and over bitumen removal rollers.
FIG. 6b shows a side view of FIG. 6a.
FIG. 7a shows a method for inclined endless cable wraps to heat with live steam bitumen captured by the wraps prior to removal of bitumen from the wraps.
FIG. 7b shows a graph of viscosity as a function of temperature for a typical Athabasca bitumen, showing the dramatic change in viscosity that occurs when bitumen is heated even a few degrees, especially in the range between 10 and degrees centigrade.
FIG. 8a shows a method for heating with live steam bitumen captured by endless cable wraps prior to removal of bitumen from the wraps for a vertical or nearly vertical cable flight.
FIG. 8b shows a method for heating bitumen captured by cable wraps prior to removal of bitumen from the wraps. The method for heating may be in or on a confined path enclosure using condensing steam chambers, steam coils, electrical heating elements, induction heating elements, microwave energy, or infrared energy.
The Figures and text of the endless cable belt are described herein in detail for an endless cable that is wrapped multiple times around rollers to form a sieve or screen for separation purposes. For such a multiple wrap cable, a cable guide or guide rollers are required to keep the endless cable from running off the rollers.
However, a similar sieve or screen may be formed from a multitude of single wrap endless cables supported side by side on rollers to achieve the same purposes Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada described herein for an endless cable with multiple wraps. In the case of single wrap cables, however, guides or guide rollers are not needed to keep the cables from running off the rollers but only combs or roller grooves are required to keep the single wraps properly aligned.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Before the present invention is disclosed and described, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the particular structures, process steps, or materials disclosed herein, but is extended to equivalents thereof as would be recognized by those ordinarily skilled in the relevant arts. It should also be understood that terminology employed herein is used for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting It must be noted that, as used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a splice"
includes one or more of such splices, reference to "an endless cable" includes reference to one or more of such endless cables, and reference to "the material" includes reference to one or more of such materials.

Definitions In describing and claiming the present invention, the following terminology will be used in accordance with the definitions set forth below. When reference is made to a given terminology in several definitions, these references should be considered to augment or support each other or shed additional light.
"agglomeration" refers to increasing the size of bitumen particle in an aqueous mixture by means of an agglomeration drum prior to the removal of enlarged bitumen particles from the mixture by oleophilic apertured wall, sieve, screen, belt or cable wraps.

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada "agglomeration drum" refers to a drum containing oleophilic surfaces that is used to increase the particle size of bitumen particles in oil sand mixtures prior to separation. Bitumen particles flowing through the interior of said drum come in contact with oleophilic surfaces and adhere thereto to form a layer of bitumen of increasing thickness until the layer becomes so thick that shear from mixture flowing through the revolving drum causes a portion of the bitumen layer to slough off, resulting in bitumen particles that are larger than the original bitumen particles of the mixture. When a bed of oleophilic balls is used in the drum, these balls agglomerate the bitumen but also kneed the collected bitumen. This kneeding normally does not occur when tower packings are used in the drum.
"oleophilic apertured wall" refers to oleophilic sieve, to oleophilic apertured screen, to drum with oleophilic apertured cylindrical wall or to oleophilic endless rope or wire rope cable formed into an apertured oleophilic belt by means of wrapping the cable multiple times around two or more rollers or drums. When using oleophilic apertured walls to separate bitumen from an aqueous mixture, water and suspended hydrophilic solids pass through the apertures of the walls or through the slits between sequential wraps of the oleophilic endless cable, whilst bitumen and oleophilic solids are captured by the oleophilic wall surfaces or cable wraps.
The captured bitumen and oleophilic solids are subsequently removed from these surfaces, along with some entrained water and entrained hydrophilic solids to become the bitumen product of separation.
"bitumen" refers to a viscous hydrocarbon that contains maltenes and asphaltenes and is found originally in oil sand ore interstitially between sand grains.
Maltenes generally represent the liquid portion of bitumen in which asphaltenes of extremely small size are thought to be dissolved or dispersed. Asphaltenes contain the bulk of the metals of bitumen and probably give bitumen its high viscosity. In a typical oil sands plant, there are many different streams that may contain bitumen that has disengaged from the sand grains. These streams may but do not have to contain sand grains.

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada "bitumen recovery" or "bitumen recovery yield" refers to the percentage of bitumen removed from an original mixture or composition. Therefore, in a simplified example, a 100 kg mixture containing 45 kg of water and 40 kg of bitumen where kg of bitumen out of the 40 kg is removed, the bitumen recovery or recovery yield would be a 95%.
"cable" refers to a non metalic rope, a metal wire rope, a single wire, a monofilament or a multistrand filament rope.
cable wraps" refers to the wraps of endless cable wrapped around two or more rollers where the spaces between sequential cable wraps form apertures through which aqueous phase can pass, giving up some or most of its bitumen content as it passes through the apertures.
"central location" refers to a location that is not at the periphery. In the case of a pipe, a central location is a location that is neither at the beginning of the pipe nor at the end point of the pipe and is sufficiently remote from either end to achieve a desired effect, e.g. washing, slurry preparation, disruption of agglomerated materials, heating of bitumen on cable wraps, etc.
"conditioning" in reference to mined oil sand is consistent with conventional usage and refers to mixing a mined oil sand with water, air and caustic soda to produce a warm or hot slurry of oversize material, coarse sand, silt, clay and aerated bitumen suitable for recovering bitumen froth from said slurry by means of froth flotation. Such mixing can be done in a conditioning drum or tumbler or, alternatively, the mixing can be done as it enters into a slurry pipeline and/or while in transport in the slurry pipeline. Conditioning aerates the bitumen for subsequent recovery in separation vessels by flotation. Likewise, referring to a composition as "conditioned" indicates that the composition has been subjected to such a conditioning process.
"confined" refers to a state of substantial enclosure. A path of fluid may be confined if the path is, e.g., walled or blocked on a plurality of sides, such that there is an inlet and an outlet, and the flow is controlled to some degree by the shape of the Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada confining material, enclosure or housing. Confined path refers to a path that is confined by an enclosure.
"couette flow" refers to laminar flow of a viscous fluid in the space between two or more parallel or nearly parallel surfaces, one of which is moving relative to the other surfaces which are stationary. The flow is driven by virtue of viscous drag force acting on the fluid due to the moving surface, in cooperation with or against any pressure gradient parallel to the surfaces. Couette flow illustrates shear-driven fluid motion. In the present invention the moving surface may be multiple cable wraps and the stationary surfaces may be the sides of a confined path enclosure.
Revolving endless cable wraps coated with bitumen passing through a confined path may cause couette flow of bitumen due to the movement of the endless cable wraps relative to the stationary walls of the enclosure. The stationary walls may slow down the flow of viscous bitumen through the confined path and allow the accumulation of viscous bitumen to partly or completely fill a cross section of the enclosure.
"cylindrical" indicates a generally elongated shape having a circular cross-section. Therefore, cylindrical includes cylinders, conical shapes, and combinations thereof. The elongated shape has a length referred herein also as a depth as calculated from a defined top or side wall.
"endless cable" or "endless wire rope" is used in this disclosure to refer to a cable having no beginning or end, but rather the beginning merges into an end and vice-versa, to create an endless or continuous cable. The endless cable can be, e.g., a wire rope, a non metallic rope, a carbon fiber rope, a single wire, compound filament or a monofilament which is spliced together to form a continuous loop, e.g. by a long splice, by several long splices, or by welding or by adhesion.
"enlarged bitumen" refers to bitumen particles that have been agglomerated in an agomerating drum to form enlarged bitumen particles or bitumen fluid streamers for subsequent capture by cable wraps.
"fluid" refers to flowable matter. Fluids, as used in the present invention typically include a liquid, gas, and/or flowable particulate solids, and may optionally further include amounts of solids and/or gases dispersed therein. As such, fluid Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada specifically includes slurries or mixtures (liquid with solid particulate), flowable dry solids, aerated liquids, gases, and combinations of two or more fluids. In describing certain embodiments, the terms sludge, slurry, mixture, mixture fluid and fluid are used interchangeably, unless explicitly stated to the contrary.
"long splice" refers to a splice used in the marine and in the elevator industry to join the ends of ropes, wire ropes or cables to increase the available length of such ropes or cables or to make them endless while providing good strength in the rope or cable at the splice. The diameter of the rope or cable at a long splice normally is not much larger than the average diameter of the rope or cable itself.
"metallic" refers to both metals and metalloids. Metals include those compounds typically considered metals found within the transition metals, alkali and alkali earth metals. Examples of metals are Ag, Au, Cu, Al, and Fe. Metalloids include specifically Si, B, Ge, Sb, As, and Te. Metallic materials also include alloys or mixtures that include metallic materials. Such alloys or mixtures may further include additional additives.
"multiple wrap endless cable" as used in reference to separations processing refers to a revolvable endless cable that is wrapped around two or more drums and/or rollers a multitude of times to form an endless belt having spaced cables.
Proper movement of the endless belt can be facilitated by at least two guide rollers or guides that prevent the cable from rolling off an edge of the drum or roller and guide the cable back to the opposite end of the same or other drum or roller. Apertures of the endless belt are formed by the slits, spaces or gaps between sequential wraps.
The endless cable can be a single wire , a wire rope, a plastic rope, a compound filament or a monofilament which is spliced together to form a continuous loop, e.g. by splicing, welding, etc. As a general guideline, the diameter of the endless cable can be as large as 3 cm and as small as 0.01 cm or any size in between, although other sizes might be suitable for some applications. Very small diameter endless cables would normally be used for small separation equipment and large diameter cables for large separating equipment. A multiwrap endless cable belt may be formed by wrapping the endless cable multiple times around two or more rollers. The wrapping is done in Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada such a manner as to minimize twisting of and stresses in the individual strands of the endless cable. An oleophilic endless cable belt is a cable belt made from a material that is oleophilic under the conditions at which it operates.
"oleophilic" as used in these specifications refers to bitumen attracting.
Most dry surfaces are bitumen attracting or can be made to be bitumen attracting. A
plastic rope, or a metal wire rope normally is bitumen attracting and will capture bitumen upon contact unless the rope is coated with a bitumen repelling coating. A
plastic rope or metal wire rope that is coated with a thin layer of bitumen normally is oleophilic or bitumen attracting since this layer of bitumen will capture additional bitumen upon contact. A plastic rope or metal wire rope will not attract bitumen when it is coated with light oil since the low viscosity of the light oil will not provide adequate stickiness for the adhesion of bitumen to the rope. Similarly, a rope covered with a thin layer of hot bitumen will not be very oleophilic until the thin layer of bitumen has cooled down sufficiently to allow bitumen adhesion to the rope under the conditions of the claimed methods.
"oversize solids" refers to any solids that are larger in size than the linear distance between adjacent cable wrap surfaces and preferably refers to any solids that are larger than 50% of the linear distance between adjacent cable wrap surfaces.
Such solids tend to be abrasive and may cause damage to the wraps.
"residence time" refers to the time span taken for a mixture to leave a process, a vessel or an apparatus after it has entered the process, vessel or apparatus. It is assumed that during this time span the desired separation or processing has been achieved.
"recovery" and "removal" of bitumen as used herein have a somewhat similar meaning. Bitumen recovery generally refers to the recovery of bitumen from a bitumen containing mixture and bitumen removal generally refers to the removal of adhering bitumen from cable wraps of an endless cable. Bitumen is recovered from a mixture by an oleophilic sieve when bitumen is "captured" by cable wraps in a separation zone and adheres to the wraps. Bitumen is stripped or removed from cable Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada wraps in a bitumen removal zone. A bitumen recovery apparatus is an apparatus that recovers bitumen from a mixture.

"retained on" refers to association primarily via simple mechanical forces, e.g. a particle lying on a gap between two or more cables. In contrast, the term "retained by" refers to association primarily via active adherence of one item to another, e.g. retaining of bitumen by an oleophilic cable. In some cases, a material may be both retained on and retained by cable wraps.

"roller" indicates a revolvable cylindrical member or a drum, and such terms are used interchangeably herein.
"screen" refers to an apertured wall, sieve or cable belt. Apertures of a wall, of a screen or of a sieve are the holes or slits through which aqueous phase can pass.
"sieve" refers to an apertured wall and is used interchangeably with "screen".
"single wrap endless cable" refers to an endless cable which is wrapped around two or more cylindrical members in a single pass, i.e. contacting each roller or drum only once. Single wrap endless cables do not require a guide or guide rollers to keep them aligned on the support rollers but may need methods to provide cable tension for each wrap when sequential cable wraps are of different lengths.
Single wrap endless cables may serve the same purpose as multiple wrap endless cables for separations. When multiple wrap endless cables are specified, single wrap endless cables may be used in stead unless specifically excluded.
"sludge" as used herein refers to any mixture of fine solids in water and usually contains bitumen. In describing or claiming certain embodiments, the term sludge and mixture are used interchangeably, unless explicitly stated to the contrary.
In the oil sands industry, sludge is a term normally reserved for a mixture of bitumen and dispersed solids in a continuous water phase in a mined oil sands tailings pond and is sometimes referred to as "fine tails".
"slurry" as used herein refers to a mixture of solid particulates and bitumen particulates or droplets in a continuous water phase It normally is used to describe an oil sand ore that has been or is in the process of being digested with water to disengage bitumen from sand grains.

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada "sparging" or "sparged" as used herein refers to the introduction of a gas, such as steam or other gas under pressure into bitumen or into a bitumen containing mixture through tubes, pipes, enclosure openings, perforated pipes or porous pipes.
The type of gas used for sparging normally is described in the specifications.
When steam is the sparging gas it is generally used to increase the temperature of bitumen to reduce its viscosity. Live steam may also serve to both heat bitumen and to add water to bitumen.
"substantially" refers to the complete or nearly complete extent or degree of an action, characteristic, property, state, structure, item, or result. For example, an object that is "substantially" enclosed would mean that the object is either completely enclosed or nearly completely enclosed. The exact allowable degree of deviation from absolute completeness may in some cases depend on the specific context.
However, generally speaking the nearness of completion will be so as to have the same overall result as if absolute and total completion were obtained. The use of "substantially" is equally applicable when used in a negative connotation to refer to the complete or near complete lack of an action, characteristic, property, state, structure, item, or result.
"velocity" as used herein is consistent with a physics-based definition;
specifically, velocity is speed having a particular direction. As such, the magnitude of velocity is speed. Velocity further includes a direction. When the velocity component is said to alter, that indicates that the bulk directional vector of velocity acting on an object in the fluid stream (liquid particle, solid particle, etc.) is not constant. Spiraling or helical flow-patterns in a conduit are specifically defined to have changing bulk directional velocity.
"wrapped" or "wrap" in relation to a wire, rope or cable wrapping around an object indicates an extended amount of contact. Wrapping does not necessarily indicate full or near-full encompassing of the object.
As used herein, a plurality of components may be presented in a common list for convenience. However, these lists should be construed as though each member of the list is individually identified as a separate and unique member. Thus, no Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada individual member of such list should be construed as a de facto equivalent of any other member of the same list solely based on their presentation in a common group without indications to the contrary.
Concentrations, amounts, volumes, and other numerical data may be expressed or presented herein in a range format. It is to be understood that such a range format is used merely for convenience and brevity and thus should be interpreted flexibly to include not only the numerical values explicitly recited as the limits of the range, but also to include all the individual numerical values or sub-ranges encompassed within that range as if each numerical value and sub-range is explicitly recited. As an illustration, a numerical range of "about 1 inch to about 5 inches" should be interpreted to include not only the explicitly recited values of about 1 inch to about 5 inches, but also include individual values and sub-ranges within the indicated range. Thus, included in this numerical range are individual values such as 2, 3, and 4 and sub-ranges such as from 1-3, from 2-4, and from 3-5, etc. This same principle applies to ranges reciting only one approximate numerical value.
Furthermore, such an interpretation should apply regardless of the breadth of the range or the characteristics being described.
Bold headings in the present disclosure are provided for convenience only.
OIL SAND SLURRIES

Oil sand slurries are produced from mined oil sand ores by mixing water with oil sand ore and thoroughly agitating this mixture. In the Clark process this is called "conditioning" which refers to the addition of hot water and caustic soda to the ore to disengage bitumen droplets from the sand grains, as the mixture is tumbled in a drum and captures and disperses air to form aerated slurry. The slurry is next flooded with warm water and then is separated by froth flotation. Alternately a cyclo-feeder is used to introduce oil sand and water into a slurry pipeline where the ore, mixed with warm water and caustic soda in a vortex also traps air. The mixture then flows through the pipeline to further "condition" the slurry by turbulent vortices, after Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada which the slurry is separated into bitumen froth and tailings by the Clark process. Air can also be added to the slurry along the pipeline to encourage the adhesion of bitumen droplets to air bubbles for ease of subsequent froth flotation. When a conditioning drum is used, oversize material is removed from the drum before the slurry is sent to bitumen extraction in the Clark process. When a cyclo-feeder is used, the oil sand ore is first crushed before it enters the cyclo-feeder and slurry pipeline, and may also be screened before it enters the pipeline.
In the Kruyer process, slurry preparation is carried out in a different procedure. Bitumen may be disengaged from the oil sand ore in a tumbler by mixing warm water with oil sand ore followed by oversize removal before capture and recovery of bitumen. Major differences are that caustic soda is used more sparingly or not at all for commercial grade oil sand ore, the water content of the slurry in the drum usually is higher and none or less air is mixed in with the slurry. This results in almost no air being trapped in the slurry leaving the tumbler. The reduction or elimination of supplied air results in a bitumen product of the subsequent separation by an oleophilic apertured wall that is not froth but is a free flowing liquid.
In the Kruyer process, slurry preparation may also be done without the use of a drum. In that case, crushed oil sand ore is mixed with warm water and is introduced into a pipeline. Part of this pipeline may consist of a serpentine pipe. Such a serpentine pipe is disclosed in co-pending patent application entitled "Sinusoidal Mixing and Shearing Apparatus and Associated Methods". In the serpentine pipe the solids of the slurry rapidly swing back and forth through the flowing liquid of the slurry and impact the pipe wall repeatedly, causing a thorough mixing of the slurry and the breaking up of undigested oil sand ore. The digested slurry is then passed through a hydrocyclone that uses a confined helical path in the form of a pipe coil or pipe spiral in advance of the main hydrocyclone vessel. From this vessel, coarse sand and larger oversize mixed with water leaves through the underflow to disposal and fine particulates and bitumen suspended in water leave through the overflow to bitumen extraction by an oleophilic screen or sieve. Small amounts of water and/or gas may be introduced into the coarse solids stream by jets along the outer wall of the Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada curving confined path to encourage bitumen to migrate out of the coarse particulates to subsequently report to the overflow. The resulting overflow is low in coarse solids and is readily separated by a sieve formed by oleophilic wraps of an endless cable. A
detailed description of the hydrocyclone is provided in co-pending patent application entitled "Hydrocyclone and Associated Methods". The oleophilic apertured belt and its operation are described in detail in co-pending patent application entitled "Endless Cable System and Associated Methods". Normally the mixture temperature for separation does not exceed 70 degrees centigrade and often the mixture separation is carried out at temperatures below 40 degrees centigrade. If a very low separation temperature is desired, well below 30 degrees centigrade, a hydrocarbon diluent may be added to the oil sand ore in small quantities to reduce the viscosity of bitumen in the slurry to aid in the disengagement of bitumen from the sand grains as the ore flows in the drum or in the pipeline. This diluent may be one or more of the group consisting of natural gas condensate, propane, butane, pentane, other alkane, diesel fuel, kerosene, jet fuel or naphtha.
Removal of bitumen from the wraps of an endless cable may be done by squeeze rollers, scrapers or combs at the separating mixture temperature, or bitumen removal may be done at elevated temperatures through heating the captured bitumen after leaving the separation zone(s) while still on the cable wraps. Such heating is described in detail with Figures 7 and 8.

MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. I a is an isometric drawing of an endless wire rope screen described in the above referenced co-pending patent application entitled: "Endless Cable System and Associated Methods". It shows two rollers, supported in bearings, covered by a multitude of wraps of an endless cable to form an apertured screen or sieve without cross members. The screen apertures are formed by the spaces between the wraps. A
guide or two guide rollers direct the last wrap and cause it to flow seamlessly into the first wrap to prevent the cable from revolving off the rollers. The bottom right one of Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada the two rollers is provided with a drive to revolve the screen. The screen of this and succeeding Figures may contain sufficient wraps to achieve the desired objective of separation of a mixture. Normally the number of wraps will exceed 10 and may amount to many hundreds of wraps depending on the desired apparatus design.
FIG. 2 represent schematic drawings of endless cable belt screens or sieves for bitumen capture and removal that use both a sloping top flight and a sloping bottom flight. FIG. 2a uses 6 separation zones and six bitumen removal zones. The cable belt is sloping to take advantage of the difference in viscosity between bitumen and water and also to take advantage of adhesion of bitumen to oleophilic cable wrap surfaces and the general lack of adhesion of aqueous phase of a mixture to such cable wrap surfaces. Mixture to be separated flows from containers 210, 220, 230, 240, 250 and 260 above the separation zones 211, 221, 231, 241, 251 and 261 of the screen 200 moving in the direction shown by the arrow 201. Tailings of the separation, containing water, particulate solids and a small amount of bitumen flow into the tailings receptacles 212, 222, 232, 242, 252, and 262. The screen is supported by support rollers 213, 223, 233, 243, 253, and 263 and squeeze rollers 214, 224, 234, 244, 254, and 264 that press against these support rollers. At every separation zone, bitumen is captured by the surfaces of the belt 200 cable wraps and is conveyed upward to encounter a support roller and a squeeze roller, which squeeze the captured bitumen from the cable wraps into bitumen receivers 215, 225, 235, 245, 255, and 265. Water and hydrophilic particulate solids generally do not adhere to oleophilic cable wraps but flow downward over the screen, or at least move at a lower velocity than the screen 200 in each separation zone until this aqueous phase encounters open apertures that allow it to flow through the open apertures between the cable wraps into the tailings receivers. Since separation is never perfect, the bitumen product removed from the wraps, and collecting in the bitumen receivers, will contain some water and hydrophilic solids. Similarly, the aqueous phase tailings will contain some residual amount of bitumen. Hence, placing the cable screen at an angle, as shown in FIG. 2a results in more effective separation of the bitumen phase from the aqueous phase. Bitumen phase captured by the cable wraps moves at Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada essentially the same velocity as the cable wraps, whereas aqueous phase tends to flow along the cable wraps at a slower velocity than the wraps, or in some cases in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of the wraps, depending on the slope of the belt in the separation zone. Complete blinding of the screen by bitumen is thereby eliminated. The resulting bitumen product contains a lower amount of carry-over of aqueous phase, since aqueous phase can rapidly move through the spaces between cable wraps not filled with captured bitumen instead of being carried for some distance on top of bitumen conveyed by cable wraps. The angle of incline of the cable wrap screen in separation zones may be selected for optimum separation and will be determined by the type of mixture to be separated, the velocity of the endless screen and the flow rate of mixture to be separated. The high viscosity bitumen captured by wraps of the endless screen is not affected much by the downward pull of gravity and moves upward at about the same velocity as the screen.
However, the aqueous phase has a much lower viscosity and will tend to flow slower or against the movement of the screen if the angle of incline, or slope, of the wire rope screen in the separation zones is steep enough. A suitable angle of positive incline of the screen may be between 3 and 45 degrees or between 5 and 15 degrees depending upon the type of mixture to be separated and the desired equipment design.
An additional support roller 202 is used for FIG. 2a to allow both the top flight and the bottom flight to be inclined in the direction of screen movement. Both top flight and bottom flight contain separation zones and bitumen removal zones. In this Figure the screen formed by the wraps of the endless cable would normally show, in end view, as a solid line supported by drum and rollers, but here it is shown as a thick dashed line to convey the concept that the screen, while formed from wraps of a cable is apertured since the spaces between the wraps are the apertures.
FIG. 2b is a schematic drawing of an endless cable belt with sloping top flight and sloping bottom flight for bitumen capture and removal using 2 separation zones (bitumen capture zones) and 2 bitumen removal zones wherein the mixture to be separated is provided from a distributor along the top flight and from a distributor along the bottom flight. The endless cable belt has a top flight 266 and a bottom flight Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada 267 and is supported by three support rollers 268, 269 and 270 while two squeeze rollers 271 and 272 serve to remove bitumen from the endless cable wraps.
Roller 269 is used to achieve a positive incline for both the top flight and the bottom flight.
Bitumen product removed from the top flight flows into collection vessel 273 and bitumen product removed from the bottom flight flows into collection vessel 274.
Direction of movement of the endless cable belt is shown by arrows on the top flight 266 and on the bottom flight 267. The mixture 275 to be separated by the top flight flows into a distributor 276 with an apertured bottom, which distributes the mixture over the width of the endless cable belt. Bitumen captured by the top flight adheres to cable wraps and is removed by two rollers 268 and 271 or may be removed by other means, such as by combs or scrapers as described in co-pending patent application "Endless Cable System and Associated Methods". Tailings 277 from the top flight, having passed through the spaces between the cable wraps of the top flight 266 flow into a tailings receptacle 278 and are removed therefrom. A similar separation takes place along the bottom flight. Mixture 279 to be separated flows into a distributor 280 which distributes it over the width of the bottom flight 267 for the capture of bitumen from this mixture by cable wraps of the bottom flight.
Tailings 283 having passed through the spaces between cable wraps of the bottom flight are collected in a receiver or are directed by a baffle 284 to become the final tailings 285 of separation from the bottom flight. The bitumen captured from this mixture by the wraps of the bottom flight is removed by two rollers 270 and 272 or by other means described in the co-pending patent application referenced above. Jets of water 281 may be used to wash superficial solids from the captured bitumen and jets or currents of air 282 may be used to remove superficial water from the captured bitumen adhering to the cable wraps. Guide rollers are shown above roller 268 to illustrate that the last wrap of the endless cable flows seamlessly into the first wrap to keep the endless cable on the support rollers. For simplicity these guide rollers are not shown in FIG. 2c, which is an isometric drawing of small size of some elements of FIG. 2b Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada The slope or incline of a flight may vary depending on the mixture to be separated, on mixture temperature and on the desired separator design. It may be between 3 degrees and 45 degrees or may preferably be between 5 and 15 degrees upward in the direction of flight movement.
FIG. 2c is an isometric drawing of the rollers and of the endless cable belt of FIG. 2b. This drawing is provided to illustrate what the bare equipment elements of FIG. 2b would look like in perspective view.
FIG. 2d is similar to FIG. 2b in providing 2 separation zones and 2 bitumen removal zones, but in this case the initial tailings from the top flight flow into an agglomerator 291 wherein residual bitumen particles of the initial tailings are increased in size before flowing to the bottom flight for capture by the endless cable belt along the bottom flight. Alternately a distributor may be used along the bottom flight similar to the distributor 294 of the top flight, instead of an agglomerator 291 to provide two stage separation without agglomeration. FIG. 2d is similar to FIG.
2b in providing 2 separation zones and 2 bitumen removal zones but in the case of FIG. 2d the device has become a two stage separator in which tailings from the top flight become feed for separation by the bottom flight by flowing into an agglomerator wherein residual bitumen particles of these initial tailings, not captured by the top flight, are increased in size before flowing to the bottom flight for capture by the wraps of the endless cable belt along the bottom flight, resulting in final tailings that have passed through apertures of the bottom flight. Two support rollers 286 and 287 are provided, as well as two squeeze rollers 289 and 290. The left bottom roller (269 of FIG. 2b) is replaced by an agglomerator drum 291, which has an apertured cylindrical wall 292. For this two stage separator, the mixture 293 to be separated flows into a distributor 294 and from there passes to the top flight 295 where bitumen is captured by cable wraps as initial tailings flow through the spaces between the wraps. These initial tailings 296 are directed by a baffle 297 and flow into the agglomerator 291 through the apertured agglomerator wall 292 to contact oleophilic balls 298 or oleophilic tower packings to increase the particle size of the residual bitumen particles in these tailings and then flow to the bottom flight for capture of Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada residual bitumen by wraps of the bottom flight while the mixture passes through the spaces between cable wraps of the bottom flight to become the final tailings product 299 of separation.
There are many designs possible for using oleophilic cable wraps to achieve separation. In some cases the top flight may be inclined and the bottom flight may be wrapped around approximately half the cylindrical wall of an apertured agglomerator.
FIG. 3a is a schematic drawing of an endless cable belt for bitumen removal using a sloping top flight 313 for bitumen capture and removal, and a bottom flight supported by an agglomerator 319 for bitumen particle enlargement and subsequent capture and removal. Similar to FIG. 2a, b and d, the screen formed by wraps of the endless cable is shown in FIG. 3 as a thick dashed line to convey the concept that the screen, while formed from cable wraps is apertured since apertures are provided by the spaces between sequential wraps. Similar to FIG. 2d, the top flight of the screen is inclined but, in this case, the bottom flight is wrapped for about 180 degrees around an agglomerator drum 319 filled with a bed 321 of steel and/or plastic balls that tumble inside the drum 319. The agglomerator drum increases the particle size of bitumen particles in initial tailings not captured by the top flight. The drum causes enlarged bitumen particles to be captured by the bottom flight 328 before final tailings are removed from the process. The balls are oleophilic and capture and hold bitumen for a while, kneed the bitumen due to the ball movement and thereby may remove some of the water and solids trapped in the bitumen particles. In some cases, the agglomeration process may actually increase the solids content of the captured bitumen. This seems to be a function of the chemistry of the mixture, the type of solids and the ions present in the mixture. (A similar process takes place in the agglomerator of FIG. 2d). In FIG. 3a, initial tailings 317 from the top flight enter the drum 319 through apertures 314 of the cylindrical wall 301, mix with balls to give up bitumen to the balls and then percolate through the bitumen covered bed 321 of balls or flow over top of the bed of balls to become the final tailings 322 which pass through drum and belt apertures 327 and flow into a tailings receiver 329 for removal by removal means 324. Aqueous phase 320 in part flows over the bed of balls since Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada rotation of the drum causes the bed 321 of balls to assume a top surface that is inclined upward in the direction of rotation. Captured bitumen is sloughed off the balls due to drum rotation and shear inside the drum and flows to the apertured drum wall 328 in the right bottom quadrant of the Figure. There the endless cable screen apertures are partly or completely filled with collecting bitumen and this reduces or prevents the passage of aqueous phase to and through the cable wraps in that quadrant. Aqueous phase 322 flows more readily through the apertures of the cable wrap screen at the left bottom quadrant of the drum since the revolving wire rope screen provides open apertures in that quadrant. Apertures in the drum wall normally are much larger than apertures in the wire rope screen to assure that blinding of the drum apertures does not occur. Since the apertures of the wire rope screen are much smaller in at least one dimension than the apertures of the drum wall, most of the bitumen residing in drum apertures adjacent to bitumen filled screen apertures goes with the screen as the screen pulls away from the drum wall due to the continuous rotation of the drum. Hence, as a result of rotation, after leaving the screen, the drum apertures normally are open apertures not blinded with bitumen. Along the bottom right drum quadrant, cable wrap apertures are partly or completely filled with bitumen and this reduces or prevents the flow of aqueous phase through the drum apertures in that quadrant.
Thus, along the top flight the aqueous phase can flow down the incline of the upward moving screen until it finds open apertures of the screen through which it can pass and along the bottom flight of the screen the aqueous phase can flow down the inclined of a bed of revolving balls to find open apertures of the screen through which it can pass. The aqueous phase initial tailings leaving the top flight flow into the drum that supports the bottom flight. A large portion of this aqueous phase falls on top of the bed of balls and releases residual bitumen to the balls of that bed and then flows down the incline of the revolving bed to open apertures of the bottom flight of the screen. All this occurs because bitumen adheres strongly to oleophilic surfaces and moves slowly due to its high viscosity whilst aqueous phase does not adhere readily to oleophilic surfaces and can flow rapidly down an incline because of its Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada relatively low viscosity. Hence, the incline of the screen and the incline of the bed of balls in the separation zones both take advantage of the differences in viscosity and of the differences of adhesion properties of the components in the separating mixture for oleophilic surfaces, or for bitumen adhering to oleophilic surfaces, to achieve rapid mixture separation. Of coarse the inclined belt flight portion of the top flight must be inclined upward in the direction of endless cable screen movement to effect this improved separation. Similarly, the bed of balls must have an upper surface that is inclined upward in the direction of screen movement. However, this is the natural position assumed by a bed of balls in a revolving drum.
A strong drum is required when the bed of balls is large and heavy. This is accomplished by using a heavy wall pipe as the core 302 of the drum that is attached to the drum shaft 303. Additional drum construction details are provided in subsequent Figures to provide for strong drums that can support beds of balls.
In addition to the agglomerator drum 319 of FIG. 3a, four additional rollers are used to support and guide the endless cable screen. The arrows 308 and 309 show the direction of screen movement. The support roller 304 and the squeeze roller remove captured bitumen from the bottom flight and deposit it into a product receiver 325. A baffle guide 326 directs this product into the receiver and prevents it from falling past the receiver. In the case of rollers 304, 310, the shafts normally are horizontal but the rollers do not have to be in horizontal alignment with each other but can be in sloping alignment, as shown by the line 307. This may be done to facilitate bitumen flow into the receiver 325 from the revolving cable wrap screen without spillage. The support roller 305 and the squeeze roller 306 remove captured bitumen from the top flight and deposit it into a product receiver 316. A
guide or guide rollers 318 keep revolving multi wrap endless cable on the rollers and on the drum if used in stead of single wrap cables. A water wash 334 may be used along the top flight to wash solids off the bitumen captured by the top flight and air 315 may be blown onto the top flight to dry the captured bitumen.
Thus in summary, mixture to be separated 311 flows into a dispenser 312 that distributes the mixture over the width of the inclined top flight. Bitumen is captured Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada by oleophilic wraps of the top flight 313, moves upward with the cable wraps and then is removed by rollers or by other means disclosed in co-pending patent application entitled "Endless Cable System and Associated Methods". The aqueous phase of the mixture flows along the inclined top flight with or against the movement of the wraps until it finds open apertures in the top flight 313 and flows through them.
These initial tailings then fall on top of the apertured drum 301 wall, pass through the apertures 314 of the cylindrical drum wall and contact the bed of balls 321.
There residual bitumen particles from these tailings 317 are agglomerated by revolving balls of the bed 321 to form enlarged bitumen particles. These are then captured by the oleophilic wraps of the bottom flight 328 and the now more bitumen depleted aqueous phase becomes the final tailings product 322. This product flows out of the drum through the open apertures 327 of the bottom flight and is collected in a vessel 329 to become the final tailings product 324 of the process.
A single apparatus has thus been developed to achieve two stages of rapid bitumen extraction from an aqueous mixture containing bitumen. Operation of such a two stage process may vary but contains some similar features. Bitumen is recovered from a mixture by the top flight, leaving aqueous initial tailings to flow into a drum for the removal of additional bitumen by the bottom flight. After that the final tailings product, representing bitumen depleted or bitumen reduced aqueous phase, flows into a tailings receiver or baffle to be removed from the process. All initial tailings from the top flight are thus agglomerated and processed along the bottom flight to remove additional bitumen, and yield a final tailings product that is sent to disposal or further processing. For example, after settling or removal of sand, the final tailings may be processed by electrophoresis to separated these tailings into clarified water and dewatered solid fines as described in co-pending patent application entitled "Electrophoresis of Tailings Suspension using Endless Cable Wraps"
A bed of tumbling balls is illustrated in FIG. 3a, and this bed 321 only fills part of the drum interior. The drum 319 may alternately be filled with oleophilic tower packings. Such tower packings are conventionally used in packed distillation Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada towers or are used in conventional extraction towers. Plastic tower packings are light and tend to adhere to each other by captured bitumen and have a very large open area for fluid flow. These packings normally do not tumble in a revolving drum agglomerator because of bitumen adhesion. For that reason the drum is filled completely or nearly completely with these packings. The packings revolve in unison with the drum wall and do not tumble. Bitumen agglomeration then takes place as the initial tailings from the top flight 317 pass by the widely spaced oleophilic surfaces of the packings inside the revolving drum. Oleophilic tower packings are much lighter than a bed of balls that must be heavy enough tumble in the presence of bitumen of high viscosity to effect the aglomeration. Unlike tower packings, these balls do not have widely spaced oleophilic surfaces through which the aqueous phase can flow but must tumble and be in constant movement to contact the aqueous phase. Tower packings, therefore provide another convenient method for bitumen agglomeration in a revolving drum. A drum using light polypropylene tower packings, does not have to be as strong as a drum using a bed of heavy balls. However, a bed of balls will tend to kneed the collected bitumen inside a bed of balls and this does not occur when tower packings are used. Under some conditions kneeding is preferred, in other conditions it is not. Kneeding of bitumen of some mixtures may capture solids in the bitumen product. In other cases, kneeding of bitumen from mixtures may release solids from the bitumen product. This difference is largely dependent upon the chemical make up of the mixture and can be determined by agglomeration experiment.
FIG 3b is an isometric drawing of endless cable wraps and of three support rollers of FIG. 3a. The three support rollers consist of two grooved rollers 351 and 361 and one apertured drum 355 provided with notched bars 371 to keep the wraps 353 and 360 in spaced parallel alignment along part of the cylindrical surface 367 of the drum 355. The wraps 360 connect the drum 355 cylindrical surface 367 with the support roller 361, which roller forms part of the bitumen removal zone of the top flight 352. The squeeze roller 306 of FIG. 3a is not shown here for the sake of simplicity of drawing FIG. 3b. The wraps 353 connect the drum 355 cylindrical Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada surface 367 with the support roller 351, which roller forms part of the bitumen removal zone of the bottom flight. The squeeze roller 310 of FIG. 3a is not shown here for the sake of simplicity of drawing FIG. 3b. The two support rollers have grooves 370 and are provided with shafts 350 and 362 which are mounted in bearings (not shown). Similarly, drum 355 is provided with end shafts 354 and 359 that support a central pipe core 358. Pipe end 366 attaches to shaft end 359 and drum end 356 attaches to drum apertured wall 367 and to pipe end 358. Such attachments normally are by welding. The same attachments are provided to shaft end 354.
The drum 355 also is provided with notched bars 371 that keep the wraps in parallel alignment along part of the drum cylindrical wall 367. The end walls 356 of the drum 355 are not apertured but the cylindrical wall 367 of the drum 355 is provided with apertures 357. Guide rollers 363 and 364 direct the endless cable 365 to allow the last wrap to flow seamlessly into the first wrap to prevent the endless cable 365 from running off the grooved rollers 351 and 361 and drum 355. The top flight 352 is inclined and the direction of wrap movement is from roller 351 upwards and to the left towards roller 361. From there the movement of the revolving wraps is downward from roller 361 towards drum 355. Guide roller 363 guides the last wrap towards guide roller 364, which guides this last wrap to seamlessly become the first wrap returning to the drum 355. The guided wrap 365 may contact the surface of roller 361 at the first and at the last groove, but does not have to contact the surface of this roller to achieve proper wrap guidance on the circumferences of the rollers and drum. Contact with roller 361 of the first and last wrap is simply a function of the placement of the guide rollers 363 and 361. This Figure illustrates the wraps of only one endless oleophilic cable. Several such endless cables may be mounted on rollers 351, 361 and drum 355 if that is convenient. In that case, each endless cable will need a set of guide rollers to keep the wraps in proper aligment. Only when single wrap endless cables are used for the endless screen will guide rollers not be required.
In that case a mechanism for providing the required tension in each single wrap endless cable may need to be provided if the single wraps are not identical or not nearly identical in length.

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada FIG. 4 provides details for the construction of an agglomerator and for roller support. FIG. 4, 5 and 6 all illustrate construction details that are beneficial for the design of effective equipment for bitumen extraction using endless oleophilic cable wrap screens in which the bottom flight of the screen is wrapped around part of an apertured drum.
FIG. 4a is an isometric drawing of one type of central core support for an apertured agglomerator drum, using a heavy wall pipe 401 to provide the required core strength. The shaft ends 402 are mounted in bearings 406 and are welded to pipe end disks 404 which in turn are welded to the ends of the pipe 401 to provide a very strong and rigid central core for the drum. Ring flanges 413 are welded to the pipe 401 outside diameter to allow for the attachment of supporting ribs, baffles or tie bars that tie the central core to the apertured cylindrical drum wall shown in FIG
4b. A
sprocket 403 mounted to the shaft 402 may be used to drive the drum, or a gear or gear box may be used, coupled to a motor.
FIG. 4b is a typical cross sectional drawing of the internals of an agglomerator drum. Shaft ends 402 are welded to the end discs 406 of the central pipe 401.
Support baffles or tie bars 410 tie the apertured drum wall 412 to the central pipe 401 by means of ring flanges 413 that were welded to the pipe 401 outside surface.
The baffles 410 or tie bars are welded to or connected to cross bars 411 which cross bars are parallel with the pipe axis, and support the apertured drum wall 412 which may be made from thick plates of perforated steel rolled into the form of a cylinder or rolled into sections of a cylinder.
FIG. 4c is an internal view of an agglomerator drum through section A-A of FIG. 4b. The drum has a central core 432 and a perforated steel cylindrical wall 430 supported by cross bars 431. For the sake of simplicity of the drawing, the support tie bars or baffles between pipe core and drum wall are not shown. The drum is partly filled with metal and optional plastic balls to form a bed 434 for the agglomeration of bitumen. The average slope of the bed 434 of tumbling balls is consistent in sloping upward in the direction of drum movement shown with the arrow 436.

Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada FIG. 4d is an internal view of an agglomerator drum through section A-A of FIG. 4b completely filled with oleophilic tower packings. The central core assembly 424 consists of a shaft and pipe core. Shown also are the tie bars 423 or baffles that connect the ring flanges (413 of FIG. 4a and 4b) to the cross bars 421 of the apertured drum wall 422. This apertured drum wall may be made from sections of rolled perforated or drilled steel plates. Alternately the apertured drum wall may not need rolled apertured steel plates but may consist of a large number of cross bars that are welded to baffles (410 of FIG. 4b) and/or which may be welded to the endwalls (404 of FIG. 4b) to form an apertured cylindrical drum wall. In this case the cross bars are notched to accept the cable wraps and keep the wraps in alignment.
FIG. 4e, at the top of the page, is a detail showing the brackets that may be used to support two rollers; one roller to support the endless cable belt and the other roller to squeeze against the support roller to remove bitumen from the screen. This bracket 441 contains a fixed pillow block 442 with bearings for the support roller shaft and an adjustable pillow block 444 with bearings for the squeeze roller shaft.
This pillow block 444 is mounted in a slide 445. A threaded rod 447 with nuts is used to adjust the position of this pillow block to exert the desired pressure between support roller and squeeze roller on bitumen adhering to the wraps. Two such brackets are required to support the two ends of the roller shafts, and these two brackets are attached to each other to form a bearing unit by means of bars or threaded rods to keep the roller shafts properly supported. The resulting mounted roller bearing unit assembly can be attached to the structural parts of a separator by means of bolts through mounting holes 443 in each bracket. The mounting holes are located to be close to pinch point 450 between the two rollers in the assembly and this allows for convenient angular rotation of the assembly to position the roller axes alignment not necessary perpendicular to the screen but at an angle. This angle is shown by the line 307 in FIG. 3 and facilitates the removal of bitumen from the bottom flight 328 of that Figure. As a result of this mounting, the squeeze roller 310 can be located in horizontal alignment with the support roller 304, or it can be located further along the endless screen in the direction 309 of belt movement if so desired Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada for more effective flow of removed bitumen product into the bitumen receiver without spillage. The assembly is mounted with bolts through the mounting holes 443 of FIG. 4e and the rotated position may be fixed with a bracket or with brackets (not shown) attached between the bearing unit assembly and the separator structural parts. An end view 446 of the assembly is shown as well in FIG. 4e.
FIG. 5 provides additional details for the construction of an agglomerator drum.
FIG. 5a is an isometric drawing of an agglomerator drum, showing central shaft ends 503, central pipe 502 and a perforated cylindrical drum wall 505.
It also shows an unperforated drum end wall 504 and also the location of notched bars mounted in the cylindrical drum wall 505 that are intended to keep the wraps of the endless cable screen in spaced alignment around at least part of the cylindrical drum wall.
FIG. 5b is an internal view of an agglomerator showing shaft 513, support pipe core 516, support pipe end wall or disc 514, support brackets or baffles 512, and an apertured drum wall 511. It also shows the location of notched bars 518 that keep cable wraps in proper alignment along part of the apertured cylindrical drum wall 511, and brackets 517 that attach notched bars 518 to the baffles 512 and to the perforated steel drum wall 511. As shown in this Figure, the baffles 512 provide rigid support between the central core 514 and the aglomerator cylindrical apertured wall 511. These baffles may be cut as complete units from steel plates or each may be fabricated by welding support bars between two rings; one ring being a ring flange 413 of FIG. 4b and the other may be a rolled steel ring on edge to have an OD
of the same size as the ID of the perforated steel drum wall 511.
FIG. 5c is an enlarged detail drawing of a section 527 of the apertured agglomerator drum wall showing the mounting of notched bars 528 into the drum wall. Mounting brackets 522 are attached to or welded to the baffles 529 and are provided with bolt holes for bolting notched bars 528 into the cylindrical drum wall.
The mounting brackets 522 can be cross bars that are welded to the baffles 529.
Additional cross bars 540 may be welded to the baffles and to the apertured drum Jan Kruyer, Thorsby, AB. Canada wall to provide rigidity and strength to the circumferential drum wall (511 of FIG.
5b). The notched bars 528 keep the wraps of the endless cable in alignment along part of the perforated circumferential drum wall. This drum wall is constructed by welding rolled perforated steel sections 527 to the baffles 529 between the notched bars 528. Altermately, perforated steel sections are not required when a large number of notched bars 528 are welded to the baffles instead, replacing the un-notched cross bars 540 and eliminating the apertured steel plates. In any case, proper alignment of notches of the notched bars is very important to keep the wraps of the endless cable properly aligned along at least part of the circumferential drum wall. In FIG.
5b and 5c the notched bars are bolted to the baffles to allow replacement of the notched bars when the notches wear out due to extended moving contact between the notched bars and the endless cable wraps in an abrasive environment. If no such wear is experienced, for example when separating tailings pond sludge, the notched bars may be welded to the cylindrical wall instead.
FIG. 5d is a detail drawing of a typical notched bar. The bar is provided with mounting holes 531 for attachment to the mounting brackets (522 of FIG. 5c) and with ends 532 that fit between the end walls (504 of FIG. 5a) of the agglomerator drum. Each bar may be milled or may more conveniently be cut with a laser beam or a jet of abrasive water to provide notches 533 that match the OD of the endless cable and to provide protrusions 534 that keep the wraps in alignment.
FIG. 5e is an alternate design of a notched bar, showing the mounting holes and notches 533 and protrusions 534 to properly align the wraps. The notches may have contoured bottoms to accept the wraps with minimal deformation of the cable circumference. Alternately, wear by the wraps will contour the notch bottoms while the bars are in use.
FIG. 6 is a drawing of a two stage separator using two agglomerator drums, one of which includes an optional apertured internal cylindrical wall 614 for the removal of oversize material prior to bitumen agglomeration. FIG. 6 is included to show the versatility of endless cable wraps around drums and rollers to form apertured screens. These cables may be less than a millimeters in diameter or smaller

Claims (58)

1) A method for the separation of bitumen from an aqueous bitumen containing mixture into a bitumen product of separation and a tailings product of separation wherein the mixture is distributed over at least one flight of a moving endless apertured conveyor screen causing bitumen of the mixture to be captured by and adhere to surfaces of the screen and bitumen reduced mixture to pass through apertures of the screen, wherein a) the screen comprises cable wraps of one or more endless oleophilic cables wrapped around two or more support rollers to provide at least two flights of the screen including a top flight and a bottom flight, wherein b) the temperature of the mixture does not exceed 70 degrees centigrade, wherein c) the screen comprises more than 10 cable wraps, wherein d) spaces between the cable wraps are the apertures of the screen and cable wraps are the surfaces of the screen, wherein e) at least one of the flights is inclined at a positive angle of incline upward in the direction of screen movement, wherein f) the endless cables comprise endless single wrap cables or comprise one or more endless multi wrap cables which have a first wrap, multiple subsequent wraps and a last wrap and each multi wrap cable is provided with a guide or guide rollers to direct the last wrap to seamlessly flow into the first wrap to prevent each endless multi wrap cable from running off the rollers, wherein.

g) the screen has at least one separation zone for capture of bitumen from the mixture by the cable wraps and adherence to the wraps upon contact and for passage of bitumen reduced mixture through the spaces between sequential cable wraps, and wherein h) the screen has at least one bitumen removal zone for removal of captured and adhering bitumen from endless cable wraps to produce a bitumen product of separation.

2) A method as in Claim 1 wherein there is at least one separation zone along the top flight and at least one separation zone along the bottom flight.

3) A method as in Claim 1 wherein the wraps of the revolving screen are kept in spaced alignment by combs, notched bars and/or by cylindrical grooves in one or more of the rollers.

4) A method as in Claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the top flight and at least a portion of the bottom flight are inclined upward in the direction of screen movement.

5) A method as in Claim 1 wherein the positive angle of incline of at least one of the flights is between 3 and 45 degrees.

6) A method as in Claim 1 wherein the positive angle of incline of at least on of the flights is between 5 and 15 degrees.

7) A method as in Claim 1 wherein the temperature of the mixture is below 40 degrees centigrade

8) A method as in Claim 1 wherein one of the rollers is a revolving drum with apertured cylindrical wall supporting the bottom flight of the screen.

9) A method as in Claim 8 wherein the drum is filled with oleophilic surfaces.

10) A method as in Claim 8 wherein the drum is partly filled with a bed of oleophilic tumbling balls or is substantially filled with oleophilic tower packings.

11) A method as in Claim 8 wherein bitumen containing mixture is distributed over the top flight and bitumen captured by and adhering to the wraps of the top flight is removed in a bitumen removal zone and bitumen reduced mixture passes through the top flight apertures and flows into the drum, wherein a) bitumen reduced mixture contacts oleophilic surfaces inside the drum to facilitate the capture of additional bitumen particles by the bottom flight before the mixture has passed through apertures of the bottom flight, wherein b) bitumen captured by and adhering to surfaces of the bottom flight is removed in a bitumen removal zone, wherein c) mixture that has passed through the apertures of the bottom flight is removed as tailings of separation.

12) A method as in Claim 8 wherein the drum has a large diameter pipe as part of a central drum core for supporting the cylindrical drum wall with cross bars, tie bars and/or baffles to prevent deformation of the cylindrical drum wall under the weight of bitumen coated balls or tower packings.

13) A method as on Claim 8 wherein notched bars are mounted in or as the cylindrical wall to keep wraps of the endless cable in alignment along the cylindrical wall of the drum.

14) A method as in Claim 8 wherein a bitumen containing mixture flows into the drum through a central inlet and after bitumen agglomeration leaves through the apertures of the cylindrical wall of the drum.

15) A method as in Claim 8 wherein a bitumen cotaining mixture flows into the drum through the apertures of the cylindrical drum wall near the top of the drum and after bitumen agglomeration leaves through the apertures of the cylindrical drum wall near the bottom of the drum.

16) A method as in Claim 8 wherein the drum is supported by a central shaft mounted in bearings.

17) A method as in Claim 8 wherein the drum is supported by at least one turn table bearing or by at least two slewing rings in contact with ring support rollers.

18) A method as in Claim 8 wherein the drum is driven by means of a drive, a chain, a belt and/or a gear box coupled to a motor.

19) A method as in Claim 1 where one or more rollers supporting the screen are driven by means of a drive, a chain, a belt and/or a gear box coupled to a motor.

20) A method as in Claim 1 wherein a spray of water is used to wash superficial solids from bitumen adhering to the screen.

21)A method as in Claim 1 wherein air is blown over the screen to remove superficial water from bitumen adhering to the screen.

22) A method as in Claim 1 wherein the mixture is a mined oil sand slurry formed at least from oil sand ore and water and wherein bitumen of the ore has been disengaged from the sand of the ore and oversize solids have been removed.

23) A method as in Claim 1 wherein the mixture is or includes sludge from a tailings pond.

24) A method as in Claim 1 wherein the mixture is a middlings stream from a froth flotation process

25) A method as in Claim 1 wherein the mixture is an aqueous slurry of oil sand ore that has been diluted with a hydrocarbon solvent during slurry preparation before separation to reduce the viscosity of bitumen of the ore to allow digestion of the ore to a slurry suitable for separation by an inclined flight of an endless screen formed from cable wraps at separation temperatures of less than 30 degrees centigrade.

26) A method as in Claim 25 wherein the hydrocarbon solvent comprises one, or mixtures, of the group comprising natural gas condensate, propane, butane, pentane, other alkane, diesel fuel, kerosene, jet fuel or naphtha.

27) A method of heating by heating means bitumen adhering to revolving endless cable wraps while the cable wraps pass through a confined path enclosure to reduce the viscosity of bitumen prior to removal of bitumen from the wraps.

28) A method as in Claim 27 wherein the heating means consist of live steam sparged into the confined path enclosure.

29) A method as in Claim 27 wherein the heating means consist of steam coils, electrical heating elements, infrared heating elements, inductance heating elements or microwave heating devices attached to or in contact with said confined path enclosure.

30) An aparatus for the separation of bitumen from an aqueous bitumen containing mixture into a bitumen product of separation and a tailings product of separation wherein the mixture can be distributed over at least one flight of a revolving endless apertured conveyor screen causing bitumen of the mixture to be captured by and adhere to surfaces of the screen and bitumen reduced mixture to pass through apertures of the screen, wherein a) the screen comprises cable wraps of one or more endless oleophilic cables wrapped around two or more support rollers to provide at least two flights of the screen including a top flight and a bottom flight, wherein b) the temperature of the mixture does not exceed 70 degrees centigrade, wherein c) the screen comprises more than 10 cable wraps, wherein d) spaces between the cable wraps are the apertures of the screen and cable wraps are the surfaces of the screen, wherein e) at least one of the flights is inclined at a positive angle of incline upward in the direction of screen movement, wherein f) the endless cables comprise endless single wrap cables or comprise one or more endless multi wrap cables which have a first wrap, multiple subsequent wraps and a last wrap and each multi wrap cable is provided with a guide or guide rollers to direct the last wrap to seamlessly flow into the first wrap to prevent each endless multi wrap cable from running off the rollers, wherein.

g) the screen has at least one separation zone for capture of bitumen from the mixture by the cable wraps and adherence to the wraps upon contact and for passage of bitumen reduced mixture through the spaces between sequential cable wraps, and wherein h) the screen has at least one bitumen removal zone for removal of captured and adhering bitumen from endless cable wraps to produce a bitumen product of separation.

31) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein there is at least one separation zone along the top flight and at least one separation zone along the bottom flight.

32) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein the wraps of the revolving screen can be kept in spaced alignment by combs, notched bars and/or by cylindrical grooves in one or more of the rollers.

33) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein at least a portion of the top flight and at least a portion of the bottom flight are inclined upward in the direction of screen movement.

34) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein the positive angle of incline of at least one of the flights is between 3 and 45 degrees.

35) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein the positive angle of incline of at least on of the flights is between 5 and 15 degrees.

36) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein the temperature of the mixture can be below 40 degrees centigrade.

37) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein one of the rollers is a revolving drum with apertured cylindrical wall supporting the bottom flight of the screen.

38) An apparatus as in Claim 37 wherein the drum with apertured cylindrical wall supporting the bottom flight of the screen can be filled with oleophilic surfaces.

39) An apparatus as in Claim 37 wherein the drum can be partly filled with a bed of oleophilic tumbling balls or can be substantially filled with oleophilic tower packings.

40) An apparatus as in Claim 37 wherein bitumen containing mixture can be distributed over the top flight and bitumen captured by and adhering to the wraps of the top flight can be removed in a bitumen removal zone and bitumen reduced mixture can pass through the top flight apertures and can flow into the revolving drum, wherein a) bitumen reduced mixture can contact oleophilic surfaces inside the drum to facilitate the capture of additional bitumen particles by the bottom flight before the mixture has passed through apertures of the bottom flight, wherein b) bitumen captured by and adhering to surfaces of the bottom flight can be removed in a bitumen removal zone, wherein c) mixture that has passed through the apertures of the bottom flight can be removed as tailings of separation.

41) An apparatus as in Claim 37 wherein the drum has a large diameter pipe as part of a central drum core for supporting the apertured cylindrical drum wall with cross bars, tie bars and/or baffles to prevent deformation of the cylindrical drum wall under the weight of bitumen coated balls or tower packings.

42) An apparatus as on Claim 37 wherein notched bars are mounted in or as the cylindrical wall to keep wraps of the endless cable in alignment along the cylindrical wall of the drum.

43) An apparatus as in Claim 37 wherein a bitumen containing mixture can flow into the drum through a central inlet and after bitumen agglomeration can leave through the apertures of the cylindrical wall of the drum.

44) An apparatus as in Claim 37 wherein a bitumen containing mixture can flow into the drum through the apertures of the cylindrical drum wall near the top of the drum and after bitumen agglomeration can leave through the apertures of the cylindrical drum wall near the bottom of the drum.

45) An apparatus as in Claim 37 wherein the drum is supported by a central shaft mounted in bearings.

46) An apparatus as in Claim 37 wherein the drum is supported by at least one turn table bearing or by at least two slewing rings in contact with ring support rollers.

47) An apparatus as in Claim 37 wherein the drum is driven by means of a drive, a chain, a belt and/or a gear box coupled to a motor.

48) An apparatus as in Claim 30 where one or more rollers supporting the screen can be driven by means of a drive, a chain, a belt and/or a gear box coupled to a motor.

49) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein a spray of water can be used to wash superficial solids from bitumen adhering to the screen.

50) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein air can be blown over the screen to remove superficial water from bitumen adhering to the screen.

51) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein the mixture can be a mined oil sand slurry formed at least from oil sand ore and water and wherein bitumen of the ore has been disengaged from the sand of the ore and oversize solids have been removed.

52) An apparatus as in Claim 30 where the mixture can be or can include sludge from a tailings pond.

53) An apparatus as in Claim 30 where the mixture can be a middlings stream from a froth flotation process

54) An apparatus as in Claim 30 wherein the mixture can be an aqueous slurry of oil sand ore that has been diluted with a hydrocarbon solvent during slurry preparation before separation to reduce the viscosity of bitumen of the ore to allow digestion of the ore to a slurry suitable for separation by an inclined flight of an endless screen formed from cable wraps at a digestion temperature of less than 30 degrees centigrade.

55) An apparatus as in Claim 54 wherein the hydrocarbon solvent can comprise one, or mixtures, of the group comprising natural gas condensate, propane, butane, pentane, other alkane, diesel fuel, kerosene, jet fuel or naphtha.

56) An apparatus for heating by heating means bitumen adhering to revolving endless cable wraps while the cable wraps pass through a confined path enclosure to reduce the viscosity of bitumen prior to removal of bitumen from the wraps.

57) An apparatus as in Claim 56 wherein the heating means consist of live steam sparged into the confined path enclosure.

58) An apparatus as in Claim 56 wherein the heating means consist of steam coils, electrical heating elements, infrared heating elements, inductance heating elements or microwave heating devices attached to or in contact with said confined path enclosure.