System and process for recovering bitumen from oil sands

Abstract

A system and a process for recovering bitumen from oil sands are provided. The system includes a bitumen solvent comprised of at least 75 mol % dimethyl sulfide that is first contact miscible with bitumen, an oil sands material comprised of bitumen, and a contacting apparatus configured to receive the bitumen solvent and the oil sands material and to contact and mix the bitumen solvent and oil sands material to form a bitumen-containing extract and a bitumen-depleted oil sands material. The process includes the steps of providing the oil sands material; contacting the oil sands material with the solvent comprised of at least 75 mol % dimethyl sulfide to form the bitumen-containing extract and the bitumen-depleted oil sands material; and separating the bitumen-containing extract from the bitumen-depleted oil sands material.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A process for separating bitumen from oil sands, comprising:
 providing an oil sands material comprising bitumen and inorganic solid particulate matter;   contacting the oil sands material with a solvent comprising at least 75 mol % dimethyl sulfide to form an extract comprising the solvent and bitumen extracted from the oil sands material and to form a bitumen-depleted oil sands material;   separating the extract from the bitumen-depleted oil sands material.   
     
     
         2 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the solvent is first contact miscible with bitumen. 
     
     
         3 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the extract separated from the bitumen-depleted oil sands material comprises at most 500 parts per million by weight of inorganic solid particulate matter. 
     
     
         4 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the contacting and separating are conducted in the absence of any water other than water contained in the oil sands material. 
     
     
         5 . The process of  claim 1  wherein solvent is contacted with the oil sands material in a weight ratio of solvent to oil sands material of at least 1:1. 
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the solvent has a density of at most 0.9 g/cm 3  at 25° C. and 0.101 MPa. 
     
     
         7 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the solvent has a dynamic viscosity at 20° C. of at most 0.3 mPa s (cP). 
     
     
         8 . The process of  claim 7  wherein the step of providing an oil sands material comprises providing an oil sands material comprised of bitumen having a viscosity at 20° C. of at least 5000 mPa s; and wherein the step of contacting the oil sands material and the solvent forms an extract having a dynamic viscosity at 20° C. of at most 500 mPa s. 
     
     
         9 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the solvent has a boiling point of at most 45° C. at 0.101 MPa. 
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 1  further comprising the step of separating residual solvent from the separated bitumen-depleted oil sands material and recovering the residual solvent therefrom. 
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 10  wherein the step of contacting the oil sands material with a solvent comprises contacting the oil sands material with residual solvent recovered from the bitumen-depleted oil sands material. 
     
     
         12 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the solvent is comprised of at least 90 mol % dimethyl sulfide. 
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 1  further comprising the step of separating at least a portion of the solvent from the extract to produce bitumen. 
     
     
         14 . The process of  claim 13  further comprising the steps of:
 prior to separating at least a portion of the solvent from the extract, transporting the extract to an oil processing facility; and 
 subsequent to separating at least a portion of the solvent from the extract, contacting the separated portion of the solvent with an oil sands material to form a bitumen-containing extract and a bitumen-depleted oil sands material. 
 
     
     
         15 . The process of  claim 13  further comprising the step of refining the bitumen from which at least a portion of the solvent has been removed. 
     
     
         16 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the oil sands material is provided by mining the oil sands material. 
     
     
         17 . The process of  claim 16  further comprising the step of crushing, milling, or pulverizing the mined oil sands material prior to contacting the oil sands material with the solvent. 
     
     
         18 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the oil sands material has a tensile strength of 0 Pa. 
     
     
         19 . A system comprising:
 a bitumen solvent that is first contact miscible with bitumen, the solvent comprising at least 75 mol % dimethyl sulfide;   an oil sands material comprising bitumen and inorganic solid particulate matter;   a contacting apparatus configured to receive the bitumen solvent and the oil sands material and to contact and mix the bitumen solvent and the oil sands material to form a bitumen-containing extract and a bitumen-depleted oil sands material.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , further comprising a clarifier operatively coupled to the contacting apparatus to receive the bitumen-containing extract and the bitumen-depleted oil sands material from the contacting vessel and configured to separate the bitumen-containing extract from the bitumen-depleted oil sands material. 
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 19  wherein the contacting apparatus is further configured to separate the bitumen-containing extract from the bitumen-depleted oil sands material. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21  further comprising a fines separator configured to separate solid particles having a particle diameter of less than 44 μm from the bitumen-containing extract. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 19  further comprising a solvent recovery apparatus operatively coupled to the contacting apparatus to receive the bitumen-depleted oil sands material, wherein the bitumen-depleted oil sands material comprises a portion of the bitumen solvent, and wherein the solvent recovery apparatus is configured to separate at least portion of the bitumen solvent from the bitumen-depleted oil sands material. 
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 23  wherein the solvent recovery apparatus is operatively fluidly coupled to the contacting apparatus to provide the portion of the bitumen solvent separated from the bitumen-depleted oil sands material to the contacting apparatus.