Abstract
Water-based bitumen extraction technology from mineable oil sands faces major challenges of high water usage and tailings disposal. In the present study, a process for solvent extraction of bitumen from Athabasca oil sands was investigated. In this process, oil sand is mixed with light hydrocarbon solvents, and the solvent–bitumen solution is separated from the mineral solids by centrifugal filtration or regular pressure filtration. The solvent left in the filtration cake is recovered by evaporation under vacuum at room temperature. The results show that, for both high-grade and low-grade ores, using appropriate solvent, the bitumen recovery and product quality are comparable to those from the currently used hot water extraction followed by naphtha froth treatment. The recovery of light hydrocarbon solvent is relatively easy, so this novel process has great potential to reduce solvent losses compared to existing technologies.
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