METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING BITUMEN FROM AN OIL SAND STREAM

摘要

The present invention provides a method for extracting bitumen from an oil sand stream, the method including the steps of: (a) providing an oil sand stream (10); (b) contacting the oil sand stream with a solvent thereby obtaining a first solvent-diluted oil sand slurry (20); (c) screening the first solvent-diluted oil sand slurry (20), thereby obtaining a first oversized material and a first undersized material; (d) contacting the first oversized material with a solvent thereby obtaining a second solvent-diluted oil sand slurry; (e) screening the second solvent-diluted oil sand slurry, thereby obtaining a second oversized material and a second undersized material; (f) optionally filtering the first undersized material obtained in step (c), thereby obtaining a solids-depleted stream (40) and a solids-enriched stream (50); (g) optionally removing solvent from the solids-depleted stream obtained in step (f) thereby obtaining a bitumen-enriched stream.