Process and system for recovering oil from tar sands using microwave energy

摘要

A process for recovering an oil from a tar sand, including the steps of drying the tar sand to produce a dried tar sand, mixing the dried tar sand with a microwave absorbent to produce a mixed sand, and cracking the mixed sand with microwaves to produce an oil vapor product containing the oil.

主权项

1. A process for recovering an oil from a tar sand, the process comprising the steps of:
drying the tar sand to produce a dried tar sand; mixing the dried tar sand with a recirculated sand to produce a mixed sand, the mixed sand containing a ratio of from 1 to 5 parts of dried tar sand for each part of the recirculated sand; exposing the mixed sand to microwaves; increasing a temperature of the mixed sand through microwave absorption by the recirculated sand, the temperature of the mixed sand increasing at a higher rate than that of a same quantity of the dried tar sand exposed to the same microwaves; cracking the heated mixed sand with the microwaves to produce an oil vapor product containing the oil and a processed sand; and recirculating part of the processed sand as the recirculated sand into the dried tar sand.