Method for extracting bitumen from an oil sand feed stream

摘要

A method for extracting bitumen from an oil sand feed stream comprises at least the steps of: (a) providing an oil sand feed stream; (b) contacting the oil sand feed stream with a liquid comprising an aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent thereby obtaining a solvent-diluted oil sand slurry; (c) filtering the solvent-diluted oil sand slurry, thereby obtaining a first bitumen-enriched filtrate, a second bitumen-depleted filtrate and a bitumen-depleted sand; (d) reusing the second filtrate obtained in step (c) in the contacting of step (b); and (e) removing solvent from the first bitumen-enriched filtrate thereby obtaining a bitumen-enriched stream.