| 摘要 |
A method and system for handling tar sands and extracting bitumen or oil from the tar sands. The method includes the steps of depositing tar sands in a hopper assembly having a conical bottom. An organic solvent mixture is sprayed on the tar sands through a series of jets near the walls of the hopper. The oil or bitumen in the tar sands is dissolved by the organic solvent mixture. Sand from the tar sands is allowed to separate and fall toward the bottom of the hopper assembly. The sands and liquid in a slurry of fluid are transported from the hopper assembly to a rinse chamber. The slurry of fluid is delivered into the top of the rinse chamber tangentially to cause cyclonic action of the slurry in the rinsing chamber. Solvent introduced at the bottom of the rinse chamber and the solvent mixture is drawn from the top of the rinse chamber. Thereafter, the solvent and hydrocarbon liquid mixture is pumped to a separator in order to separate the oil and bitumen from the solvent. Finally, the clean solvent is returned to be reused by introduction into the rinse chamber in order to form a closed loop process.
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