A method for the treatment of heavy crude oil with magnetized oxygen/air micro nano bubble water, comprising the steps of generating micro nano bubbles water from treated water by a depressurization process; pumping heavy crude oil and oxygen with the micro nano bubbles water at an injection port; injecting via the injection port a mixture of heavy crude oil and oxygen micro nano bubbles water into a first magnetic unit; subjecting the mixture to a magnetic field under static mixing conditions in the first magnetic unit; injecting the mixture into an interim tank; pressurizing the heavy crude oil and water exiting the interim tank via a slurry pump; pumping the heavy crude oil and water through a second magnetic unit before routing to a first hydrocyclone unit; and routing an overflow of the heavy crude oil for refinery purposes.

A process for obtaining soluble functional proteins from plant material includes the steps of: mechanically disrupting the cells of the plant material to obtain a mush stream; subjecting the mush stream to a coarse physical separation step, resulting in a permeate and a retentate; subjecting the permeate P.sub.b to mild treatment, resulting in a treated permeate; subjecting the treated permeate to serial centrifugation steps; subjecting centrate to a microfiltration step resulting in a permeate and a retentate; subjecting the permeate to an ultrafiltration step resulting in a permeate and a retentate; subjecting the retentate to hydrophobic column adsorption to provide a column permeate and a retentate; and drying the column permeate to provide a soluble functional protein isolate.

A frac sand separator system includes a sand separator having an inlet fluidly connected to a well for receiving a fracking return mixture from the well. The sand separator is configured to separate water of the fracking return mixture from particulate matter of the fracking return mixture. The sand separator includes an outlet. The frac sand separator system includes a collection container fluidly connected to the outlet of the sand separator for receiving the particulate matter from the sand separator. At least one outlet valve is fluidly connected between the outlet of the sand separator and the collection container. The frac sand separator system includes a computing device operatively connected to the at least one outlet valve. The computing device includes a processor configured to automatically open the at least one outlet valve such that the particulate matter is released from the sand separator into the collection container.

A horizontal decanter centrifuge for enhanced recovery of drilling mud from drilling mud solids. Oilfield decanters will always suffer some drilling mud losses because they can only achieve a certain effectiveness with respect to solids dryness. The embodiment describes a process to mitigate the financial burden of drilling mud losses by adding a less expensive sacrificial fluid to take the place of drilling mud in the solids phase. A process and apparatus for drilling mud displacement is described including flowing the drilling mud into a horizontal decanter centrifuge, wherein the stresses imposed within the decanter act to force a sacrificial fluid to displace the drilling mud. The embodiment also describes a process wherein vapours or mist are prevented from escaping and becoming airborne into the external atmosphere.

An apparatus for separating particles from a particulate suspension comprises a conduit comprising a plurality of elongate channels extending in adjacent alignment along a spiral path at different curvature radii from an axis of the spiral path. Longitudinal sidewalls of the elongate channels are fluidly joined together to allow for transfer of fluid between them. The apparatus also comprises an inlet for directing a particulate suspension into the conduit and outlets that direct fluid from the particulate suspension out from different discharge positions. At least first and second of the elongate channels are approximately circular in cross section and comprise a shared longitudinal sidewall, wherein the shared longitudinal sidewall comprises opposed uppermost and lowermost sidewall sections that are laterally offset from one another relative to the axis of the spiral path to allow for transfer of helically flowing fluid between the first and second of the elongate channels.

A method for preparing a tar extract from a discarded cigarette butt and use of the tar extract in a cigarette includes the following steps: (1) adding the discarded cigarette butt to an extraction solvent, and carrying out microwave-assisted extraction to obtain an extraction solution; and (2) centrifuging the extraction solution, carrying out silica gel column chromatography on the supernatant, carrying out elution by using a petroleum ether-ethyl acetate mixed solution as a mobile phase, and collecting the resulting elution fraction to obtain the tar extract. In the method, the tar is extracted from the discarded cigarette butt as a raw material. Through the microwave-assisted extraction and separation by the silica gel column chromatography, harmful substances in the tar of the cigarette butt are removed, and the components with aroma characteristics are retained, and the tar extract is applied to a low-end cigarette.

Method and systems are disclosed for selectively removing naturally-occurring sugars in beverages in an effective, affordable and scalable manner.

A method of treating contaminated materials such as oil and gas production waste sludges to recover crude oil hydrocarbons. The method includes the inversion of water-in-oil emulsions, and subsequent separation steps. These may involve the separation and removal of asphaltenes, petroleum waxes and/or solid particles from the crude oil hydrocarbons. The treatment method uses the physical phenomena of hydrodynamic cavitation and hydraulic shock, which produce different effects upon a mixture of water and the contaminated material being treated. These are deployed either as single or combined stage(s) of treatment or as a repeated series of single/combined treatment stages, with or without additional processing operations between each single/combined treatment stage. The method may be implemented with suitable plant including hydrodynamic cavitation units (103, 106) and hydraulic shock units (104, 107), followed by separators (105, 108).

A method for cracking crude oil includes delivering the crude oil to a first tube group of a convection section of a cracking furnace for preheating and then performing vaporization to obtain a first gas phase and a first liquid phase; performing high-pressure extraction on the first liquid phase to obtain a non-asphalt oil and an asphalt; and mixing the first gas phase and the non-asphalt oil with water vapor respectively, or mixing the first gas phase with the non-asphalt oil prior to mixing with water vapor, then delivering the same to a second tube group of the convection section of the cracking furnace for heating, followed by delivering same to a radiation section of the cracking furnace for cracking to obtain a cracked product, and separating the cracked product to obtain low-carbon olefins.

In one aspect, provided is a method for producing a semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube dispersion. This method allows semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes to be separated from a single-walled carbon nanotube mixture containing semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes and metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes in an aqueous medium, and yet requires only an easily available separation agent and a simple operation.

One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for producing a semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube dispersion. The method includes (A) preparing a single-walled carbon nanotube dispersion to be separated that contains single-walled carbon nanotubes composed of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes and metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes, an aqueous medium, and a copolymer containing a constitutional unit A derived from a monomer represented by the following formula (1) and a constitutional unit B derived from a monomer represented by the following formula (3), and (B) centrifuging the single-walled carbon nanotube dispersion to be separated and then collecting a supernatant containing the semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes from the centrifuged single-walled carbon nanotube dispersion.

CH.sub.2=CH−COOM  (1)

CH.sub.2=CR.sup.5−COO−(CH.sub.2CH.sub.2O).sub.q−H  (3)