The invention relates to a continuous process for converting carbonaceous material contained in one or more feedstocks into a liquid hydrocarbon product, said feedstocks including the carbonaceous material being in a feed mixture including one or more fluids, said fluids including water and further liquid organic compounds at least partly produced by the process in a concentration of at least 1% by weight, where the process comprises converting at least part of the carbonaceous material by pressurising the feed mixture to a pressure in the range 250-400 bar; heating the feed mixture to a temperature in the range 370-450 C., and maintaining said pressurized and heated feed mixture in the desired pressure and temperature ranges in a reaction zone for a predefined time; cooling the feed mixture to a temperature in the range 25-200 C. and expanding the feed mixture to a pressure in the range of 1-70 bar, thereby causing the carbonaceous material to be converted to a liquid hydrocarbon product and separating from the converted feed mixture a fraction comprising liquid hydrocarbon product.

The invention relates to a continuous process for converting carbonaceous material contained in at least two feedstocks into a liquid hydrocarbon product, said feedstocks including at least one feedstock of biomass and at least one feedstock of lignite and/or peat, said feedstocks including the carbonaceous material being in a feed mixture including one or more fluids, said fluids including water and further liquid organic compounds at least partly produced by the process in a concentration of at least 1% by weight, where the process comprises converting at least part of the carbonaceous material by pressurizing the feed mixture to a pressure in the range 50-400 bar, heating the feed mixture to a temperature in the range 250-500 C., and maintaining said pressurized and heated feed mixture in the desired pressure and temperature ranges in a reaction zone for a predefined time; cooling the feed mixture to a temperature in the range 25-200 C. and expanding the feed mixture to a pressure in the range of 1-70 bar, thereby causing the carbonaceous material to be converted to a liquid hydrocarbon product; and separating a fraction comprising liquid hydrocarbon product and leaving a residual fraction.

A water extraction process for separating bitumen from tar sands comprises slurrying tar sands in water, mixing the aqueous slurry with a magnetic substance for a time sufficient to release bitumen from tar sands and to uniformly disperse the magnetic substance with the bitumen, and subjecting the resulting slurry to froth flotation for recovery of a bitumen product and production of sand tails. The magnetic substance may comprise a magnetic surfactant. Alternatively, the magnetic substance comprises a magnetic nanoparticle together with a frother having the characteristics of methyl-isobutyl-carbinol and can be mixed with the aqueous slurry by attrition scrubbing or by flotation cell mixing. The magnetic substance may be recovered for further reuse by applying a magnetic or electromagnetic field to the tailings. The process may suitably applied in both so-called hot water extraction processes as well in an ambient temperature (from about freezing to 35 C.) process.

A portable modular treatment system to be remotely deployed adjacent a solvent extraction bitumen well may include a portable initial separation module configured to receive a liquid emulsion, from the solvent extraction bitumen well including bitumen, produced water, solvent, and at least one non-condensable gas and liberate the at least one non-condensable gas while the solvent remains with the liquid emulsion. The system may further include a portable free water removal module configured to receive the liquid emulsion from the portable initial separation module and separate the bitumen and solvent from the produced water, a portable skimming tank module configured to receive the produced water from the portable free water removal module and remove free oil from the produced water through gravity separation, and a portable condenser module configured to receive the bitumen and solvent from the portable free water removal module and separate the bitumen and solvent.

A method of removing fines and coarse particles from tailings comprises forming a slurry comprising water and oil sands and separating bitumen from tailings comprising fines and coarse particles. Functionalized nanoparticles each comprising a core of carbon nitride and functionalized with one or more exposed cationic groups are mixed with the tailings. The functionalized nanoparticles and the fines interact to form agglomerates comprising the functionalized nanoparticles and the fines attached to the one or more exposed cationic groups. The agglomerates are removed from the tailings to form an aqueous solution having suspended therein fewer fines and coarse particles than are suspended within the tailings.

Hydrocarbon-containing feedstocks are processed to produce useful intermediates or products, such as fuels. For example, systems are described that can process a petroleum-containing feedstock, such as oil sands, oil shale, tar sands, and other naturally-occurring and synthetic materials that include both hydrocarbon components and solid matter, to obtain a useful intermediate or product.

A process for operating multiple oil sand mine sites for extracting bitumen from oil sand is disclosed, comprising preparing a first conditioned oil sand slurry at a first location using a first oil sand slurry preparation and slurry conditioning process; preparing a second conditioned oil sand slurry at a second location using a second oil sand slurry preparation and slurry conditioning process; combining the first conditioned oil sand slurry and the second conditioned oil sand slurry in at least one slurry distributor to produce a combined oil sand slurry; and distributing the combined oil sand slurry to at least one separation vessel to produce bitumen froth.

The invention relates to a process for improving efficiency of a organic food production plant, the process comprising preparing a feedstock of a raw harvested organic food base product; processing the prepared food base product, including heating; extracting the organic food material from the food base product, and leaving a residual waste product; feeding the waste product into a continuous process for converting carbonaceous material in the waste product into a liquid hydrocarbon product and extracting a liquid hydrocarbon product. The process is related to palm oil production from fresh fruit bunches.

The invention relates to continuous process for converting carbonaceous material contained in one or more feedstocks into a liquid hydrocarbon product, said feedstocks including the carbonaceous material being in a feed mixture including one or more fluids, said fluids including water and further liquid organic compounds at least partly produced by the process in a concentration of at least 1% by weight, where the process comprises converting at least part of the carbonaceous material by pressurizing the feed mixture to a pressure in the range 50-400 bar; heating the feed mixture to a temperature in the range 250-500 C., maintaining said pressurized and heated feed mixture in the desired pressure and temperature ranges in a reaction zone for a predefined time; cooling the feed mixture to a temperature in the range 25-200 C. and expanding the feed mixture to a pressure in the range of 1-70 bar, thereby causing the carbonaceous material to be converted to a liquid hydrocarbon product; at least partly expanding said converted feed mixture in a flash separation step, wherein the converted feed mixture is separated into a gas phase and a liquid phase, and wherein liquid CO2 is recovered from said gas phase, and separating from the liquid phase a fraction comprising liquid hydrocarbon product.

A system and method is provided for upgrading a continuously flowing process stream including heavy crude oil (HCO). A reactor receives the process stream in combination with water, at an inlet temperature within a range of about 60 C. to about 200 C. The reactor includes one or more process flow tubes having a combined length of about 30 times their aggregated transverse cross-sectional dimension, and progressively heats the process stream to an outlet temperature T(max)1 within a range of between about 260 C. to about 400 C. The reactor maintains the process stream at a pressure sufficient to ensure that it remains a single phase at T(max)1. A controller selectively adjusts the rate of flow of the process stream through the reactor to maintain a total residence time of greater than about 1 minute and less than about 25 minutes.