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.

Processes for the production of transportation fuel from a renewable feedstock. A catalyst is used which is more selective to hydrodeoxygenate the fatty acid side chains compared to decarboxylation and decarbonylation reactions. A gaseous mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen can be supplied to the conversion zone. Water may also be introduced into the conversion zone to increase the amount of hydrogen.

A method and apparatus for upgrading a petroleum feedstock with supercritical water are provided. The method includes the steps of: (1) heating and pressurizing a petroleum feedstock; (2) heating and pressurizing a water feed to above the supercritical point of water; (3) combining the heated and pressurized petroleum feedstock and the heated and pressurized water feed to produce a combined feed; (4) supplying the combined feed to a hydrothermal reactor to produce a first product stream; (5) supplying the first product stream to a post-treatment process unit to produce a second product stream; and (6) separating the second product stream into a treated and upgraded petroleum stream and a water stream.

A petroleum feedstock upgrading method is provided. The method includes supplying a mixed stream that includes hydrocarbon feedstock and water to a hydrothermal reactor where the mixed stream is maintained at a temperature and pressure greater than the critical temperatures and pressure of water in the absence of catalyst for a residence time sufficient to convert the mixed stream into a modified stream having an increased concentration of lighter hydrocarbons and/or concentration of sulfur containing compounds. The modified stream is then supplied to an adsorptive reaction stage charged with a solid adsorbent operable to remove at least a portion of the sulfur present to produce a trimmed stream. The trimmed stream is then separated into a gas and a liquid streams, and the liquid stream is separated into a water stream and an upgraded hydrocarbon product stream.

The invention is directed to a germicidal treatment fluid comprising electrolyzed water and an amine, and methods for producing and using same to kill microorganisms which produce hydrogen sulphide or sulphate-reducing bacteria.

The invention relates generally to methods for the production of biofuels from organic matter, the methods comprising treating the organic matter with an aqueous solvent and at least one additional catalyst under conditions of heat and pressure. The invention also relates to biofuel products obtainable by the methods.

Described is a process comprising a series of steps for the production of renewable oil from woody biomass. This oil can be processed directly by a traditional petroleum refinery producing transportation fuels or other similar downstream petroleum products. The cellulosic fraction, substantially reduced in lignin can be used in various downstream processing. The method involves a series of steps: step one, comminuting woody biomass to pass a #20 screen mesh size; step 2, mixing the pulverized material with ethanol, elevating the temperature of the mixture at atmospheric pressure, then subjecting the mixture to high shear (which comprises a pretreatment step); step 3, elevation of the wood/ethanol mixture to supercritical conditions, while mixing. Step 4, recovers the ethanol for reuse via distillation. The resulting oil contains lignin, solid cellulose, and carbohydrate derivatives. After filtration to remove the cellulosic fraction in Step 5, the water soluble materials are removed in a counter current wash to purify the hydrophobic oil. The resulting products are a hydrophobic free flowing oil, cellulose, and carbohydrate derived water soluble stream. Applications of the products include co-firing and co-processing of the oil with hydrocarbon streams, use of the cellulose in biochemical conversion, and solid products. The aqueous carbohydrate stream can provide sufficient energy to supply the entire process via anaerobic digestion to biogas to generate heat and electricity.

Supercritical upgrading reactors and reactor systems for upgrading a petroleum-based compositions comprising one or more catalyst layers and, in some embodiments, one or more purging fluid inlets, where one or more catalyst layers at least partially sift and convert heavy hydrocarbon fractions to light hydrocarbon fractions to produce an upgraded supercritical reactor product. In some embodiments, upgrading reactor systems comprise one or more supercritical upgrading reactors and one or more supercritical standby reactors alternating functions such that a supercritical upgrading reactor is converted to a supercritical standby reactor and the supercritical standby reactor is converted to a supercritical upgrading reactor, where the supercritical upgrading reactor upgrades a combined feed stream while a supercritical standby reactor delivers a cleaning fluid into the supercritical standby reactor.

The present application relates to a process for production of hydrocarbons comprising the steps of converting a feed stream comprising alcohols, ethers or mixtures hereof over a metal-containing zeolite based catalyst, active in dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons, in a conversion step thereby obtaining a conversion effluent, separating said effluent to obtain art aqueous process condensate stream, a liquid hydrocarbon stream and a gaseous stream, removing part of the hydrogen formed in the conversion step, and recycling at least part of the gaseous and/or liquid hydrocarbon stream to the conversion step.

This invention involves a method and a device for enhanced oil-water separation and desalination in a low-pressure separator. The water-containing oil is mixed with desalted water in a countercurrent way at the entrance, wherein the desalted water accounts for 0-1% of the water-containing oil by volume. The resultant oil-water mixture then enters a T-shaped liquid-gas separator (3) for degassing treatment to quickly separate gas from the mixture. In a low-pressure separator, the oil-water mixture flows, from left to right, to a flow conditioner (4) to uniformly distribute the mixture in the transverse section, and then flows to a hydrophilic droplet agglomeration module (5) and a CPI fast separation module (6) to separate water from oil, wherein part of the separated water is discharged and the oil with a trace of water (0-0.01%) passes over a partition (18) to a deep separation segment. The oil is subjected to deep water removal by a conjugated fiber water removal module and then discharged, and the water captured by the conjugated fiber water removal module is subject to a conjugated fiber oil removal module for deep oil removal and then discharged.