Provided are processes for treating a tailings stream which comprises water and solids, the process comprising: (i) adding one or more anionic polymer flocculants and one or more nonionic polymer flocculants to the tailings stream; (ii) allowing at least a portion of the solids to flocculate; and (iii) separating at least a portion of the flocculated solids from the tailings stream.

The invention concerns a method (100) for recovering and/or recycling a bituminous product by means of pulsed power, the bituminous product comprising bitumen and elements to be separated, involving the following steps: —supplying (101) a reactor (11) inside which at least two electrodes (13) extend with the bituminous product and a liquid medium of which at least one liquid component has Hansen solubility parameters δη, δρ and δd such that the bitumen is at least partially soluble in the liquid medium, the elements to be separated being insoluble, —generating (102) a series of electromagnetic pulses between the electrodes (13) in the reactor (11) so as to produce, as a result of the power, the frequency and the switching time of the electromagnetic pulses, at least one shock wave and at least ultraviolet radiation, in such a way as to disperse and dissolve the bitumen in the liquid medium, and to separate the bitumen and the insoluble elements, the liquid medium preventing the reconstitution of the bitumen.

A method for the treatment of oil-based sludge by thermal desorption, characterized in that it comprises a step of conditioning of the sludge to be treated which includes the conditioning of the oil-based sludge with rice husk in a 1:2 ratio, before entering the TDU, increasing the technical and economic viability and cost relation of the thermal desorption for oil-based sludge treatment, showing better performance, and making possible the treatment of sludge on an industrial scale with effective rates of 28.6 m3/day, oil recovery of 54%, with a volumetric increase of 19%, compared to the original volume, and a fuel consumption adjusted to the historical data of the TDU from the economic point of view, which allows to have a high amount of rice husk, reducing the costs associated with the elimination of this agro-industrial waste.

The invention relates to a method for producing an oil rich fraction (OF) from primary feedstock (FS) that comprises water, first salt, second salt, and biomass. The feedstock (FS) is provided to a first reaction zone (Z1) of a conversion reactor (100), where it is allowed to react at a temperature of at least 350° C. in a pressure of at least 160 bar to form converted primary feedstock. The method comprises separating from the converted primary feedstock a first salt rich fraction (SF1), a second salt rich fraction (SF2), and an oil rich fraction (OF). The method comprises withdrawing the oil rich fraction (OF) from the first reaction zone (Z1) and withdrawing the first salt rich fraction (SF1) and the second salt rich fraction (SF2) from the conversion reactor (100). In the method the first salt rich fraction (SF1) comprises at least some of the first salt dissolved in the water, the second salt rich fraction (SF2) comprises at least some of the second salt in solid form, and at least one of the first salt and the second salt is a salt capable of catalysing the reaction of the biomass of the primary feedstock (FS) with the water of the primary feedstock (FS) to produce the oil rich fraction (OF). A device for the same.

Hydrotropic composition comprising at least one surface active cationic component, which is selected from a group of cholinium, guadinium or tetramethylguadinium, preferably cholinium, and a straight or branched carboxylate anion having at least six carbon atoms; and its uses, for treating of oil sands or the like, for treating tailings from separation of bitumen, asphaltenes or the like.

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 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 non-aqueous process for producing bitumen from oil sands is provided, and includes contacting oil sands and solvent to produce solvent diluted bitumen and solvent diluted tailings. The solvent diluted bitumen is subjected to a first fines separation stage that produces an overflow solvent diluted bitumen stream with residual fines that is subjected to a second fines separation stage to remove residual fines and produce a solvent diluted bitumen stream, which is subjected to solvent recovery. The fines streams are subjected to washing to produce washed tailings and solvent wash liquor comprising solvent and bitumen. Another non-aqueous process for producing bitumen from oil sands is provided, and includes subjecting oil sands to solvent extraction, including displacing the oil sands material and a solbit counter-currently and horizontally, and recovering a bitumen enriched solbit stream which is subjected to fines separation and subjecting the solvent diluted bitumen stream to solvent recovery.

Processes for conditioning a dry tailings material from a non-aqueous extraction (NAE) process for extracting bitumen from oil sands ore are described. The process can include contacting a main stream of the dry tailings material with a re-wetted tailings seed stream to produce a combined tailings material, and subjecting the combined tailings material to re-wetting to produce a re-wetted tailings material. The re-wetting can include adding a wetting agent to the combined tailings material, and imparting mixing to the combined tailings material. Contacting the main stream of the dry tailings material with the re-wetted tailings seed stream can include recycling a portion of the re-wetted tailings material to the main stream of the dry tailings material as the re-wetted tailings seed stream to produce the combined tailings material, or subjecting a sub-stream of the dry tailings material to sub-stream re-wetting to produce the re-wetted tailings seed stream.

A feedstock flexible process for converting feedstock into oil and gas includes (i) indirectly heated hydrous devolatilization of volatile feedstock components, (ii) indirectly heated thermochemical conversion of fixed carbon feedstock components, (iii) heat integration and recovery, (iv) vapor and gas pressurization, and (v) vapor and gas clean-up and product recovery. A system and method for feedstock conversion includes a thermochemical reactor integrated with one or more hydrous devolatilization and solids circulation subsystems configured to accept a feedstock mixture, comprised of volatile feedstock components and fixed carbon feedstock components, and continuously produce a volatile reaction product stream therefrom, while simultaneously and continuously capturing, transferring, and converting the fixed carbon feedstock components to syngas.