The present disclosure refers to a process of obtaining a biocrude from biomass, where said process comprises the solvothermal liquefaction of the biomass in the presence of a mixture of solvents, until obtaining a gaseous phase, a solid phase, an aqueous liquid phase and an organic liquid phase comprising the biocrude. Wherein the mixture of solvents comprises between 0.5% w/w to 99.5% w/w of water and at least one solvent; and wherein the solvent is selected from alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, or precursors thereof under the processing conditions. The process described herein allows the use of biomass for the production of renewable fuels, as well as obtaining a biocrude with a yield greater than or equal to 30%, with a calorific value between 20 and 35 MJ/Kg and with a sulfur percentage lower than 1% w/w.

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.

Methods for utilizing a supercritical water unit to convert waste plastics to product through hydrothermal treatment in a supercritical unit are provided. Waste plastic is treated in a pretreatment unit, melting the plastic into a liquid and prepares the plastic for the supercritical water unit. The pretreatment unit can dehalogenate the waste plastic. The molten plastic is introduced into a supercritical water unit with water, which generates a product. A flushing stream of product and steam or water from the supercritical water unit is recycled from the supercritical water unit into the pretreatment unit, preheating and pretreating the waste plastic, and acting as a catalyst in the dechlorination reaction. A purge stream removes the products of the dehalogentation reaction occurring in the melting section.

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).

The crude oil sludge treatment agent is mixed with crude oil sludge and water and used for treatment of the crude oil sludge under alkali conditions. The crude oil sludge treatment agent contains green rust. The crude oil sludge treatment agent may further contain either or both a metal and a metal ferrite. The metal and the metal of the metal ferrite are one or more selected from the group consisting of aluminum, yttrium, zinc, copper, tin, chromium and silicon. The crude oil sludge treatment agent may also contain one or more selected from the group consisting of aluminum ferrite, yttrium ferrite and zinc ferrite. The crude oil sludge treatment method includes a mixing step in which crude oil sludge, water and green rust are mixed under alkali conditions.

Direct steam injection (DSI) heating techniques can use a heater to heat a process stream in bitumen froth treatment. The DSI heater can include a diffuser with multiple side-by-side rows of outlets perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the diffuser, and a piston plug that moves axially within the diffuser to selectively cover rows of outlets to vary steam injection. The piston plug has first and second annular seals and is moved between different axial positions in a stepwise fashion such that when one or more rows of outlets are completely covered, the first annular seal is located in between adjacent rows and the second annular seal abuts against the diffuser to inhibit passage of steam so as to prevent cavitation. The DSI heater can include various other features, such as particular seal unit constructions and diffuser outlet configurations.

A screen cloth for use in a screening device for screening out oversize objects, including oil sand lumps and rocks, is disclosed comprising a supporting structure comprising two mutually opposing lateral attachment elements and a plurality of transverse stiffeners extending therebetween; and a plurality of screen segments, each screen segment having a plurality of openings, and each screen segment comprising a steel base and a plurality of anti-wear tiles attached thereon; whereby the plurality of screen segments are attached to the support structure to form a screening portion of the screen cloth.

The disclosure relates to a process for converting lignin (10) to renewable product (80), wherein the process comprises the following steps; mixing (100) lignin (10) with aqueous solution (20) to obtain a mixture (30); heating (110) the mixture (30) of step (a) to a temperature between 290 and 350° C., under a pressure from 70 to 165 bar, to obtain a first product mix (40); separating aqueous phase (53) and oil phase (50), and optionally gas (51) and solids (52), of the first product mix (40) of step (b); and heating (130) the oil phase (50) of step (c) and solvent (60) to obtain a second product mix (70). The second product mix (70) can be used as such, it can be directed to separation (140) or it can be upgraded. The obtained liquid renewable product is suitable as chemicals, fuel, fuel components or feedstock for fuel production.

A flocculant, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, includes a core nanoparticle and at least one positively charged functional group on a surface of the core nanoparticle. The nanoparticle may comprise a silica, alumina, titania, iron oxide, iron nitride, iron carbide, or a carbon-based nanoparticle. The flocculant may be used, in a method of bitumen recovery, to neutralize and agglomerate bitumen droplets and/or mineral particles derived from oil sands ore. The bitumen droplets agglomerate about the core nanoparticle of the flocculant to form bitumen flocs, while the mineral particles agglomerate about the core nanoparticle of the flocculant to form mineral flocs. The buoyant bitumen flocs may then separate from the dense mineral flocs to enable high-yield recovery of bitumen from oil sands.

A method for pre-treating bitumen froth for mixing with solvent for froth treatment includes heating the froth to a froth-solvent mixing temperature below the solvent flash temperature and suitably high to provide reduced bitumen viscosity sufficiently low for complete mixing of the solvent and the froth prior to introduction into a separation apparatus. A method of improving energy use in froth treatment includes reducing heat provided to the solvent, increasing heat provided to the froth prior to adding the solvent to reduce bitumen viscosity and adding the temperature-reduced solvent to the heated froth. A froth treatment separation process includes trim heating first and second solvent streams to adjust the first and second stage separation temperatures.