Separation of viscous oils into components

Abstract

The invention provides methods for treating a source oil phase consisting of heavy oil, bitumen, a mixture of heavy oil and bitumen, a mixture of solvent and heavy oil or bitumen or both. The method comprises: introducing the source oil phase to a lower reservoir section of a device, flowing the source oil phase through an array of vertically extending heated pipes with an inert gas so as to thermally separate a vaporized light oil phase component from a heated liquid source oil phase, and segregating fluid flows by density in an upper fluid separating manifold to provide a light product fluid and a heavy product fluid.

Claims

1. A method of treating a source oil phase comprising a heavy oil, a bitumen, a mixture of heavy oil and bitumen, or a mixture of solvent and heavy oil or bitumen or both, the method comprising: introducing the source oil phase to a lower reservoir section within a housing defining a device, the lower reservoir section of the device being in fluid communication with an array of vertically extending pipes above the reservoir section, the array of pipes extending vertically to fluidly connect the lower reservoir section of the device with an upper fluid separating manifold; flowing the source oil phase through the reservoir section into the array of pipes while heating the pipes, to provide heated pipes, wherein the heated pipes are sized to provide a selected residence time of flowing source oil within the pipes; heating the source oil phase within the heated pipes so as to thermally separate a vaporized light oil phase component from a heated liquid source oil phase within the heated pipes, to provide a vaporized light oil phase; introducing an inert gas into the lower reservoir section of the device so as to direct the inert gas into the heated pipes in a concurrent fluid flow with the heated liquid source oil phase and thereby admix the flowing inert gas in the heated pipes with the vaporized light oil phase component therein, motivating the flow of heated fluids out of the array of heated pipes and into the upper fluid separating manifold; segregating fluid flows by density in the upper fluid separating manifold, to provide a light product fluid comprising the vaporized light oil phase and inert gas components and a heavy product fluid comprising a residual heavy oil phase; separately collecting the light product fluid and the heavy product fluid from the upper fluid separating manifold.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising injecting a cooling inert gas into the upper fluid separating manifold so as to cool fluids in the manifold and thereby motivate the separation of the light product fluid from the heavy product fluid.

3. The method of claim 2, where the cooling inert gas is composed of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, ethane, propane, hydrogen, combustion flue gas, or mixtures thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, where heating the source oil phase within the heated pipes is provided by one or more of electrical resistance heating, induction heating, heat tracing, or hot fluid heating either within a pipe or directly into the source oil phase.

5. The method of claim 4, where heating is provided by the induction heating directly of the heated pipes.

6. The method of claim 1, where the temperature of fluid in the heated pipes is between about 280 and 600° C.

7. The method of claim 1, where the temperature of fluid in the heated pipes is between about 350 and 550° C.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein heating of the fluid in the heated pipes comprises thermally cracking the source oil so as to generate an additional fraction of vaporized light oil.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein fluid in the upper fluid separating manifold is maintained at a temperature of between about 20° C. and 200° C.

10. A device adapted for treating a source oil phase comprising a heavy oil, a bitumen, a mixture of heavy oil and bitumen, or a mixture of solvent and heavy oil or bitumen or both, the device comprising: a source oil phase inlet into a lower reservoir section within a housing defining the device, the lower reservoir section of the device being in fluid communication with an array of vertically extending pipes above the reservoir section, the array of pipes extending vertically to fluidly connect the lower reservoir section of the device with an upper fluid separating manifold; a heater disposed to heat flowing source oil within the array of pipes, thereby providing heated pipes, wherein the heated pipes are sized to provide a selected residence time of flowing source oil within the pipes so as to permit thermal separation of a vaporized light oil phase component from a heated liquid source oil phase within the heated pipes, to provide a vaporized light oil phase; an inert gas inlet into the lower reservoir section of the device positioned so as to direct the inert gas into the heated pipes in a concurrent fluid flow with the heated liquid source oil phase and thereby admix the flowing inert gas in the heated pipes with the vaporized light oil phase component therein, motivating the flow of heated fluids out of the array of heated pipes and into the upper fluid separating manifold; outlet ports for separately collecting a light product fluid and a heavy product fluid from the upper fluid separating manifold, where the product fluids are segregated by density in the upper fluid separating manifold, wherein the light product fluid comprises the vaporized light oil phase and inert gas components and the heavy product fluid comprises a residual heavy oil phase.

11. The device of claim 10, further comprising a cooling inert gas inlet into the upper fluid separating manifold positioned so as to cool fluids in the manifold and thereby motivate the separation of the light product fluid from the heavy product fluid.

12. The device of 11, where the cooling inert gas is composed of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, ethane, propane, hydrogen, combustion flue gas, or mixtures thereof.

13. The device of claim 10, where the heater heating the flowing source oil phase within the heated pipes is one or more of an electrical resistance heater, an induction heater, a heat tracing, or a hot fluid heating system.

14. The device of claim 13, where the heater is the induction heater, positioned to directly heat the heated pipes.

15. The device of 10, where heater is adapted to provide a temperature of fluid in the heated pipes of between about 280 and 600° C.

16. The device of 10, where the heater is adapted to provide a temperature of fluid in the heated pipes of between about 350 and 550° C.

17. The device of 10, wherein device is configured so that heating of the fluid in the heated pipes comprises thermally cracking the source oil so as to generate an additional fraction of vaporized light oil.

18. The device of 10, wherein the upper fluid separating manifold is configured to maintained fluid therein at a temperature of between about 20° C. and 200° C.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a diagram exemplifying one implementation of the methods described herein for treating a source oil phase and converting it into a light oil phase and a residual heavy oil phase.

(2) FIG. 2 is a diagram exemplifying the design of the heating system using an induction heater.

(3) FIG. 3 is a diagram exemplifying another implementation of the methods described herein for treating a source oil phase and converting it into a light oil phase and a residual heavy oil phase.

(4) FIG. 4 is a diagram exemplifying another implementation of the methods described herein for treating a source oil phase and converting it into a light oil phase and a residual heavy oil phase.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(5) Methods are provided to separate a light oil phase and residual heavy oil phase from a source oil phase (either heavy oil, bitumen, or a mixture of solvent and heavy oil or bitumen or both) where an inert gas is introduced into the device that contains internal cooling fins that direct the condensed light end components to a collection system within the device. This can be used to provide a value-added light oil component from a heavy oil or bitumen or mixture of the two or a mixture of one or both with solvents.

(6) FIG. 1 displays one embodiment of the device. The source oil phase enters the device into the heated section of the device where the temperature is between 280 and 600° C. The heating to internal pipes in the device can be provided from an induction heaters. An hot inert gas can be injected into the bottom of the device to aid in mixing of the heated oil and to help heat the oil.

(7) In the device taught here, the light oil components and gas can be removed from the unit and cooled to yield a gas (the original inert gas) and a liquid light oil component mixture. If needed, a relatively cool inert gas can be introduced to the top part of the device to aid with cooling.

(8) The inert gas is preferentially any gas that is absent of oxygen. This includes nitrogen, flue gas, hydrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, flue gas, and mixtures thereof.

(9) In some implementations, the inert gas introduced to the device is at lower temperature than the hot section of the device.

(10) FIG. 2 illustrates the heating coil design for the induction heater which can yield temperatures between 280 and 600° C. The heated oil generates vapors by two physical consequences. First, the light end components in the source oil phase are vaporized due to sufficient latent heat being supplied that boils off the light end components. Second, the source oil phase components, especially the larger, heavy molecules, are broken down by thermal cracking (pyrolysis) into light end components that then are boiled off from the liquid in the heated zone of the device.

(11) In FIG. 1, the vaporized light end components rise through the pipes into the upper section of the device.

(12) The flow of the inert gas within the device helps to move the liquid light ends from the device.

(13) The heaters surrounding the pipes can consist of conductive heating through the device wall from electrical resistance heaters (e.g. heat tracing tape or lines), electrical induction heaters (with induction heating plates), injection of hot inert or flue gas (for example the product of combustion of a fuel) external to the pipes, or steam-based heating where steam pipes are placed within the heated source oil, or heated fluid (for example hot oil or hot flue gas) heating.

(14) FIG. 3 illustrates another implementation of the present methods for treating a source oil phase where the top part of the device serves as a condensing surface for the light end components. The light end components cool down in the top section and subsequently condense on the internal cooling funs and external cooling surfaces which then direct the condensed liquid to the collection pool from which the liquid light end components are removed from the device. The top section of the device is kept cooler than about 200° C. and preferably lower than 160° C.

(15) FIG. 4 illustrates another implementation of the present methods for treating a source oil phase where heating of the pipes is provided by hot gas flowing around the external surfaces of the pipes

(16) The internal surfaces of the device can be coated with a oleophobic substrate.

(17) The inert gas injection may also contain hydrogen which can be used to produce greater amounts of the light oil phase product.

(18) The residence time of the source oil phase in each pipe is to be of order of seconds to hours, preferably of the order of minutes to tens of minutes.

(19) The number of pipes can be adjusted to meet the required source oil flow rate.

(20) The radius of the pipes is to be of order of 0.1 to 5 inches, preferably of the order of 1 to 2 inches.

(21) Although various embodiments of the invention are disclosed herein, many adaptations and modifications may be made within the scope of the invention in accordance with the common general knowledge of those skilled in this art. Such modifications include the substitution of known equivalents for any aspect of the invention in order to achieve the same result in substantially the same way. Numeric ranges are inclusive of the numbers defining the range. The word “comprising” is used herein as an open-ended term, substantially equivalent to the phrase “including, but not limited to”, and the word “comprises” has a corresponding meaning. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a thing” includes more than one such thing. Citation of references herein is not an admission that such references are prior art to the present invention. Any priority document(s) and all publications, including but not limited to patents and patent applications, cited in this specification are incorporated herein by reference as if each individual publication were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference herein and as though fully set forth herein. The invention includes all embodiments and variations substantially as hereinbefore described and with reference to the examples and drawings.