Conditioning drum for a tar sands hot water extraction process
US4549935A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 16, 1983 |
| Grant date | Oct 29, 1985 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 16, 2003 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC C)Chemistry; Metallurgy
- CPC primaryC10G1/047
- WIPO fieldBasic materials chemistry
- WIPO sectorChemistry
Abstract
The thermodynamic efficiency of a tar sands conditioning drum is improved by continuously and simultaneously discharging steam from all the nozzles of an array of a few relatively large nozzles distributed circumferentially around the inner drum periphery rather than selectively sparging the steam only from those nozzles beneath the tar sands pulp surface. As a result, the drum shell and components above the pulp are heated and thus heat the pulp by radiation and, after entering the pulp, by convection as well as by sparging. Hot water droplets formed continuously in the steam cloud rain onto the pulp surface to provide another highly important heat transfer mechanism. Coincidentally, mechanical reliability and economics are achieved by eliminating the sparge valve and multiplicity of smaller nozzles which characterize the prior art tar sands conditioning drums.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.