Patent ID: 9375725
Filing Date: 2016-06-28
CPC Classification: B01D,B03B,C10G

Claim Text:
1. A process comprising: delivering oil sands tailings mixed with water to a primary separation vessel so as to separate the oil sands tailings into a plurality of layers, wherein at least one of the plurality of layers comprises a mature fines tailing material that includes oil sands tailings suspended in water; extracting the mature fines tailing material from the primary separation vessel and delivering the mature fines tailing material to an apparatus configured to mechanically separate a portion of the water in the mature fines tailing material from a portion of the oil sands tailings suspended in the water so as to generate a concentrated oil sands tailings material; delivering the concentrated oil sands tailings material along with heated gas to an apparatus configured to thermally evaporate water from the concentrated oil sands tailings materials, thereby producing a trafficable dried oil sands tailings material and a gas stream comprising water, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide; separating the gas stream from the trafficable dried oil sands tailings material; and recycling at least a portion of the gas stream separated from the trafficable dried oil sands tailings material by delivering the portion of the gas stream to a furnace configured to generate the heated gas that is supplied to the apparatus configured to thermally evaporate water.