Patent ID: 7481318

Claim:
A continuous process for treating a stream of aqueous aerated oil sand slurry containing bitumen droplets and sand and separating it in a separator, comprising: providing an elongated closed vessel forming a chamber having a circular cross-section and a longitudinal axis, said vessel having an inlet at one end and an outlet at its other end; injecting the slurry stream through the inlet to cause the slurry to rotate as it advances longitudinally through the chamber, so that under centrifugal force bitumen droplets move inwardly toward the chamber axis and are concentrated, thereby increasing the probability of bitumen droplet contact, coalescence and growth, and producing a treated slurry stream; expelling the treated slurry stream through the vessel outlet; and introducing the expelled treated slurry stream into the separator, separating the sand from the bitumen, and recovering resultant separated bitumen.