Patent ID: 8387545

Claim:
A method comprising: a) introducing flue gas in a steam-assisted production facility into a vapor-liquid contactor, wherein the flue gas comprises boiler combustion products selected from at least one of commercial pipeline natural gas and produced gas; b) cooling the flue gas with the vapor-liquid contactor to condense a portion of the water vapor in the flue gas to produce a water stream; c) recirculating and cooling the water stream exiting the bottom of the vapor-liquid contactor in an air cooler to produce recirculating water, wherein the vapor-liquid contactor uses the recirculating water and flow rate of the recirculating water relative to flow rate of make-up water is a ratio of at least 30:1; and d) recovering water from flue gas by taking a water slipstream off of the recirculating water to be used as the make-up water.