Patent ID: 8398857

Claim:
A process for extracting a solute from oil sands, comprising: feeding particles of the oil sands to an extraction chamber, wherein a majority of the particles fed to the extraction chamber pass through a 5 mesh sieve, but are retained by a 40 mesh sieve; injecting globules of an extraction solvent comprised of a C 1 -C 5 hydrocarbon into the extraction chamber to contact the particles of the oil sands and extract at least a portion of the solute from the oil sands, wherein the solvent is injected into the extraction chamber at an average globule size of from 500 microns to 2500 microns and the particles of oil sands and the globules of extraction solvent are fed into the extraction chamber at an average particle size to average globule size ratio of 1≦1 and at an average particle size to average globule size ratio of 1≧0.5; collecting a mixture of the extracted solute and solvent from the extraction chamber; and separating the solute from the solvent by vaporization.