Patent ID: 8552244

Claim:
A process for recovering solvent from spent oil sand solids comprising: a) drying the solids using superheated steam to vaporize solvent and water; b) compressing the vapors, and condensing the vapors in a hot side of a first heat exchanger to produce condensates comprising condensed hot water and solvent and uncondensed vapors; c) separating hot water and recovered solvent from the uncondensed vapors produced in step (b) in a first separator; d) flowing the hot water through a cold side of the first heat exchanger to produce near-saturated steam; e) superheating the near-saturated steam in a second heat exchanger to produce the superheated steam of step (a); f) further condensing the vapors from step (c) in a third heat exchanger to produce warm water and solvent and uncondensed off gas; g) separating warm water and recovered solvent from the uncondensed off gas produced in step (f) in a second separator; and h) combining a portion of the warm water with the hot water in step (d).