Energy-efficient method for thermal processing of Utah tar sands

A modification of the existing University of Utah process for thermal recovery of oil from tar sands is described and tested. In the first step of the process, bituminous sand is fed into a fluidized pyrolysis bed, where the bitumen is cracked and vaporized at temperatures of 430°C to 550°C. In the second step, energy required to operate the fluidized bed is generated by burning coked sand, a by-product of the pyrolysis reactor, with air in a second fluidized bed reactor located directly below the pyrolysis reactor. The coked sand is transferred from the pyrolysis to the combustion reactor by gravity, and energy is transferred from the combustion reactor to the pyrolysis reactor by using a potassium-containing heat pipe as the heat exchanger device. In the third and final step, the synthetic oil produced and some of the energy from the exiting streams are recovered. Main modifications of the existing thermal process include fluid dynamic decoupling of the fluidized bed reactors by