Thermal processing of Utah tar sands

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Title Thermal processing of Utah tar sands
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Engineering
Department Chemical Engineering
Author Smart, Larry M.
Date 1984-06
Description A two-staged fluidized-bed reactor for the energy-efficient, thermal recovery of bitumen from Utah tar sands has been constructed. This reactor is a scaled-up version of an earlier system investigated at the University of Utah, and involves the use of three liquid-potassium heat pipes which thermally couple an upper pyrolysis bed with a lower combustion bed. The reactor has been studied to determine the effect of multiple heat pipes, increased feed rate, and longer duration run times. The process consists essentially of three steps. In the first step, mined and suitably sized tar sand, being fed into the reactor at a constant rate, is pyrolyzed at temperatures of 440C to above 500°C in an inert atmosphere to volatilize and partially crack most of the contained bitumen. The vaporized products of the pyrolysis section are condensed and coalesced to give a synthetic crude oil. In the second step, coked sand, formed as a by-product in the pyrolysis reactor, is combusted with air at tempe
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Thermal Oil Recovery; Oil Sands, Utah
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name MS
Language eng
Rights Management © Larry M. Smart
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 8,458,755 bytes
Identifier undthes,4319
Master File Extent 8,458,755 bytes
ARK ark:/87278/s6zg6v0n
Setname ir_etd
ID 190761
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6zg6v0n
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