Separation of bituminous material from oil sands and heavy crude oil

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A process for the separate recovery of oil and asphaltene/polar components from oil and asphaltene/polar bearing sand-containing material includes cooling the material to a temperature at which the material behaves as a solid, crushing the material at such a temperature to produce relatively coarse particles containing a major proportion of the sand and oil and relatively fine particles containing a major proportion of the asphaltenes and polars and, mechanically separating the relatively coarse particles from the relatively fine particles at such a temperature. The relatively coarse particles are treated to recover oil, and the relatively fine particles are treated to recover asphaltenes …