Process to separate a mixture of water, solids or sludges, non-volatile hydrocarbons and other accompanying substances

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A process separates a mixture of water solids or sludges, non-volatile hydrocarbons and other accompanying substances by means of solvent extraction. Mixtures that consist primarily of solids or sludge with non-volatile hydrocarbons are especially suited for application of this process, if they occur as a concentrated sludge from a settling pond of bitumen production from tar sands. However it is also possible to use the process to decontaminate soil contaminated by crude oil spillage. The process makes it possible to process, and to break down to its primary constituents, the oil-bearing sludge that has accumulated during the production of bitumen from tar sands using the hot water method, …