Separation and recovery of bitumen from oil sand using CO₂-loaded amine solution and ultrasound

Abstract Oil sand is a mixture of bitumen, sand, and water. The separation and recovery of bitumen is the key to oil sand utilization. This study combined CO 2 -loaded amine solution and ultrasound utilization for high-efficiency bitumen recovery. Pretreatment of oil sand using an amine solution was applied before flotation to separate bitumen from sand. Ultrasound can enhance the separation of bitumen from sand by the physical effect in pretreatment and promote the contact of CO 2 and bitumen in flotation by increasing the CO 2 bubble’s residence time and surface area. The effectiveness of ultrasound irradiation with different frequencies (28 kHz and 200 kHz) and stirring in pretreatment and flotation were studied. Both ultrasound frequencies could enhance the bitumen separation and flotation more than stirring, and a high bitumen purity of 0.91 and a recovery ratio of 0.85 were achieved.