Importance

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Abstract

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for the extraction of petroleum from tar sands, bituminous shale, and other petroleum bearing materials, and the separation of the extracted petroleum into its several fractions. The process consists essentially of chopping the material to break it into a finely divided particulate and homogeneous mass; depositing the material as a finely divided particulate homogeneous mass on linearly spaced flat reciprocating transporters housed within a vaporizing chamber having one inlet at one end and a discharge at the other, including the step of metering the material as it is deposited on the transporters; transporting the material through a vaporizing zone in direct contact with the transporters which are made of electrically heatable material, electrically heating the transporters to thereby heat the petroleum bearing material as it is transported through the vaporizing zone to vaporize the corresponding component of the petroleum and then recovering the said corresponding vaporized component of the petroleum as a distinct condensate. Even though, the vaporizing zone may be singular, it may be, if desired, divided into a plurality of vaporizing zones, corresponding to the number of hydrocarbon fractions which it is desired to separately collect in a substantially pure state. In the case of a series of vaporizing zones, the temperature to which the material is raised in each chamber is that at which the particular fraction to be recovered is vaporized.

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First Claim