PERFORMANCE OF AUGER-TYPE DRY MATERIALS FEEDERS WHEN FEEDING OIL SANDS

Continuous, reproducible solids feeding has historically been difficul t to achieve during surface mining-recovery process development studie s with Uinta Basin oil sands. In an effort to solve the problem, comme rcial bin-discharge feeders were tested for oil sands feeding to rotar y kiln and fluidized-bed pyrolysis reactors and for feeding spent sand s from pyrolysis reactors to combustion reactors. Feeder experiments w ere conducted using spent sands, fresh oil sands, and mixtures of fres h and spent sands. Three variations of the feeder, nine different auge r sizes, and three different auger types were tested. Experimental dat a collected included average feed rates and cumulative weight delivere d by the feeder. The factors which were determined to affect oil sands feeding were: (1) bitumen content of the oil sands, (2) moisture cont ent of the oil sands,(3) temperature rise on the auger and in the auge r housing during the operation of the feeder, (4) auger rotation speed , (5) auger diameter and type, (6) ratio of spent sands-to-fresh oil s ands in the feed mixture, and (7) level of oil sands in the feeder hop per with small feeders. A larger diameter (d greater than or equal to 6.35 cm) auger running at low speed with a water-jacketed auger housin g gave the most consistent and reproducible feeding performance.