SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMAGE-BASED ANALYSIS OF A SLURRY AND CONTROL OF A SLURRY PROCESS

摘要

A system for characterizing a slurry in a slurry process includes a flow tube,acamera, and a computer. The system is suitable for use with an oil sandsextraction slurry processed or treated by an oil sands extraction slurryprocess.The slurry is diverted from the slurry process into the flow tube. The cameraimages the slurry as it flows through a transparent portion of the flow tubetoproduce a digital image of the slurry. The computer analyzes the digital imagetodetermine a slurry characteristic. Based on the determined slurrycharacteristic,the computer may predict a performance metric of the slurry process and adjustan operating parameter of the slurry process to optimize the slurry processtowards a target performance metric. Multiple systems may be used tocontinuously monitor slurry characteristics at upstream and downstream stepsofthe slurry process, and determine correlations between those characteristics.