Oil solvation process for the treatment of oil contaminated sand

摘要

A method for the treatment of oil well production streams to process oil-contaminated sand to recover oil therefrom and produce an ecologically acceptable clean sand residue. The process involves separating the production fluid from an oil well having sand entrained therein into a plurality of components, one of which comprises an oil- contaminated sand. The contaminated sand is contacted with a light oil solvent to initiate a solvating action of the oil contaminant. The resulting mixture of oil-contaminated sand and solvent is then contacted with water and the system then gravity separated into discrete sand, water and oil phases. The oil and water phases may be removed from the sand and the sand phase again contacted with water and the resulting mixture then subjected to gravity separation to produce separate sand and water phases. The water phase is then removed and the sand passed to a suitable disposal facility.