Claims
- 1. A method for separating solids from a hydrocarbon slurry comprising:mixing an effective amount of an additive with a hydrocarbon slurry; and allowing solids from the slurry to settle and form a settled phase, wherein the additive is a polymer having (a) a polymeric backbone comprising polyol units and at least one unsaturated polycarboxylic unit, (b) acrylate units coordinated via unsaturated polycarboxylic units, and (c) oxyalkylated alkyl phenol units.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the additive also includes a sulfonic acid selected from the group consisting of aromatic sulfonic acids, alkyl sulfonic acids and mixtures thereof.
- 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the aromatic sulfonic acid has a general formula: wherein R is a substituent selected from the group consisting of H and C1 to C20 alkyls; and R′ is selected from the group consisting of H, Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, N(R1R2R3R4)+ and P(R5R6R7R8)+, wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, and R8 are independently selected from the group consisting of H and C1 to C20 alkyls and at least one of R5, R6, R7 and R8 is not H; and wherein the alkyl sulfonic acid is selected from the group consisting of linear C1-C2 alkyl sulfonic acids, branched C1-C12 alkyl sulfonic acids, cyclic alkyl sulfonic acids having five to twelve carbon atoms, amino function containing alkyl sulfonic acids having five to twelve carbon atoms, and mixtures thereof.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the effective amount of the additive is in the range of from about 5 ppm to about 1000 ppm, by volume, of the hydrocarbon slurry.
- 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the additive also includes a diluent or a solvent.
- 6. The method of claim 2, wherein the aromatic sulfonic acid is selected from the group consisting of para-undecanylbenzenesulfonic acid, para-dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid and mixtures thereof.
- 7. The method of claim 3, wherein the polymer is in the range of from about 3% to about 100%, by weight, of the additive; and the aromatic sulfonic acid, 1% to 8%, by weight, of the additive, is para-substituted and the substituent is selected from the group consisting of C4 to C15 alkyls.
- 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the polyol units are selected from the group consisting of polyethylene glycol segments, polypropylene glycol segments and mixtures thereof; and the oxyalkylated alkyl phenol units consist essentially of oxyalkylated alkyl phenol resins.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application takes priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/172,338 filed Dec. 16, 1999, assigned to the assignee of this application.
US Referenced Citations (12)
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60/172338 |
Dec 1999 |
US |