초록

A dual-purpose railcar is provided, designed for hauling of bitumen or diluent, optimized to provide transport of bitumen to a destination and transport of diluent in the return trip of the car.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A process of efficient bitumen transport by a dual purpose railway tank car comprising the steps of: a. Heating bitumen and flowing the bitumen into an insulated tank of the tank car until the car reaches its maximum weight load;b. Transporting the heated bitumen to a destination by rail;c. Heati

1. A process of efficient bitumen transport by a dual purpose railway tank car comprising the steps of: a. Heating bitumen and flowing the bitumen into an insulated tank of the tank car until the car reaches its maximum weight load;b. Transporting the heated bitumen to a destination by rail;c. Heating the bitumen in the insulated tank by application of steam supplied at the destination through a heat exchanger in or on the insulated tank containing the bitumen;d. Flowing the heated bitumen out of the insulated tank until the tank is emptied;e. Sufficiently cooling the insulated tank by provision of water or a fluid at suitable temperature to the heat exchanger in the insulated tank to avoid flash evaporation of its next load;f. Loading the tank car to its maximum volumetric capacity with diluent;g. Transporting the diluent by rail to another destination; andh. Unloading the diluent from the tank car. 2. The process of claim 1, but with the steps in the order f, g, h, a, b, c, d, e.