Measurement of Carrier Fluid Viscosities for Oil Sand Extraction and Tailings Slurries

• Author / Creator

  Smith, Jessie L

• The mining of oil sands ore and extraction of bitumen produces aqueous slurries containing bitumen, coarse sand and fine clays. The performance of key process units is highly dependent on the rheology of “carrier fluid”, which is comprised of the fine solids and water. Although viscosity is important in process design and monitoring, it is rarely measured and instead determined using correlations. Viscosity depends on numerous factors including fines concentration, solids mineralogy and water chemistry - properties reflected in the size of aggregates formed by agglomerating solid species. More accurate correlations could be obtained by using additional correlating parameters. In this project rheology measurements were obtained using a concentric cylinder rheometer and compared with fines and aggregate volume fractions determined from particle image analysis. Multiple linear regression of key variables provided an equation to predict viscosity using fines content and calcium ion concentration as correlating parameters.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Tailings
  • Oil sands
  • Extraction
  • Viscosity
  • Aggregate
  • Carrier fluid
  • Fine particle suspensions

• Graduation date

  Spring 2013

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3QW6M

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.