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Effect of Residual Bitumen on Polymer-assisted Flocculation of Fluid Fine Tailings
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- Author / Creator
- Klein, Colin G
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In bitumen recovery from oil sands, a percentage of the bitumen is lost to tailings.
The effect of fugitive bitumen on fines settling and consolidation in tailings ponds
remains controversial. In the current study, the settling performance of mature
fine tailings (MFT) in response to flocculant addition was considered by studying
MFT of varying bitumen content. Bitumen content in the MFT was adjusted by
controlled removal of bitumen using a Denver flotation cell. The initial settling
rate of flocculated MFT was observed to increase with decreasing bitumen
content from 0.45 to 0.18 wt%. A further reduction in bitumen content was found
to dramatically decrease the settling rate of flocculated MFT. Such behaviour
seems counterintuitive since the polymer flocculant was found to have a low
affinity for bitumen contaminated surfaces, as measured by quartz crystal
microbalance with dissipation (QCM‐D), which would predict a further increase
in settling rate of flocculated MFT with decreasing bitumen content. Reasons for
this behavior were investigated and it was observed that the decrease in settling
rate coincided with long periods of intense mixing in the Denver cell. The
underlying reason for this behavior is the subject of ongoing investigation. The
current study confirms the use of flotation as a viable option to control MFT
bitumen content and improve the settling rate of flocculated MFT. -
- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2014
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- 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.