Degradation of Naphthenic Acids in Athabasca Oil Sands Process-Affected Water Using Ozone

• Author / Creator

  Hongjing , Fu

• In order to determine the degradation of Naphthenic Acids (NAs) in oil sands process-affected water (OSPW), a series of semi-batch ozonation experiments have been conducted resulting in a maximum reduction of NAs greater than 99%. Compared to the high NAs removal, the reduction of both COD and DOC was much lower under the same conditions. Following ozone treatments of approx. 80 mg/L, the cBOD5 and cBOD5/COD tripled as compared to original OSPW measurements, suggesting ozone-treated OSPW has a higher biodegradability. The ozone treatments also detoxified the OSPW; with an ozone treatment of approx. 100 mg/L, the treated OSPW showed no toxicity using the Mircotox® bioassay. Additionally, the coke-treated OSPW, treated using a coke/water slurry process, was found to be non-toxic with an ozone treatment of approx. 20 mg/L. The results obtained during this study shows the great potential ozonation may offer as a possible water treatment application for oil sands water management.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Ozone
  • oil sands
  • naphthenic acids
  • tailings ponds
  • process-affected water

• Graduation date

  Spring 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3H431

• 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.