Degradation of Naphthenic Acids from Oil Sands Process Water and Groundwater Using Chemical Oxidation

• Author / Creator

  Lu, Weibing

• Naphthenic acids attribute to the toxicity of oil sands process water. Naphthenic acids quantification by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy depends significantly on which standard is used and Merichem naphthenic acids are a good standard. Naphthenic acids can be removed from oil sands process water using sodium persulfate as the oxidant in the presence of iron sulfate or zero-valent iron as the activator. Increasing temperature increased reaction rate between naphthenic acids and sodium persulfate. The chemical oxidation process has a significant effect on oil sands process water chemistry, especially, the pH dropped from 8.3 to about 2.4 after chemical oxidation. Naphthenic acids can be degraded from groundwater in the presence of soil using sodium persulfate with 95 % efficiency within 40 days at 22 0C. The chemical oxidation did not significantly decrease the number of total bacteria in the DNA extracted from the soil.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Chemical oxidation
  • Naphthenic acids
  • Oil sands process water

• Graduation date

  Fall 2013

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3B97Q

• 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.