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2014-12-23

Poesch, M., Christensen-Dalsgaard, K.K., Sinnatamby, R.N.

The Alberta oil sands region contains one of the world’s largest oil deposits, estimated at 1.7 trillion barrels. Development in this region can have negative effects for aquatic species, governed under Canada’s Fisheries Act. The Fisheries Act allows the possibility for offsetting losses in...

2014-11-30

Oil Sands Research and Information Network

As one of its last projects, the Oil Sands Research and Information Network (OSRIN) conducted this survey of oil sands environmental management research and information needs. The survey was conducted in October and early November 2014 for OSRIN by the University of Alberta’s Population Research...

2014-01-23

Martin, J.W., Pereira, A.S.

In response to mounting evidence of local environmental contamination around the Alberta oil sands industry, the Alberta Environmental Monitoring Panel announced a new world class environmental monitoring program for the Alberta oil sands region in early 2011, and a new monitoring system is now...

2014-10-14

Yu, T., Zhu, L., Yu, M., Ulrich, A., Delgado Chavez, L.

The objectives of our research program were to: (1) study biological activities in oil sands mature fine tailings and oil sands process-affected water, (2) develop microbial biofilm seed to support engineered biological processes with enhancement measures, and (3) review available bioreactor...

2014-12-15

Gibson, J., Birks, J., Cho, S., Taylor, E., Yi, Y.

This study was conducted to characterize the composition of polar dissolved organic compounds present in snow and surface waters in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) with the goal of identifying whether atmospherically-derived organics present in snow are an important contributor to the...

2014-12-04

Currie, R., Mian, H., Bansal, S., Khan, I.

The purpose of this report is to use a design of experiment (DOE) approach to examine the main factors affecting the determination of methylene blue index (MBI) values for oil sands samples. The methylene blue titration of clays has become a principle tool to assess extraction efficiency of oil...

2014-12-21

Liang, J., Liu, Y., Deng, L., Guo, Z.

The accumulation of mature fine tailings (MFT) in tailings ponds has been a concern of the oil sands industry and regulators for decades. Previous studies and current practices for fine tailings consolidation focus on the addition of inorganic and organic additives to reduce MFT production and...

2014-10-01

Liu, Y., Jiang, Y.

The extraction process used to obtain bitumen from the oil sands produces large volumes of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW). As a newly emerging desalination technology, forward osmosis (FO) has shown great promise in saving electrical power requirements, increasing water recovery, and...

2014-12-31

Mackenzie, M.D., Lanoil, B., Hofstetter, S., Hatam, I.

Land reclamation of oil sands disturbed boreal forests in Alberta is a challenging task facing companies with surface mine leases. The government requires reclamation to equivalent land capability, which is a vague statement at best. Agronomic theories and methodologies have been applied in the...

2014-10-31

Oil Sands Research and Information Network

Within the next decade we are likely to see some significant tests of the current oil sands regulatory and policy framework, including: • Industry-driven: such as an application for reclamation certificate or an application for release of process-affected water or a request to approve the...