Removal of Naphthenic Acid from Tailings Pond Water Via pH Adjustment, Coagulation and Sand Filtration

摘要

Oil sands operations in the Athabasca Oil Sands of northeastern Alberta produce large volumes of water which is currently managed via settling basins (1). A method of capturing the difficult to settle fine solids portion of the tailings streams with the coarse sand fraction post coagulation has been developed. This process has been termed Non-segregated Tailings (NST), or Consolidated Tailings (CT)*2,3). As a result of this process, large volumes of process affected water are released which are low in suspended solids, but still contain relatively high levels of dissolved inorganics and organic constituents. The CT process reduces the organic acid component of the DOC, which includes the major acute toxicant (naphthenic acid), by 25 to 40