Treatment of oil sands coarse tailings

摘要

This paper presents the test results of an oil sands tailings treatment This is a first stage, laboratory screening, of a project on the treatment of coarse tailings at Syncrude Aurora. In this study the coarse tailings were produced synthetically using sand, mature fine tailings (MFT), and recycled process water. Two tailings were prepared at 55% solids with a sand to fines ratio (SFR) of 7 and 10, respectively. The SNF product selected, DPES-7213, was a high molecular weight, medium charge, anionic polyacrylamide. It was found that with the addition ofSNF's polymer, 99% of the fines were captured with negligible segregation. The results also showed that the product worked well on a wide operation window, with SFR values ranging from 7 to 10, a temperature range of 23 to 40 % and a relatively low polymer dosage of 175 g of dry polymer per dry tonne of solids.