| Résumé | A process is described whereby residual bitumen, waste solvent and toluene insoluble organic materials are recovered from oil sand tailings by using a refinery coke as a nucleating agent, thus improving the settling rate of the tailings and the drying rate of the resulting sediment. Tailings studied unclude primary and final stage tailings and settling pond sludges from the hot water process oil sand extraction plants. The analysis given for the sediment, aqueous and organic phases resulting on treatment indicate that the organic content of the final effluent is reduced by a factor of between 4 and 16. The process described should be adaptable to any tailings containing residual bitumen waste solvent and other hydrophobic material. |
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