| Résumé | The hot water process used by Suncor and Syncrude to extract bitumen from the Athabaska Oil Sands produces large volumes of tailings slurry. The fine grain sludge component of this waste is the most troublesome because of its stability and poor compactibility. Apparently, the sludge owes it's stability to a complex interaction between organic coated, amorphous particles, clays and bitumen. Recently, we have developed a novel technique for the recovery of organic material from the tailings streams of bitumen extraction plants. The separated fractions include the residual bitumen, naphtha and solids associated with the significant quantities of strongly adsorbed organic matter which is largely insoluable in common solvents. After separation of these hydrophobic components, the cleaned sludge was found to show altered settling bahaviour. |
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