Polymer Aids for Settling and Filtration of Oil Sands Tailings
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University of Alberta Polymer Aids for Settling and Filtration of Oil Sands Tailings by Xiaoyan Wang A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Chemical and Materials Engineering ©Xiaoyan Wang Spring 2010 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. 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The author retains copyright L’auteur conserve la propriété du droit d’auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author’s permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n’y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Examining Committee Jacob H. Masliyah, Chemical and Materials Engineering Zhenghe Xu, Chemical and Materials Engineering Yang Liu, Civil and Environmental Engineering Acknowledgement I wish to thank Dr. Jacob H. Masliyah and Dr. Zhenghe Xu for their excellent guidance and encouragement throughout the course of this work. Special thanks to Dr. Xianhua Feng for his great help in polymer preparation and valuable discussion throughout the project. I also want to thank Mr. Longhui Qiu and Mr. Bei Jia and Albian Sands Energy for providing the tailings samples used in this work. I would like to thank Ms. Xin Zhang for her help in water sample analysis, Mr. Randy Mandryk for his help on TEM imaging, and Mr. Shihong Xu for assistance with elements analysis. I would also like to acknowledge Mr. Jim Skwarok, Ms. Shiauyin Wu, Dr. Francis Nsiah, Ms. Leanne Swekla and all members in the Oil Sands Research Group at the University of Alberta for their kind assistance during this work. The financial support from NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Oil Sands Engineering is also gratefully appreciated. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my family and friends. I am forever grateful to my family for their love and support. I thank all my friends for standing by me and for sharing. Abstract Commercial Magnafloc 1011 and in-house synthesized Al-PAM were used as flocculants for treating model tailings, laboratory extraction tailings and tailings from paraffinic froth treatment unit. The polymers were tested for their ability for flocculation of tailings in settling and filtration. For model tailings, both polymers showed excellent ability to improve the settling and filtration performance. Magnafloc 1011 is found more sensitive to overdosing than Al-PAM within the tested range. For the laboratory extraction tailings, both polymers showed excellent ability to enhance settling. Al-PAM performed very well as a filtration aid. The moisture of the cake obtained from tailings derived from a low fines ore was 6.6 ± 1.2 wt% and that from a high fines ore was 16.9 ± 0.8 wt%. However, Magnafloc 1011 was found not effective as a filtration aid. For the froth treatment tailings, Al-PAM improved the settling and filterability dramatically. Although the moisture of the cake obtained was 42.5 wt%, no free water is seen visually in the cake. The solid cake is self-supportive and remains intact. This class of Al-PAM polymers can provide an alternative approach for oil sands tailings disposal that can potentially eliminate tailings ponds. Table of contents Chapter 1 Introduction………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 2 Literature review 2.1 Nature of oil sands tailings and management difficulties……………….5 2.2 Development and available technologies for oil sands tailings treatment………………………………………………………………...7 2.3 Research on flocculation studies for oil sands tailings…………………12 Chapter 3 Al-PAM synthesis and characterization 3.1 Al-PAM synthesis………………………………………………………20 3.2 Characterization of Al-PAM……………………………………………21 Chapter 4 Settling and flocculation experimental procedure 4.1 Materials…………………………………………….………………….24 4.2 Settling tests……………………………………………………………29 4.3 Filtration tests…………………………………………………………..30 Chapter 5 Effect of Magnafloc 1011 addition on settling and filtration of tailings 5.1 Effect of Magnafloc 1011 addition on model tailings 5.1.1 Effect of Magnafloc 1011 addition on settling of model tailings…34 5.1.2 Effect of Magnafloc 1011 addition on filtration of model tailings.38 5.2 Effect of Magnafloc 1011 addition on laboratory extraction tailings 5.2.1 Effect of Magnafloc 1011 addition on settling of laboratory extraction tailings…………………………………....……..….....45 5.2.2 Effect of Magnafloc 1011 addition on filtration of laboratory extraction tailings……………..…………………...……….…….49 5.3 Discussion on the possible mechanism of Magnafloc 1011 addition on filtration of laboratory extraction tailings……………………………...50 5.4 Summary……………………………………………………………….52 Chapter 6 Effect of Al-PAM addition on settling and filtration of tailings 6.1 Effect of Al-PAM addition on model tailings 6.1.1 Effect of Al-PAM addition on settling of model tailings…………55 6.1.2 Effect of Al-PAM addition on filtration of model tailings……….61 6.2 Effect of Al-PAM addition on laboratory extraction tailings 6.2.1 Effect of Al-PAM addition on settling of laboratory extraction tailings……………………………………………………………65 6.2.2 Effect of Al-PAM addition on filtration of laboratory extraction tailings……………………………………………………………69 6.3 Effect of Al-PAM addition on paraffinic froth treatment tailings 6.3.1 Effect of Al-PAM addition on settling of paraffinic froth treatment tailings……………………………………………………………72 6.3.2 Effect of Al-PAM addition on filtration of paraffinic froth treatment tailings............................................................................................74 6.4 Discussion on the possible mechanism of Al-PAM enhanced filtration of oil sands tailings………………………………………………………..77 6.5 Effect of Al-PAM addition on the water quality of filtrate……………..84 6.6 Summary……………………………………………………………….87 Chapter 7 Filtration theory analysis on the effect of polymer addition on filtration of oil sands tailings...............................................................................92 Chapter 8 Conclusions………………………………………………………...104 Chapter 9 Recommendations for future research…………………………...105 List of Figures Figure 2-1-1 Schematic of a typical CHWE bitumen extraction process…….….7 Figure 2-2-1 Illustration of typical particles in the whole tailings before and after lime is added……………………………………………..…...……9 Figure 2-2-2 Schematic of a CT Process………………………………………..11 Figure 4-1-1 Particle size distribution of kaolin and sand in model tailings slurry…………………………………………………………..…..25 Figure 4-1-2 Particle size distribution of the solids in laboratory extraction tailings………………………………………………….……….…27 Figure 4-1-3 Flow sheet of froth treatment unit at Albian Sands Energy…….....28 Figure 4-1-4 Particle size distribution of the solids in paraffinic froth treatment tailings…………………………….…………………………….….29 Figure 4-3-1 Laboratory filtration unit………..………………………………….31 Figure 5-1-1 Effect of Magnafloc 1011 addition on settling of model tailings……………………………………………………...………35 Figure 5-1-2 Effect of Magnafloc 1011 addition on ISR of model tailings with different solids contents……………………………………………36 Figure 5-1-3 Photographs of model tailings with the addition of Magnafloc 1011 after 10 minutes of settling (Solids: 25 wt %)…………………...…37 Figure 5-1-4 Turbidity of the supernatants of model tailings after 10 minutes of settling time with the addition of Magnafloc 1011