Oil sands tailings

Scott AA, MD Mackinnon, PM Fedorak (2005) Naphthenic acids in Athabasca oil sands tailings water are less biodegradable than commercial naphthenic acids. Environ Sci Technol 39 8388-8394. 

Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium, Advances in Oil Sands Tailings Research, Alberta Department of Energy, Edmonton, AB, Canada, 1995. 

Use Cement additive for oil-well casings, absorbent for oil spills (silicone-coated), to replace lime in scrubbing sulfur dioxide from flue gas, as a filler in plastics, source of germanium (England), proposed as catalyst for coal liquefaction, removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewaters, separation of oil-sand tailings. 

Figure 22. These optical microscope images show the difference in particle aggregation in dispersed (left) and nondispersed (right) oil sands tailings.

CROSS SECTION OF OIL SANDS TAILINGS SETTLING BASIN... 

Figure 7. Schematic of the fate of the oil sands tailings suspensions.

Hardy Associates Ltd. Athabasca Oil Sands Tailings Disposal Beyond Surface Mineable Limits, Alberta Environment Report, 1979. 

Devenny, D. W. Oil Sand Tailings Integrated Planning to Provide Long Term Stabilization Canadian Land Reclamation Association Canada, 1977. 

Kan, J Zrobok, R. Changes of Ion Concentrations with Time in pH-Ad-justed Oil Sands Tailings CANMET Report 93-38 (CF) Natural Resources Canada Devon, Canada, 1993. 

Herman, D.C., Fedorak, P.M., Costerton, J.W. 1993. Biodegradation of cycloalkane carboxylic acids in oil sand tailings. Canadian Journal of Microbiology, Vol.39, No 6, pp.576-580. 

MacKinnon, M., Boerger, H. 1986. Description of two treatment methods for detoxifying oil sands tailings pond water. Water Pollution Research Journal of Canada., Vol. 21, pp. 496-512. 

An FTIR method has also been developed for the determination of the naphthenic acids in oil sand process tailings [97]. In this method, a tailings sample is clarified by filtration (0.45 pm nominal pore size) then by ultrafiltration. Acidification to pH 2.5 with sulfuric acid ensures the acid form of all carboxylate functionalities and thus complete dissolution. The sample is then extracted with methylene chloride and evaporated to dryness. The naphthenic acid residue is dissolved in methylene chloride, the carbonyl stretching frequencies at 1708 and 1748 cm are observed and the corresponding absorbance values determined by FTIR. The method determines total organic carboxylates and therefore is sensitive to a broader range of structures than the carboxylate surfactants alone, but is sometimes used as an indicator of relative carboxylate surfactant concentrations, especially in studies of oil sand tailings pond samples. 

The results are consistent with toxic effects of surfactants. The applieation of the toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) protocol of the U.S. EPA (1991) to oil sands tailings waters was valuable in determining the fraetion of the tailings water responsible for the reported acute toxicity... 

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