NOTES
Treatment of Tar Sands Tailings with Fly Ash Narendra N. Bakhshi," Randal G. Gillies, and Pradeep Khare
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada S7N O W 0
Large quantities of tailings are obtained during the recovery of bitumen from the Alberta oil sands. Disposal of these tailings is a tremendous pollution problem. In this study, fly ash has been used to treat these tailings. Various dosages of fly ash (4, 5, 6, 7, 8 g/50 g tailings) were stirred with 50-gram samples for 30 min and then filtered under aspiration for 30 min. Fly ash dosage of 6 grams gave the best results (maximum amount of clear filtrate and a fairly dry filter cake). Based on this optimum dosm3) of tailings results age, one imperial gal (4.546 X in 5.93 lb (2.69 kg) of filter cake and 0.537 imperial gal m3) as filtrate which could be recycled into (2.441 X the plant operation. At this optimum dosage, the filtrate had a pH of about 11, a COD value of about 370 mg/l and an APHA number (color index) of about 46.
Large quantities of hot water and steam are used in the processing of oil sands by hot water flotation process to extract bitumen. The largest deposits of oil sands are in the Athabasca district in the northern part of the province of Alberta, Canada. These reserves ( I ) contain over 700 billion barrels, (111.3 X 106 m3) of crude. At present there is only one plant in operation for recovering bitumen from the oil sands, and it is operated by the Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (GCOS) a t Fort McMurray, Alberta (2). The capacity of the plant is between 100,000 and 150,000 long tons (1.016 X 108 and 1.524 X 108 kg) of oil sands per day, and the bitumen recovered is 50-90,000 barrels per day (7950-14,310 m3 per day). After removal of the bitumen, the tailings are pumped into a pond. These taiIings are gray in color, oily and alkaline in nature, and contain (depending 011 the depth of the pond) about 0-30 wt 70 solids. Tailings containing less than 5 wt 70 solids are reused in the plant, whereas the portion containing great-
30r
FILTRATION TIME, MIN.
Figure 1. Filtrate fly ash dosages
collected at different time intervals for various
er than 5 wt % solids accumulate. The ponding operations require large land areas and building of dikes which are costly. A desirable solution would be to recover as much as possible of the water for reuse in plant operations. Similarly, fly ash is a waste product of the electric power industry. To prevent air pollution, fly ash is collected by means of electrostatic precipitators from the flue gases before they enter stacks. The purpose of this study was to use fly ash, a waste product of one industry, to treat the wastes of another, namely oil sands, so that both the waste disposal as well as the pollution problems could be overcome.
Experimental Tailings were obtained from the GCOS plant in 5-gal drums. Solids content of the tailings was about 20 wt 70. The composition of the solids in the pond water (after the removal of sand by deposition) is approximately as follows (3): Constituent
Wt
SiOI Chlorite Illite Kaolinite Montmorillonite Mixed layer Others
%
25
5 10 25
10 10 15 -
Total 100 Before a tailings sample was removed from the drum, the drum was shaken vigorously for about 10 min in order to mix the contents well so that a uniform sample (uniform in consistency) was withdrawn from the drum. Approximately 50-gram samples were withdrawn from the tailings drum and placed in 250-ml Erlenmeyer flasks. To each of these flasks 4, 5 , 6, 7, and 8 grams of fly ash were added. Fly ash for this study was obtained from Saskatchewan Power Corp., Regina, Sask. The major constituents of fly ash are silica, alumina, calcium oxide, ferric ,oxide, and magnesium oxide. These flasks containing the tailings and fly ash, were then placed on a gyratory shaker and the contents mixed for 30 min. The slurry was then filtered through a Wattman No. 40 filter paper using a 3 in Buchner funnel. Filtration was carried out under vacuum (obtained by water aspiration) for 30 min. Filtrate volumes were noted a t intermediate time intervals to get some idea of the rate of filtration. The filtrate had a pH value of approximately 11, a COD value of about 370 mg/l and an APHA nmber (color index) of about 46 (at optimum fly ash dosage of 6 grams).
Results and Discussion At low fly ash dosages (less than 4 grams), the slurry was fluid, had a tendency to stick to the walls of Erlenmeyer flask, and the rate of filtration was slow. However, a t higher fly ash dosages (greater than 5 grams), the slurry became thicker, there was no tendency to stick to the Volume 9, N u m b e r 4 , April
1975
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L
- 15
1.6-
-_
1.4-
-10
YI
-5
1.2-
9
W
3 2
I
2 Y
FLYASH DOSAGE, g
Figure 2. Amount of
filter cake and filtrate at various fly ash
dosages
Y
2
z
LE=
30
20
Filtrate collected in 30 min., ml x 100 Total possible water in sample, ml
O L ’ 4
5
6
i
8
residue on the filter paper was like a thick slurry and stuck easily to the surfaces of the funnel and the flasks. However, a t a dosage of a 6-gram fly ash, the characteristics and appearance of the residue changed remarkably. It did not stick to the walls of the funnel and furthermore after filtration, the filter cake was almost dry and had a cracked appearance. Increasing the fly ash dosage improved the appearance of the filter cake and increased the filtration rate; however, the total amount of filtrate obtained was decreased. Thus, increasing the fly ash dosage (beyond the optimum value of 6 g/50 g of tailings) improves the desirable characteristics of the filter cake, though a penalty is incurred such that the amount of filtrate collected decreases. It would be interesting to know, from the practical point of view, how much solid cake can be expected from the treatment of tailings with fly ash. Figure 2 shows the amount of filter cake per ml of filtrate (if the filtration time is fixed at 30 min for various fly ash dosages). As expected, the minimum amount of filter cake per ml of filtrate is obtained a t a fly ash dosage of 6 grams. At this dosage rate 1.2 grams of filter cake are produced for each ml of filtrate collected. Another important question arises as to what fraction of the total water in the tailings can be recovered by the fly ash treatment. This water removal efficiency, E (filtrate collected in 30 min divided by the total amount of water present in 50 grams of sample) is plotted in Figure 3-a maximum of 59% water recovery can be obtained a t a dosage rate of 6 grams of fly ash. The remaining amount of water remains tied up with fly ash in the filter cake.
FLYASH DOSAGE, g
Figure 3.
Water removal efficiency at various fly ash dosages
walls of the flask, and filtration was faster compared to the filtration at low fly ash dosages. Figure 1 shows a plot of filtrate collected against filtration time a t various fly ash dosages. In general, as the fly ash dosage increases the rate of filtration improves. Also, better flocculation of the tailings takes place and the fly ash-tailings slurry becomes easier to filter resulting in an increased filtration rate. At about 18 min, the filtration a t a dosage of 6 grams of fly ash becomes better than the dosage a t 8 grams. The result is that after 30 min of filtration, more filtrate is collected a t a 6-gram dosage than at an 8-gram dosage (Figure 2 ) . The reason for this peculiar behavior is that the fly ash is a fairly good adsorbent. Though initial filtration rate is somewhat better a t an 8-gram dosage than a t a 6-gram dosage, a greater amount of water is retained by the fly ash a t the higher dosage, thus ultimately reducing the total amount of filtrate. This point is brought about more clearly in Figure 2. Figure 1 also shows that there is a marked improvement in filtration rate when the fly ash dosage is increased from 4-5 grams; the improvement from 6-8 grams is only marginal. The behavior of the filtration curve a t a 7-gram fly ash is erratic and we cannot explain that a t present. The behavior of the filter cake during filtrations was of interest. From the industrial point, the main requirement is that sufficiently dry material should be obtained such that it can be handled easily. At low fly ash dosages the
364
Environmental Science & Technology
Materials Flou Estimation If it is assumed that the design point is a t 6 grams of fly ash/50 grams of tailings, then approximate order-of-magnitude estimates can be made for the daily requirements of fly ash, filter cake to be disposed of as waste solids, and filtrate that can be recycled into the plant operations. Based upon this value, it is estimated that one imp gal (4.546 x 10-3 m3) of tailings results in 5.93 lb (2.69 kg) of solids as filter cake, and 0.577 imp gal (2.53 X 10-3 m3) of filtrate that can be recycled. On the basis of the present GCOS tailings outflow of 4.8 x 106 imp gal (21.821 x 103 m3) per day, 2.6 x lo6 imp gal (12 x lo3 m3) per day will become available as recycle water along with 12,750 long tons (12.955 x lo6 kg) per day of filter cake to be disposed of as waste solids. Daily fly ash requirements will be about 2140 long tons (2.174 x 106 kg). It is obvious that one is talking about huge material handling problems. References (1) Camp, Frederick, W. in “Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chem-
ical Technology,” 2nd ed., Vol. 19, pp 682-732, 1969. (2) [bid., p 710. (3) Raymond, Brian, W., “Clay Mineral Concentration in Tailings of Great Canadian Oil Sands,” p 3, MSc Thesis, Department of Mineral Dressing, Montana College of Mineral Science &Technology, 1969. Receiued for revieu: July 8. 1974. Accepted December 4, 1974. Presented at the Symposium on “Solids Handling for Synthetic Fuels Production.” Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemi s t n , 167th Meeting. A C S , Los Anpeles, Calif., March 31-April 4, 1974. This work u a s supported b?’ the ,\‘ational Research Council of Canada and JSa.skatcheuanResearch Council.
