Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
Carleton University
$149,000.00
Optimizing deposition of amended oil sand tailings products
EF 2013-14
Résumé
Surface mining of oil sands for bitumen is an important driver of the Canadian economy. The nature of surface mining is such that are large potential impacts on water resources and surface ecosystems. The ongoing challenge for the oils sands industry is to minimize these impacts and to reclaim and restore disturbed ecosystems as quickly and economically as possible. Tailings, the waste product from the bitumen extraction process, comprising sands, fines , and water, are conventionally deposited in dammed impoundments. Due to the chemistry of the extraction process, the fine fraction of the tailings is bound up with the water, and will not naturally settle out in a reasonable time frame. Consequently, oil sands operators are faced with the management of enormous volumes of these fluid fine tailings, which are too soft to reclaim, and have trapped water that if the industry could reclaim, would substantially improve both the economics and sustainability of the oil sands industry.Recent changes in regulations have required oil sands operators to rapidly change the way tailings are deposited and managed. These regulations require that tailings be reclaimable within 5 years after deposition. Operators have therefore undertaken considerable effort to explore a wide range of technologies to rapidly dewater tailings. Most operators have committed to rolling out a selection of these technologies at the full scale. While this will satisfy regulatory obligations, there is substantial room for optimization of these technologies. The project will improve understanding of how fast tailings can be deposited in a given footprint and still satisfy regulations, and how the tailings can be distributed within impoundments withminimal use of machinery after deposition. Both these issues - reducing the footprint of impoundments, and reducing manpower and machine costs associated with distributing the tailings - represent large potential savings, and improved sustainability of oil sand tailings operations.
Programme
Collaborative Research and Development Grants
Bénéficiaire
Emplacement
Ontario, Canada
Type de bénéficiaire
Academia
Type
Grant
Source
NSERC's Awards Data
Tel que publié
Application id
429272-2011
Name nom
Simms, Paul
Department département
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Organization id
23
Institution établissement
Carleton University
Province en
Ontario
Province fr
Ontario
Country en
CANADA
Country fr
CANADA
Fiscal year exercice financier
2013
Competition year année de concours
2011
Award amount
149000
Program id
CRDPJ
Program name en
Collaborative Research and Development Grants
Program name fr
Subventions de recherche et développement coopérative
Group en
Research partnerships programs
Group fr
Programmes de partenariat
Committee code
96
Committee name en
RPP Internal Decision Cttee
Committee name fr
Cté de décision interne - PPR
Area of application code
1002
Area of application group en
Northern development
Area of application group fr
Développement du nord
Area of application en
Environment
Area of application fr
Environnement
Research subject code
1002
Research subject group en
Civil engineering
Research subject group fr
Génie civil
Research subject en
Geotechnical engineering (including engineering geology)
Research subject fr
Géotechnique (y compris génie géologique)
Partie
2
Nb partie
4
Application title
Optimizing deposition of amended oil sand tailings products
Keyword
NSERC
Application summary
Surface mining of oil sands for bitumen is an important driver of the Canadian economy. The nature of surface mining is such that are large potential impacts on water resources and surface ecosystems. The ongoing challenge for the oils sands industry is to minimize these impacts and to reclaim and restore disturbed ecosystems as quickly and economically as possible. Tailings, the waste product from the bitumen extraction process, comprising sands, fines , and water, are conventionally deposited in dammed impoundments. Due to the chemistry of the extraction process, the fine fraction of the tailings is bound up with the water, and will not naturally settle out in a reasonable time frame. Consequently, oil sands operators are faced with the management of enormous volumes of these fluid fine tailings, which are too soft to reclaim, and have trapped water that if the industry could reclaim, would substantially improve both the economics and sustainability of the oil sands industry.Recent changes in regulations have required oil sands operators to rapidly change the way tailings are deposited and managed. These regulations require that tailings be reclaimable within 5 years after deposition. Operators have therefore undertaken considerable effort to explore a wide range of technologies to rapidly dewater tailings. Most operators have committed to rolling out a selection of these technologies at the full scale. While this will satisfy regulatory obligations, there is substantial room for optimization of these technologies. The project will improve understanding of how fast tailings can be deposited in a given footprint and still satisfy regulations, and how the tailings can be distributed within impoundments withminimal use of machinery after deposition. Both these issues - reducing the footprint of impoundments, and reducing manpower and machine costs associated with distributing the tailings - represent large potential savings, and improved sustainability of oil sand tailings operations.
