Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Alberta's oil sands deposits are second only to Saudi Arabia reserves. The oil sands are contained in the Athabasca, Cold-Lake and Peace River Regions of Northern Alberta, an area larger than the state of Florida. Due to the operational necessities in the oil sands industry, tailings ponds are constructed to contain the tailings and process-affected water. The recycling of process-affected water helps reduce the industries' reliance on fresh water. As such, there are more than 130 square kilometers of tailings ponds in the oil sands region. Water management issues have launched to the forefront due to the enormous volumes of stored process-affected water. An equally important and largely ignored issue to date has been the fugitive emissions from these ponds. Volatile organic compounds and sulphur-containing pollutants are emitted from the tailings ponds, but the development and extent of this impact is poorly understood. As tailings ponds grow in number and size and as production continues to expand these issues will become impossible to ignore. In order to help address the issue of fugitive emissions from oil sands ponds we propose to: 1. characterize emissions from oil sands tailings; and 2. test the effectiveness of control measures in reducing the emissions. Potential control measures include application of pulverized activated coke for the adsorption of volatile organic carbons from tailings, shifting redox potential in tailings ponds to reduce harmful gas emissions, and the use of algae for fixating carbon dioxide. The proposed research will provide an enhanced ability to predict the extent of emissions from the ponds, while developing sound air emission management strategies for the oil sands mining industry.