Fundamentals of flocculation of oil sand tailings

所描述的研究计划涉及从油砂矿石中提取沥青后获得的细油砂尾矿的物理化学处理过程的基本方面。细粒尾矿的絮凝是在尾矿浆中加入聚合絮凝剂，使细粒尾矿颗粒聚集，使聚集颗粒与水分离，便于后续的尾矿处理和水的循环利用。该过程依赖于聚合物絮凝剂在不同的尾矿矿物学、溶解盐、温度、尾矿矿物粒度分布和浓度等条件下与矿物表面的相互作用。该程序的主要目的是建立这些变量之间的相关性，从而帮助絮凝剂的选择和絮凝剂的用量优化。

The described research program deals with the fundamental aspects of a physicochemical treatment process for fine oil sand tailings obtained after bitumen extraction from oil sand ores. The flocculation of fine tailings is based on the addition of a polymeric flocculant to a tailings slurry to enable aggregation of fine tailing particles, to separate the aggregated particles from water, and to facilitate subsequent tailings disposal and recycling of water. The process relies on interactions of polymeric flocculants with mineral surfaces under varying conditions of tailings mineralogy, dissolved salts, temperature, and the particle size distribution and concentration of tailings minerals. The main objective of the proposed program is to establish correlations between these variables, and thus to help with flocculant selection and flocculant dosage optimization.