Investigating the biogeochemical evolution of mature fine tailings associated with end pit lakes in the Alberta oil sands

研究与艾伯塔省油砂末坑湖相关的成熟细尾矿的生物地球化学演化

• 批准号: 401659-2010
• 负责人: Weisener, Christopher
• 金额: $ 4.77万
• 依托单位: University of Windsor
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2011-01-01 至 2012-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=487826
• 关键词: Investigating; biogeochemical; evolution; mature; fine

Processing oil sands for the extraction of bitumen produces large volumes of mine waste products (e.g. water, silt/clays, residual bitumen, metals and residual solvents). The current waste practice is gravity settling and subsequent storage in large basins. The denser settled product (mature fine tailings MFT) is then transferred into pits. At the facility in the Fort McMurray region, an ongoing sustainable strategy is creating a containment region by combining the mined-out pits, (e.g. West In Pit) into a series of endpit lakes. The current storage practice can affect the surrounding environment via several different mechanisms. For example, a number of processes can occur within bulk MFT that will affect both the volume and quality of the water cap in the final base mine lakes. These include both biological and chemical alterations of dissolved constituent levels driven by reduction-oxidation (REDOX) mediated reactions, and general consolidation of the tailings layer over time. The proposed research program will investigate the biogeochemistry and development of REDOX gradients of MFT at Syncrude and Suncor oil sand lease operations in Fort McMurray, Alberta. This information will be used to facilitate and support sediment oxygen demand (SOD) environmental models currently being developed for end pit lake design and implementation. The research program will involve scientists from Syncrude Canada Ltd, Suncor Energy, and the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA) providing funding for one postdoctoral fellow, two Ph.D., one MSc. and three undergraduate students. All HQP in this program will gain multidisciplinary experience encompassing aspects of oil sands mining and processing, end pit lake remediation, geochemistry, and electrochemistry, molecular microbial identification (using novel T-RFLP analysis and qPCR) to investigate the long term behaviour of freshly processed and stored MFT in end pit lake reclamation.

加工油砂以提取沥青会产生大量的矿山废物（例如水、淤泥/粘土、残留沥青、金属和残留溶剂）。目前的废物处理方法是重力沉降，然后储存在大型水池中。然后将较致密的沉降产物（成熟细粒尾矿MFT）转移到坑中。在Fort McMurray地区的设施中，正在进行的可持续战略是通过将已开采的矿井（例如，West In Pit）合并为一系列的底坑湖泊来创建一个遏制区域。目前的储存做法可以通过几种不同的机制影响周围环境。例如，大量MFT中可能发生一些过程，这些过程将影响最终基地矿湖中水帽的体积和质量。这些包括由还原-氧化（REDOX）介导的反应驱动的溶解成分水平的生物和化学改变，以及尾矿层随时间的一般固结。拟议的研究计划将调查在阿尔伯塔麦克默里堡的Syncrude和Suncor油砂租赁业务中MFT的地球化学和REDOX梯度的发展。这些信息将被用来促进和支持沉积物需氧量（SOD）的环境模型，目前正在开发的底坑湖的设计和实施。该研究计划将涉及来自Syncrude Canada Ltd，Suncor Energy和累积环境管理协会（CEMA）的科学家，为一名博士后研究员，两名博士，一个MSC。和三个本科生该计划中的所有HQP将获得多学科经验，包括油砂开采和加工，底坑湖修复，地球化学，电化学，分子微生物鉴定（使用新型T-RFLP分析和qPCR），以调查底坑湖复垦中新鲜加工和储存的MFT的长期行为。