An investigation of bioamendment strategies for the accelerated dewatering of MFT in the oil sands industry

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Bitumen is extracted from sand using a hot water process, producing a large waste stream that is stored within tailings ponds. In these ponds, sand particles segregate from the slurry upon deposition, while the fine particles and bitumen accumulates and slowly settle to become mature fine tailings (MFT). One of the major challenges facing the oil sands mining industry is efficient dewatering of MFT. Techniques for dewatering MFT range from physical processes such as centrifugation to chemical processes such as flocculant addition. These processes have shown that large amounts of water can be released within several days to a few weeks. However, the use of physical processes has significant operation and maintenance costs, while chemical reagents may generate detrimental effects on recycle water quality. Biological treatment, on the other hand, can be applied with the benefit of improving the water quality. Unfortunately, very little work has been done to examine how effective bio-treatment amendments could be in dewatering MFT.