Recovery of organics from oil sands process water and tailings with novel highly porous activated carbon-based absorbants produced from petroleum coke

使用由石油焦生产的新型高孔隙活性炭基吸收剂从油砂工艺水和尾矿中回收有机物

• 批准号: 453761-2013
• 负责人: Xu, CharlesChunbao
• 金额: $ 6.59万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=597222
• 关键词: Recovery; organics; oil; sands; process

This CRD project aims to develop cost-effective technological solutions to recycling and recovery of valuable products from industrial residues and waste streams - petroleum coke, oil sands process water and tailings. Canada is blessed with the second largest proven reserve of oil in the world, mainly in oil sands deposits in Alberta. In the oil sands industry, an average of 3 barrels of fresh water is needed for every barrel of oil produced from surface mines. A large fraction of the process water ends up in the tailings produced during bitumen extraction. The oil sands process water and tailings contain organics from the bitumen separation process (e.g., naphthenic acids (NAs) and bitumen/aromatic hydrocarbons), among which NAs are the major constituent in terms of both concentration and toxicity. Treatment of the process water has been a critical issue for the oil sands industry, with respect to sustainable oil production and freshwater resource protection. In this project, we will closely collaborate with Newalta Corporation to develop innovative engineered environmental solutions to valorization of petroleum coke as an inexpensive but effective adsorbent (highly porous activated carbon (HPAC) materials with tailored structure/surface properties) for treatment of oil sand process water and tailings. The removal and recovery of NAs/bitumen using the HPAC materials produced from residues (petroleum coke) could not only reduce fresh water consumption and enable recovery of residual organics from process water and tailings, but also turn residue petroleum coke into valuable products (adsorbents) and hence, reduce the need for disposal. It is thus anticipated that the outcome of this CRD project would greatly impact on both the oil sands industry (for cleaner fossil fuels production) and Newalta (for development of new technologies for organics removal from waste water, valorization and resource recovery).

该CRD项目旨在开发具有成本效益的技术解决方案，以便从工业残留物和废物流（石油焦、油砂加工水和尾矿）中回收和回收有价值的产品。加拿大拥有世界上第二大探明石油储量，主要是在阿尔伯塔省的油砂矿床。在油砂行业，平均每开采一桶露天矿的石油需要3桶淡水。在沥青提取过程中产生的尾矿中最终会产生很大一部分工艺水。油砂工艺水和尾矿中含有沥青分离过程中的有机物（如环烷酸（NAs）和沥青/芳烃），其中NAs是其浓度和毒性的主要成分。对于油砂工业来说，处理工艺水是一个关键问题，关系到石油的可持续生产和淡水资源的保护。在这个项目中，我们将与Newalta公司密切合作，开发创新的工程环境解决方案，将石油焦作为一种廉价但有效的吸附剂（具有定制结构/表面性能的高孔活性炭（HPAC）材料），用于处理油砂工艺水和尾矿。利用废渣（石油焦）生产的HPAC材料去除和回收NAs/沥青，不仅可以减少淡水消耗，回收工艺水和尾矿中的残余有机物，而且可以将废渣石油焦转化为有价值的产品（吸附剂），从而减少处置需求。因此，预计该CRD项目的结果将对油砂工业（用于更清洁的化石燃料生产）和Newalta（用于开发从废水中去除有机物的新技术、增值和资源回收）产生重大影响。