Selective electrocoagulation of tailing components

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A major waste from surface mining operations of Alberta's energy industries is the tailings water. The tailingswater contain suspended particles of ultra-fine sand, residual bitumen, and valuable heavy minerals. Thesestable suspensions take a long time to settle to the bottom of the ponds (> 10 years). In addition, the reclaimedland still has a poor mechanical strength for it to be returned to nature. Thus, faster reclamation of the tailingswater and land is an important target that can make Alberta's energy sector more sustainable.Currently, a lack of treatment technology that can reduce the reclamation period in a cost-effective mannerposes a significant danger to the environment in northern Alberta's. Electrocoagulation offers a cleaner andfaster method for treating tailings water. The electricity necessary to electrocoagulate the particles constitutes amajor cost in this method. The electrocoagulation technology has been well developed and applied fortreatment of wastewater in other industrial and residential sectors. However, it is at the infant stage for treatingthe oil sands tailings mainly due to the complexity of the tailings (bitumen coating of sand) and missingknowledge on the mechanistic details of particle settling. The proposed work, which is in collaboration withStantec Inc., will address this issue by plugging the critical knowledge gaps on the relative settling of variouscomponents of tailings under electrocoagulation conditions. The ultimate goal of this work is not only toreclaim the land with sufficient strength in quicker and cleaner way but also to reduce the amount of freshwater intake by energy industries (through enhanced recycling of tailings water). If successful, this technologycan propel Canada into a leader in the reclamation of polluted ecosystems.