Sorption columns for the remediation of SAGD and tailings ponds water

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Lake and Peace River. With approximately 168 billion barrels of proven reserves, this deposit is the thirdlargest proven crude oil reserve in the world following the Arabia and Venezuela. Given the projected globaldemand on oil, Canada's oil sands represent a big economic opportunity, which is expected to grow over thenext 25 years. Water is essential for the recovery of bitumen from oil sands during surface mining andsteam-based in situ operations. The most famous steam-based in situ recovery process is Steam AssistedGravity Drainage (SAGD). In an effort to reduce water demand, oil sands operators recycle 80-95 per cent ofthe water and use saline water where possible. Given the projected expansion and the water to oil ratio,minimizing makeup water through effective water recycling is essential for the sustainability of oil sandsoperations, and hence the Canadian economy. Current treatment schemes either suffer from major solid wastebyproduct (associated with the chemical treatment train) or high energy penalty (associated with the evaporatortrain). Finding a robust train/unit that can resist the impact of the many contaminants in process affected wateror produce water is essential. This work proposes the use of sorption columns packed with phosphinatesurfactant for the remediation of de-oiled water. The phosphinate surfactant display high potential of removinghardness, organic and silica contamination from the de-oiled water.Stantec is an industry leader in water treatment and is always on the look for new innovative technologies,especially when it comes to produced water treatment from SAGD operations.