Bugs and veggies as tailings management tools

目前的尾矿处理方法，如蒸发、冻融、聚合物改性、离心等，由于需要较大的面积、干燥时间和沉积物深度的限制，是成本较高的替代方法。该项目由北阿尔伯塔理工学院（NAIT）的三个应用研究中心牵头，与加拿大油砂创新联盟（COSIA）和油砂创新研究所（IOSI）合作，旨在展示一种同时脱水、巩固和修复成熟细尾矿（MFT）的新方法，方法是：(1)种植能够有效发芽和/或建立和脱水MFT的本土北方植物物种；(2)通过增加已知的原生细菌群的MFT来促进本地植物的建立，这些细菌群已被证明具有促进植物生长、促进养分循环和降解有毒碳氢化合物的潜力。该研究的目的是利用具有高蒸散速率和已证实有潜力在MFT上发芽和建立的原生木本和草本植物来克服目前的障碍。能够降解特定有机化合物（如**石脑油）并将氮固定到铵的细菌培养物将从MFT源中分离和富集。MFT将**用生物相容性载体接种细菌培养物。然后，选定的北方物种将在接种的MFT生物增强本地细菌上发芽和/或建立，为根际提供高修复潜力，根渗出物将进一步增强其活性。结果**将是一个适宜植物生长的环境，并恢复尾矿中的营养循环途径。该项目将使油砂运营商受益，采用一种环境和经济上可行的方法，同时稳定和修复尾矿，从而将尾矿转化为能够维持复垦和重新造林努力的土壤系统，并促进矿山关闭计划。

Current approaches for tailings treatment, such as evaporation, freeze-thaw, polymer amendment, and**centrifugation are high cost alternatives due to large areas required, time needed for drying and limitations with**deposit depth. This project, led by three applied research centres at the Northern Alberta Institute of**Technology (NAIT) in collaboration with Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) and the Institute**for Oil Sands Innovation (IOSI), aims to demonstrate a novel approach to simultaneously dewater, consolidate**and remediate mature fine tailings (MFT) by (1) growing native boreal plant species that effectively germinate**and/or establish and dewater MFT, and (2) enhancing native plant establishment by augmenting MFT with**known consortia of indigenous bacteria with proven potential to promote plant growth, enhance nutrient**cycling and degrade toxic hydrocarbon compounds. The study aims to overcome current barriers by using**native woody and herbaceous boreal species with high evapotranspiration rates and proven potential to**germinate and establish on MFT. Bacterial cultures capable of degrading specific organic compounds such as**naphtha, and fix nitrogen to ammonium, will be isolated and enriched from MFT sources. The MFT will be**inoculated with the bacterial cultures using biocompatible carriers. The selected boreal species will then be**germinated and/or established on the inoculated MFT bioaugmenting indigenous bacteria, providing high**remediation potential to the rhizosphere, where root exudates will further enhance their activity. The outcome**will be a hospitable environment for plant growth and restoration of nutrient cycling pathways in the tailings.**The project will benefit the oil sands operators with an environmentally and economically viable approach to**simultaneously stabilize and remediate tailings, thereby transforming tailing into a soil system capable of**sustaining reclamation and reforestation efforts, and facilitating mine closure plans.