Improving Screening Methods for Chemical Selection in Fluid Tailings Treatment

北阿尔伯塔理工学院（NAIT）油砂可持续发展中心（COSS）将与Suncor能源公司合作，改进油砂流体细尾矿（FFT）管理的聚合物基解决方案的筛选、测试和验证方法。这项研究将扩展和改进森科尔现有的尾矿减少操作（TRO）筛选过程，并将为新商业化的永久水生储存解决方案（PASS）创建一个清晰的筛选。此外，这项工作将扩展目前的TRO筛选过程，以评估其他性能指标，如长期岩土和地球化学性能。关于**长期表现的额外信息将有助于确保治疗方法的可持续性。****COSS将通过三个主题发展和/或改进聚合物筛选过程的方法。**(1)开发评估固结性能和强度增益的筛选方法。(2)开发实验规模的快速筛选方法，以测量潜在关注的污染物的稳定性和固存。(3)开发筛选方法，捕捉絮凝尾矿输运距离和沉降能量对坑内性能的影响。Suncor将提供技术咨询，NAIT将提供基础设施、项目管理和测试。通过这项研究，NAIT的工作人员将成为方法开发和改进方面的技术专家，并将开发和出版可用于评估这两个过程的新化学物质的方法。该项目将有利于加拿大的环境，使油砂运营商能够轻松地采用改进的尾矿化学物质，使他们能够更快、更有效、更低成本地回收退役矿山

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) Centre for Oil Sands Sustainability (COSS) will work with Suncor Energy inc. to improve the methodology of the screening, testing and validation of polymer-based solutions for oil sands fluid fine tailings (FFT) management. This research will expand and refine Suncor's existing screening processes developed for the Tailings Reduction Operations (TRO) and will create a clear screening for the newly commercialized Permanent Aquatic Storage Solution (PASS). In addition, this work will expand the current TRO screening process to evaluate additional performance indicators such as long-term geotechnical and geochemical performance. The additional information on**long-term performance will help ensure the sustainability of the treatment methods.****COSS will develop and/or improve methodologies of the polymer screening process through three themes. **(1) Developing screening methods to assess consolidation performance and strength gain. (2) Developing bench scale rapid screening methods to measure the stability and sequestration of contaminants of potential concern. (3) Developing screening methods to capture the influence of transportation distance and deposition energy on the in-pit performance of flocculated tailings. Suncor will provide technical advice and NAIT will provide the infrastructure, project management and testing. Through this study, NAIT staff will become technical experts in methodology development and refinement and methods will be developed and published that can be used to assess new chemistries for both processes.This project will benefit Canada's environment by enabling oil sands operators to easily adopt improved tailings chemistries that allow them to reclaim decommissioned mines faster, more efficiently and at a lower cost.**