Bugs and veggies as a progressive dewatering technology for untreated tailings

油砂行业背负着超过12.1 Bm3的尾矿库存（osip.alberta.ca）。大多数 这一体积的70%作为成熟细粒尾矿（MFT）储存，成熟细粒尾矿是一种含有约30%固体的稳定浆料悬浮液， 可以持续几十年。通过加快脱水速度减少尾矿储存量， 致密化是油砂操作者的高度优先事项。几种尾矿处理技术已被 然而，为解决这一问题而开发的这些系统目前的执行成本限制了它们的大规模部署。 以前的研究表明，植物可以作为一种具有成本效益的尾矿覆盖或脱水 技术通过访问水被困在悬浮液和释放到环境中， 蒸发蒸腾，从而增加固体含量和剪切强度。这项研究建立在以前的基础上。 这项工作使本地、高地、北方植物物种成功地增加了修正物， 细菌和水解蛋白质对浓缩尾矿和离心滤饼进行脱水。目的是 针对未经处理的MFT，拟议的研究旨在开发一种渐进的，植物介导的脱水方法， 技术能够支持植物的表面上的流体MFT。此外，我们还将优化 微生物和有机改良剂，以促进植物生长，并探讨植物 通过检测植物和土壤中的营养含量以及根部的基因表达来促进生长 相关微生物我们还将寻求了解治疗如何影响盐，金属， 和碳氢化合物进入工厂。这个高度跨学科的项目结合了专业知识 来自北方研究中心、应用生物纳米技术工业研究计划和 北方阿尔伯塔理工学院（NAIT）油砂可持续发展中心， 劳伦特林业中心和加拿大自然资源中心的生物部门。如果成功，该项目将导致 具有成本效益的渐进式脱水原型，能够被动地将尾矿转化为土壤系统 适合回收，并可扩展以进行现场部署

The oil sands industry is saddled with a tailings inventory exceeding 1.21 Bm3 (osip.alberta.ca). The majority of this volume is stored as mature fine tailings (MFT), a stable slurry suspension containing ~30% solids that can persist for decades. Reducing the volume of stored tailings by accelerating the rate of dewatering and densification is a high priority for oil sands operators. Several tailings treatment technologies have been developed to address this problem, however, current costs of implementation limit their deployment at scale. Previous studies have suggested that plants can be employed as a cost effective tailings capping or dewatering technology by accessing water trapped in suspension and releasing it to the environment through evapotranspiration, thereby increasing solids content and shear strength. The proposed study builds on previous work whereby native, upland, Boreal plant species were successfully augmented with amendments such as bacteria and hydrolyzed proteins to dewater thickened tailings and centrifuge cake. With the objective of targeting untreated MFT, the proposed study aims to develop a progressive, plant mediated dewatering technology capable of supporting plants on the surface of the fluid MFT. In addition, we will optimize a microbial and organic amendment to augment plant growth and investigate the mechanism by which plant growth is enhanced by examining nutrient content in the plant and soil, and gene expression from root associated microorganisms. We will also seek to understand how treatments affect the uptake of salts, metals, and hydrocarbons from the tailings into the plants. This highly interdisciplinary project combines expertise from the Centre for Boreal Research, the Applied Bio-Nanotechnology Industrial Research program, and the Centre for Oil Sands Sustainability within the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), the molecular biology unit at the Laurentian Forestry Centre, and Canadian Natural. If successful, this project will result in a cost effective, progressive dewatering prototype capable of passively transforming tailings into a soil system suitable for reclamation, and will be scalable for field deployment