Fundamentals of flocculation of oil sand tailings

所描述的研究计划涉及从油砂矿石中提取沥青后获得的细粒油砂尾矿的物理化学处理过程的基本方面。细粒尾矿的絮凝是在尾矿浆中加入聚合物絮凝剂，使细粒尾矿颗粒能够聚集，将聚集的颗粒从水中分离出来，并便于随后的尾矿处理和水的循环利用。该过程依赖于聚合物絮凝剂与矿物表面的相互作用，在不同的尾矿矿物学、溶解盐、温度以及尾矿矿物的粒度分布和浓度的条件下。该方案的主要目标是建立这些变量之间的相关性，从而有助于絮凝剂的选择和絮凝剂用量的优化。

The described research program deals with the fundamental aspects of a physicochemical treatment process for fine oil sand tailings obtained after bitumen extraction from oil sand ores. The flocculation of fine tailings is based on the addition of a polymeric flocculant to a tailings slurry to enable aggregation of fine tailing particles, to separate the aggregated particles from water, and to facilitate subsequent tailings disposal and recycling of water. The process relies on interactions of polymeric flocculants with mineral surfaces under varying conditions of tailings mineralogy, dissolved salts, temperature, and the particle size distribution and concentration of tailings minerals. The main objective of the proposed program is to establish correlations between these variables, and thus to help with flocculant selection and flocculant dosage optimization.