An investigation of bioamendment strategies for the accelerated dewatering of MFT in the oil sands industry

沥青是通过热水从沙子中提取出来的，产生的大量废液储存在尾矿库中。在这些池塘中，沙粒在沉积时从泥浆中分离，而细颗粒和沥青积累并慢慢沉降，成为成熟的细尾矿(MFT)。油砂采矿业面临的主要挑战之一是有效地对MFT进行脱水。脱水MFT的技术范围从物理过程(如离心法)到化学过程(如添加絮凝剂)。这些过程表明，大量的水可以在几天到几周内释放出来。然而，使用物理过程会产生巨大的运行和维护成本，而化学试剂可能会对循环水水质产生不利影响。另一方面，生物处理可以应用于改善水质。不幸的是，很少有人研究生物处理改良剂在MFT脱水中的效果。

Bitumen is extracted from sand using a hot water process, producing a large waste stream that is stored within tailings ponds. In these ponds, sand particles segregate from the slurry upon deposition, while the fine particles and bitumen accumulates and slowly settle to become mature fine tailings (MFT). One of the major challenges facing the oil sands mining industry is efficient dewatering of MFT. Techniques for dewatering MFT range from physical processes such as centrifugation to chemical processes such as flocculant addition. These processes have shown that large amounts of water can be released within several days to a few weeks. However, the use of physical processes has significant operation and maintenance costs, while chemical reagents may generate detrimental effects on recycle water quality. Biological treatment, on the other hand, can be applied with the benefit of improving the water quality. Unfortunately, very little work has been done to examine how effective bio-treatment amendments could be in dewatering MFT.