Innovation Anthology #614:
The fluid tailings left over from oil sands production are about one third solids mixed with water.
Over the last five years Syncrude has been developing a new method of depositing the fine particles under water so they don’t stay in suspension.
Eric Leneve is an associate technologist with the Tailings Research and Development Team at Syncrude.
ERIC LENEVE: If it’s exposed to water and fluids in a turbid fashion, it will tend to re-separate. The idea of the CT Tremi Diffuser is to control the discharge velocity and the energy at the point of deposition.
The new equipment borrows from concepts used in dredging and construction to deposit concrete under water. But for adaption to oil sands use, the equipment must be able to handle continuous deposition of large volumes of fine tailings.
ERIC LENEVE: It stays in place just due to gravity. At the end of the day, it will be drained of fluid and capped with sand and covered with reclamation material as part of our final landscape.
Once drained, the surface can be reforested.
Eric Leneve says Syncrude is sharing this technology through COSIA, the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance
Thanks today to Syncrude.
Learn more at InnovationAnthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Syncrude
Program Date: 2014-05-27