Version 1
: Received: 8 December 2023 / Approved: 12 December 2023 / Online: 13 December 2023 (04:40:14 CET)
How to cite:
Wu, L.; Herage, T.; Zhuang, Q.; Clements, B. Integration of Rapid Thermal Drying of Fluid Fine Tailing into Oil Sands Mining Plant
for Pond Reclamation and Freshwater Saving. Preprints2023, 2023120819. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.0819.v1
Wu, L.; Herage, T.; Zhuang, Q.; Clements, B. Integration of Rapid Thermal Drying of Fluid Fine Tailing into Oil Sands Mining Plant
for Pond Reclamation and Freshwater Saving. Preprints 2023, 2023120819. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.0819.v1
Wu, L.; Herage, T.; Zhuang, Q.; Clements, B. Integration of Rapid Thermal Drying of Fluid Fine Tailing into Oil Sands Mining Plant
for Pond Reclamation and Freshwater Saving. Preprints2023, 2023120819. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.0819.v1
APA Style
Wu, L., Herage, T., Zhuang, Q., & Clements, B. (2023). Integration of Rapid Thermal Drying of Fluid Fine Tailing into Oil Sands Mining Plant
for Pond Reclamation and Freshwater Saving. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.0819.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Wu, L., Quan Zhuang and Bruce Clements. 2023 "Integration of Rapid Thermal Drying of Fluid Fine Tailing into Oil Sands Mining Plant
for Pond Reclamation and Freshwater Saving" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.0819.v1
Abstract
The two-stage direct thermal contact (2sDTC) process is a rapid dewatering approach for fluid fine tailings (FFT) that is integrated into an oil sands bitumen extraction plant to reduce tailings pond storage and freshwater usage. In the first stage, combustion gas directly contacts atomized FFT, vaporizing water and yielding dry solids and steam-rich hot gas. The second stage involves pond effluent water directly contacting the steam-rich hot gas, recovering heat and condensing moisture. Case studies confirm the technical feasibility of the integration. Benefits include producing a dry discharge, reducing tailings water discharge and conserving an equivalent to 0.2 barrels of freshwater per barrel of oil produced. Most importantly, these benefits incur no additional energy cost to the plant as the integration eliminates the energy penalty and CO2 emissions associated with FFT dewatering. Further capacity enhancement can be achieved by using centrifuge-concentrated FFT. The study reveals that FFT concentrated to ~50 wt% solids could still maintain its pump-ability and be accommodated by the 2sDTC process, leading to an integration which could dewater more FFT annually and conserve more freshwater ( 0.58 barrels per barrel of oil produced), with the sole energy requirement being the power to drive the centrifuge machinery.
Keywords
surface mining; fluid fine tailing (FFT); mature fine tailings (MFT); tailings dewatering; thermal drying; FFT centrifuge; tailings storage; pond reclamation; water saving
Subject
Engineering, Energy and Fuel Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
