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Effects of Calcium and Aluminum on Particle Settling in an Oil Sands End Pit Lake
- Source :
- Mine Water and the Environment. 40:1025-1036
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Surface mining of oil sands ore in Alberta, Canada has generated fluid fine tailings (FFT) that must be reclaimed. End pit lakes (EPLs), which consist of thick deposits of FFT capped with water, have been proposed for FFT reclamation, and Base Mine Lake (BML) is the first full-scale demonstration EPL. However, FFT particle settling and resuspension contributes to high turbidity in the BML water cap, which may be detrimental to the development of an aquatic ecosystem. This study investigated the effect of Ca and Al treatments on turbidity mitigation. The initial turbidity was reduced from 20 NTU to less than 2 NTU in BML surface water treated with 54 mg/L of Ca or 1.1 mg/L of Al. At a concentration of 1.1 mg/L, Al reduced the initial turbidity to a greater extent, and in a shorter time, than 54 mg/L of Ca. Further, resuspended Al-treated FFT particles were 100–700 nm larger in diameter, and thus resettled faster than the resuspended untreated or Ca-treated FFT particles. The final turbidity values 21 days after resuspension of untreated and 1.7 mg/L Al-treated FFT particles in fresh BML surface water were 20.5 NTU and 2.5 NTU, respectively. Thus, Al treatment may be effective in mitigating turbidity in BML through both Al-induced coagulation and self-weight settling of the resuspended Al-treated FFT particles.
- Subjects :
- Aquatic ecosystem
0207 environmental engineering
Particle (ecology)
Soil science
02 engineering and technology
010501 environmental sciences
Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
01 natural sciences
Tailings
6. Clean water
Land reclamation
Settling
Oil sands
Environmental science
Turbidity
020701 environmental engineering
Surface water
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Water Science and Technology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 16161068 and 10259112
- Volume :
- 40
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Mine Water and the Environment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........061ab42cd0c7a324084aec1ccf814138