Suncor Proceeding with new Tailings Treatment Technology

Good news for Alberta and the mining process in particular comes by way of a new treatment from Suncor Energy Inc.

The new technology promises a large improvement in the future footprint for tailing-ponds in Athabasca Oil Sands heavy oil mines

Suncor Energy announced on October 23 that it had submitted a  regulatory application for their new tailings technology  to the ERCB (Energy Resources Conservation Board).

Suncor  new tailings treatment technology, known as Tailings Reduction Operations (TRO) promises significant improvement in the speed of reclamation of oil-sands tailings.

Tailings are a mixture of fine clay, sand, water and residual bitumen produced through the oil sands extraction process. As tailings settle, a portion will eventually form into mature fine tailings (MFT), a substance that historically has taken many decades to firm up sufficiently for planting and surface reclamation. Consolidated tailings (CT) technology, pioneered by Suncor in the 1990s, is the current method of speeding this settling process. The CT process adds coarse sand and gypsum to accelerate the release of water.

The fine particles in suspension takes many decades to settle and are sufficiently  separated from the water to form a mass which can be handled. This long period has required mining operations to build  more and larger tailings-ponds for the treatment.

Kirk Bailey, executive vice president, Oil Sands stated:

“Consolidated Tailings has proven effective, but in this industry, the focus is always on developing new technology and better processes,”

 The new TRO process will greatly reduce residence time in ponds from a matter of many decades to weeks:

This drying process occurs over a matter of weeks, allowing more rapid reclamation activities to occur.  The new process is expected to improve management of tailings going forward, and can also be used to reduce existing tailings inventory at Suncor’s operations.

The TRO technology is based on the addition of  a polymer floculant

The implementation of TRO involves converting fluid fine tailings more rapidly into a solid landscape suitable for reclamation. In this process, MFT is mixed with a polymer flocculent, then deposited in thin layers over sand beaches with shallow slopes. The resulting product is a dry material that is capable of being reclaimed in place or moved to another location for final reclamation.

Jacobs announced yesterday (Nov 10) that Suncor has awarded them the Engineering contract for the DBM (Design Basis Memorandum)  and associated engineering services:

10 November 2009 - Jacobs Receives Contract From Suncor for Oil Sands Sustainability Project in Canada. 

PASADENA, Calif., Nov. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE: JEC) announced today it received a contract from Suncor Energy (Suncor) to provide project management, engineering and procurement services to complete the scoping study and Design Basis Memorandum (DBM) for tailings and water transfer projects. These projects are a portion of the Tailings Reduction Operations (TRO) implementation at Suncor's oil sands mining, extraction and upgrading facility located 30 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.

Port Engineering News has more details: New tailings treatment promises sustainability gains for oil sands 

Gurth Whitaker
Calgary Alberta