title: Petroleum coke adsorption as a water management option for oil sands process-affected water.
abstract: Water is integral to both operational and environmental aspects of the oil sands industry. A water treatment option based on the use of petroleum coke (PC), a by-product of bitumen upgrading, was examined as an opportunity to reduce site oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) inventories and net raw water demand. Changes in OSPW quality when treated with PC included increments in pH levels and concentrations of vanadium, molybdenum, and sulphate. Constituents that decreased in concentration after PC adsorption included total acid-extractable organics (TAO), bicarbonate, calcium, barium, magnesium, and strontium. Changes in naphthenic acids (NAs) speciation were observed after PC adsorption. A battery of bioassays was used to measure the OSPW toxicity. The results indicated that untreated OSPW was toxic towards Vibrio fischeri and rainbow trout. However, OSPW treated with PC at appropriate dosages was not acutely toxic towards these test organisms. Removal of TAO was found to be an adsorption process, fitting the Langmuir and Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm models. For TAO concentrations of 60 mg/L, adsorption capacities ranged between 0.1 and 0.46 mg/g. This study demonstrates that freshly produced PC from fluid cokers provides an effective treatment of OSPW in terms of key constituents' removal and toxicity reduction.
authors.affiliation: Syncrude Canada Ltd., Research and Development, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6N 1H4.
authors.forename: Warren
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zubot
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: MacKinnon
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chelme-Ayala
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gamal El-Din
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D048908:Aliivibrio fischeri / Q000187:drug effects; D000818:Animals; D002264:Carboxylic Acids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D033361:Cladocera / Q000187:drug effects; D003077:Coke; D003621:Daphnia / Q000187:drug effects; D007700:Kinetics; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008954:Models, Biological; D017686:Oncorhynchus mykiss / Q000502:physiology; D010578:Petroleum; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D013696:Temperature; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*; D060753:Water Quality
chemical_list: D002264:Carboxylic Acids; D003077:Coke; D010578:Petroleum; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C046170:naphthenic acid