Innovation Anthology #603:
Over the years, Syncrude scientists have developed several technologies to deal with fluid fine tailings.
Called FFT’s, they are the fine clay particles suspended in water as a byproduct of oil sands production.
Ron Cleminson is a development engineer with Syncrude. He’s overseeing the field test of a new technology using natural material that absorbs water like a sponge.
RON CLEMINSON: There’s a particular kind of overburden known as the “Kreacious Clearwater Formation. “ or we’ll call it KCA . It has a relatively high soil suction. So that means if you took a lump of it and you dropped in a glass with a certain amount of water in it and walked away, if you came back that water would be absorbed into the lump. And the mechanical characteristic of that lump would change. It would become more plastic but it would still be stable. So the idea is that if you in larger scale were to mix the FFT into this material, and then store it in large landfills, then the water in the FFT would be similarly absorbed and you would end up with a deposit material of a particular strength.
The tailings are locked into the KCA overburden for thousands of years, and can then be used to create landforms for reclamation.
Thanks today to SYNCRUDE
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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Syncrude
Program Date: 2014-04-03