Determination of clay content in Canadian oil sands using x‐ray florescence spectroscopy for diagnosis of ore processability

Abstract

In this study, a simple and robust method based on the use of x‐ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to measure potassium content as an indicator of illite in oil sands was proposed and tested. The XRF results of illite determination were compared with those determined using the conventional methylene blue titration (MBT) method. To test the suitability of the XRF method for determining illite content in various streams of oil sands processing as a diagnosis tool, a toluene‐diluted‐bitumen solution was used to contaminate solid surfaces prior to their analysis by the XRF and MBT methods. In order to remove the organic matter from the bitumen‐contaminated solids for evaluating the XRF and MBT method, toluene washing and low temperature ashing were applied to the bitumen‐contaminated solids prior to their analysis. The robustness of the XRF analysis in comparison with the MBT method was further confirmed by analyzing the solids extracted from bitumen froth and tailings stream. The results show that the XRF method was more tolerant to surface contamination and therefore more reliable in determining illite content in oil sands and relevant processing streams. It was also found that the potassium contents measured by the XRF method on solids from 10 ores show a strong correlation with the corresponding fines contents of these ores, indicating that the XRF method can potentially be used to determine the fines content of oil sands and related processing streams.

Understanding the Properties of Bitumen Froth from Oil Sands Surface Mining and Treatment of Water-in-Oil Emulsions

“…During the first stage of heating below 393 °C (highlighted in blue), the distillation and evaporation of naphtha solvent as well as volatile components in the adsorbed organics cause a weight loss, which can be seen from a larger mass loss for the raw solids (about 4%) compared to the washed solids (less than 1%). From 393 to 500 °C (highlighted in pink), the weight loss is ascribed to the decomposition of heavy organic components. , It should be noted that the O–H bond on the clay surface dehydroxylizes to form H 2 O at around 400 °C, which could also cause a mass change and explain the mass change highlighted in pink . Moreover, the dehydroxylation process starts from the Al–OH exposed on the surfaces and then occurs deeper in the crystals.…”

“…49,50 It should be noted that the O−H bond on the clay surface dehydroxylizes to form H 2 O at around 400 °C, which could also cause a mass change and explain the mass change highlighted in pink. 51 Moreover, the dehydroxylation process starts from the Al−OH exposed on the surfaces and then occurs deeper in the crystals. Further weight losses between 500 and 600 °C (highlighted in yellow) and above 600 °C (highlighted in green) may be contributed by the dehydroxylation and decomposition of minerals, respectively.…”

Experimental methods in chemical engineering: X‐ray fluorescence—XRF

“…It proved more reliable with a better tolerance to surface contamination compared with other techniques such as methylene blue titration. [54] In the chemical engineering research, we apply the technique to determine the success of slime coal particle separation and then to validate a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method (green cluster). [42] XRF also determined the copper content after a novel bioleaching process to selectively recover precious metals from waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (blue cluster).…”

“…It proved more reliable with a better tolerance to surface contamination compared with other techniques such as methylene blue titration. [ 54 ]…”

Time‐dependent viscosity of structured clay suspensions

“…The commonly identified clay minerals in the Athabasca oil sands deposit are mainly two-layer structured kaolinite and three-layer structured illite, with a small amount of three-layer structured montmorillonite and chlorite and their mixtures with two-layer structured kaolinite. [1,7] Some detrimental effects of clays in oil sands extraction operation and laboratory tests are: increased slurry viscosity and possibly localized gelation (e.g., in industrial primary separation vessels), blocking aerated bitumen to rise to the top bitumen froth; slime coat on bitumen and bubbles, interfering with bitumen coalescence and bitumen-bubble attachment; and difficulty in water recycling from fluid fine tailings, and so on. In terms of clay effect on the rheological properties of oil sand slurries, some unique features and important findings were reported from a Canadian Oil Sands Network for Research and Development (CONRAD) supported project on oil sands clay research.…”