Oil sands companies produce substantial quantities of tailings known to contain high concentrations of dissolved organic by-products. The use of petroleum coke was proposed as a potential adsorbent for organic contaminant removal from tailings pond water. Physical activation was used to create a greater surface area and porosity within the delayed and fluid coke. Increased temperature (900oC), steam rate (0.5 mL/min), and activated time (6 h) led to high iodine numbers of 670 and 620 mg/g for activated delayed and fluid cokes, respectively. For both best activated cokes, the micropore to mesopore ratio was approximately 50:50. When 5 g/L of activated delayed and fluid cokes were added to the tailings water, 91% of the dissolved organic carbon and 92% of the naphthenic acids were removed. Such analyses indicate that an oil sands waste by-product can be used to treat tailings pond water to remove toxic and corrosive organic contaminants. / Geoenvironmental Engineering
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/1666 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Small, Christina |
| Contributors | Dr. Zaher Hashisho (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Dr. Ania Ulrich (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Dr. Zaher Hashisho (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Dr. Selma Guigard (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Dr. Natalia Semagina (Chemical and Materials Engineering) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 15586887 bytes, application/pdf |
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