Non-crystalline inorganic matter-humic complexes in Athabasca oil sand and their relationship to bitumen recovery: Fid-Bau Portal

Non-crystalline inorganic matter-humic complexes in Athabasca oil sand and their relationship to bitumen recovery

Kotlyar, L.S. / Kodama, H. / Sparks, B.D. / Grattan-Bellew, P.E.

AbstractBitumen-free solids from different grades of Athabasca oil sand were fractionated according to particle size before and after treatment with sodium pyrophosphate (Na4P2O7) solution. All solids showed decreasing amounts of organic matter from coarse to fine fractions. The concentration of organic carbon retained in all size fractions after the treatment was found to be significantly lower as compared with that before the treatment.The mineralogy and some chemical properties of the material separated as a result of treatment were investigated. The data obtained indicate that treatment releases mostly non-crystalline compounds (possibly metal oxides in some kind of association with humic matter).A cold-water agitation test (CWAT) was used to correlate bitumen recovery with the amount of inorganic matter-humic complexes separated. It was observed that most of the bitumen was liberated when inorganic matter-humic complexes could be separated during the CWAT. For some oil sands complexes could not be isolated and in these cases most of the bitumen appeared to be associated with that fraction of solids consisting of globules of fine sand and clay particles cemented together with humic matter.