Deposition of flocculated tailings
AssigneeSYNCRUDE CANADA LTD. in trust for the owners of the Syncrude Project as such owners exist now and in the future
InventorsBarry Bara, Randy Mikula
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process for dewatering tailings having a solids content in the range of about 10 wt % to about 70 wt % is provided comprising fully flocculating the tailings by adding an effective amount of a polymeric flocculant to the tailings and mixing the polymeric flocculant and tailings in a mixing device to form fully flocculated tailings having a minimized capillary suction time (CST) and discharging the fully flocculated tailings into a deposition area at a discharge velocity of substantially zero to minimize further mixing.
Claims24
A process for dewatering tailings, comprising:
- providing a tailings feed having a solids content in the range of about 10 wt % to about 70 wt %;
- adding an effective amount of a polymeric flocculant to the tailings feed and mixing the polymeric flocculant and tailings feed mixture in a mixing device sufficient to flocculate the tailings and minimize the capillary suction time (CST) of the flocculated tailings to form fully flocculated tailings;
- transporting the fully flocculated tailings to a deposition area;
- discharging the fully flocculated tailings into the deposition area at a discharge velocity of substantially zero to minimize further mixing;
- naturally forming a sloped beached material deposit in the deposition area whereby water is released from the sloped beached material to form a released water pool that pools away from the sloped beached material deposit;
- and
- continuously removing water from the released water pool to ensure that the sloped beached material at a discharge point is at a higher elevation than the released water pool to minimize any buoyant forces on the beached material deposit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.