Experimental and modeling study of residual liquid recovery from spent sand in bitumen extraction processes from oil sands.

Disposing solid residue with high liquid content into the environment may impact the immediate ecosystem and its surroundings. In bitumen recovery process from oil sands, it is environmentally and economically desirable to effectively recover as much of the liquid trapped in the spent solids as possible, prior to releasing it into the environment. An experiment was designed to investigate the effect of capillary force to enhance liquid recovery by using a thin, semipermeable layer as the membrane.

Produced water treatment by micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration.

A water treatment approach combining ultrafiltration (UF) and micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) techniques was used for the removal of organic contaminants in field produced water samples from Canada and the United States. Free oil droplets and suspended solids were separated by initial UF treatments while MEUF was necessary for the removal of dissolved organics. It was shown that the amphiphilic characteristics of some organics commonly existing in produced water contributed to lowering the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactant employed.