AGGLOMERATION-FLOTATION - RECOVERY OF HYDROPHOBIC COMPONENTS FROM OILSANDS FINE TAILINGS

Laboratory agglomeration-flotation tests were used to evaluate the rec overy of residual bitumen from a sample of Suncor oil sands fine taili ngs, using ground coal as a bitumen absorbent. To improve its effectiv ness, the coal was preconditioned with no. 2 fuel oil, subjected to 30 s high-shear mixing and collected by flotation over 3 min. This oil-c onditioned coal was then contacted with mature fine tailings for 5 min with low-shear mixing. Flotation for 5 min resulted in the recovery o f 93% of the residual bitumen, compared with 85% after 40 min mixing a chieved in earlier tests. Equipment to accomplish this separation has already been designed, scaled and operated for fine coal recovery from washery wastes.