The hot water process has recovered approximately 90% of the bitumen in oil sands, but the remaining 10% of bitumen and naphtha has been lost to the tailings pond. Recovery of bitumen and non‐bituminous combustibles (NBC) from centrifuge, scroll and final tailings has been considered. The effects of four sequestering agents, and of chemical additives such as CaCl 2 and FeCl 3 on the flotation behavior of bitumen, NBC and minerals in these tailings have been investigated. A simple method of isolating NBC materials has been developed. The flotation of both bitumen and NBC was enhanced by phosphate treatment and depressed by EDTA. NBC was characterized by its physical properties, energy content, functionality and chemical analysis. A conceptual model explains the interactions between the bitumen, minerals and NBC fractions present in tailings slurries.
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SenGupta et al. (1997) studied this question.
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