Effects of Coal Particles on Microbubble-Enhanced Bitumen Separation in the Concentrated Slurry Flow of Oil Sands Tailings

Our study investigates the segregation of bitumen residues within the transport pipeline before disposal in the presence of coal particles in carriers and microbubbles. Coal particles decreased the bitumen recovery by 17% without the injection of microbubbles. In addition, the improvement in bitumen recovery efficiency by 6 mL of H2O2 is negligible due to a small number of bubbles formed from H2O2 decomposition in the flow. However, tremendous enhancement in the recovery efficiency was achieved with the simultaneous addition of coal particles and H2O2. Further increase in recovery was noted as a larger volume of H2O2 was injected to form more microbubbles. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted to help understand the effects of coal particles and microbubbles. The simulation results illustrated that the introduction of coal particles caused bitumen contents to accumulate in the middle of the pipe. Furthermore, an increased volume fraction of microbubbles contributed to a higher distribution of bitumen at the top of the pipe. This study not only offers valuable insights for developing an innovative strategy to enhance the efficiency of bitumen separation in hydrotransport processes but also contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricate interactions among bubbles, bitumen, and coal particles in a slurry flow.