Liu Jianjun, Xu Zhenghe, Masliyah Jacob
Mining Chemicals Research, Cytec Industries Inc., Stamford, CT 06904, USA.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2005 Jul 15;287(2):507-20. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2005.02.037.
Water-based extraction process (WBEP) has been successfully applied to bitumen recovery from Athabasca oil sand ore deposits in Alberta. In this process, two essential steps are involved. The bitumen first needs to be "liberated" from sand grains, followed by "aeration" with air bubbles. Bitumen "liberation" from the sand grains is controlled by the interaction between the bitumen and sand grains. Bitumen "aeration" is dependent, among other mechanical and hydrodynamic variables, on the hydrophobicity of the bitumen surface, which is controlled by water chemistry and interactions between bitumen and fine solids. In this paper, the interaction force measured with an atomic force microscope (AFM) between bitumen-bitumen, bitumen-silica, bitumen-clays and bitumen-fines is summarized. The measured interaction force barrier coupled with the contacted adhesion force allows us to predict the coagulative state of colloidal systems. Zeta potential distribution measurements, in terms of heterocoagulation, confirmed the prediction of the measured force profiles using AFM. The results show that solution pH and calcium addition can significantly affect the colloidal interactions of various components in oil sand extraction systems. The strong attachment of fines from a poor processing ore on bitumen is responsible for the corresponding low bitumen flotation recovery. The identification of the dominant non-contact forces by fitting with the classical DLVO or extended DLVO theory provides guidance for controlling the interaction behavior of the oil sand components through monitoring the factors that could affect the non-contact forces. The findings provide insights into megascale industrial operations of oil sand extraction.
水基萃取工艺（WBEP）已成功应用于从艾伯塔省阿萨巴斯卡油砂矿中回收沥青。在这个过程中，涉及两个关键步骤。首先需要将沥青从砂粒中“分离”出来，然后用气泡进行“曝气”。沥青从砂粒中的“分离”受沥青与砂粒之间相互作用的控制。沥青“曝气”除了取决于其他机械和流体动力学变量外，还取决于沥青表面的疏水性，而沥青表面的疏水性由水化学以及沥青与细颗粒之间的相互作用控制。本文总结了用原子力显微镜（AFM）测量的沥青 - 沥青、沥青 - 二氧化硅、沥青 - 粘土和沥青 - 细颗粒之间的相互作用力。测量得到的相互作用力势垒与接触粘附力相结合，使我们能够预测胶体系统的凝聚状态。就异凝作用而言，ζ 电位分布测量结果证实了使用 AFM 测量得到的力曲线预测。结果表明，溶液pH值和钙的添加会显著影响油砂萃取系统中各种组分的胶体相互作用。来自低品位矿石的细颗粒在沥青上的强烈附着是导致相应的沥青浮选回收率低的原因。通过与经典的DLVO理论或扩展的DLVO理论拟合来识别主导的非接触力，为通过监测可能影响非接触力的因素来控制油砂组分的相互作用行为提供了指导。这些发现为油砂萃取的大规模工业操作提供了见解。
