Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2W2.
Environ Sci Technol. 2013 Jun 18;47(12):6518-26. doi: 10.1021/es4008195. Epub 2013 May 31.
Oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) is the water contained in tailings impoundment structures in oil sands operations. There are concerns about the environmental impacts of the release of OSPW because of its toxicity. In this study, ozonation followed by biodegradation was used to remediate OSPW. The impacts of the ozone process evolution on the naphthenic acids (NAs) speciation and acute toxicity were evaluated. Ion-mobility spectrometry (IMS) was used to preliminarily separate isomeric and homologous species. The results showed limited effects of the ozone reactor size on the treatment performance in terms of contaminant removal. In terms of NAs speciation, high reactivity of NAs with higher number of carbons and rings was only observed in a region of high reactivity (i.e., utilized ozone dose lower than 50 mg/L). It was also found that nearly 0.5 mg/L total NAs was oxidized per mg/L of utilized ozone dose, at utilized ozone doses lower than 50 mg/L. IMS showed that ozonation was able to degrade NAs, oxidized NAs, and sulfur/nitrogenated NAs. Complete removal of toxicity toward Vibrio fischeri was achieved after ozonation followed by 28-day biodegradation period. In vitro and in vivo assays indicated that ozonation reduced the OSPW toxicity to mice.
油砂处理影响水（OSPW）是油砂作业中尾矿坝结构中所含的水。由于其毒性，人们担心释放 OSPW 会对环境造成影响。在这项研究中，采用臭氧氧化法结合生物降解法来修复 OSPW。评估了臭氧过程演化对环烷酸（NA）形态和急性毒性的影响。离子迁移谱（IMS）用于初步分离同分异构体和同系物。结果表明，臭氧反应器的大小对污染物去除的处理性能影响有限。就 NA 形态而言，只有在高反应性区域（即使用的臭氧剂量低于 50mg/L）才能观察到具有更多碳原子和环数的 NA 的高反应性。还发现，在使用的臭氧剂量低于 50mg/L 时，每毫克使用的臭氧剂量可氧化约 0.5mg/L 的总 NA。IMS 表明，臭氧氧化能够降解 NA、氧化的 NA 和含硫/含氮的 NA。在臭氧氧化后进行 28 天的生物降解期，完全去除了对发光菌的毒性。体外和体内试验表明，臭氧氧化降低了 OSPW 对小鼠的毒性。
