Surfactants in Athabasca Oil Sands Slurry Conditioning, Flotation Recovery, and Tailings Processes

In the surface processing of oil sands, surface and interfacial phenomena involving surfactants are involved in the occurrence and properties of suspensions, emulsions, and foams of several kinds. The actions of natural surfactants originating in the bitumen, and underlying the physical chemical basis for the separation process, are reviewed in the context of individual process steps. Issues arising from the occurrence of these surfactants in the process tailings basins are also discussed.