Fort Hills Energy Uses RPA's Filters Philippe™ Horizontal Vacuum Belt Filter for Tailings Dewatering in Bitumen Recovery Circuit!
Ask Filter Man
Vacuum Belt filter for use in tailings dewatering in their Fort
McMurray Tar Sands Bitumen process circuit.
SITUATION
Tar sands deposits in northern Alberta, Canada are extensive and
require various methods to extract Bitumen, the valuable oil component.
The increasing high price of oil makes extraction of the Bitumen from
the Tar sands economical, in addition to reducing dependence on foreign
oil sources.
This has opened up opportunity for the Canadian region due to the vast
amounts of naturally occurring tar sands deposits. The existing
extraction methods use considerable volumes of water which are disposed
of in tailing ponds.
There are environmental issues associated with extraction of the
Bitumen product due to limited water resources, and the need to dispose
of the contaminated water after the extraction process.
A new extraction process was developed by William Strand and was being
demonstrated by Petro Canada and others at a large scale demonstration
plant being developed and operated by SNC Lavalin.
The extraction process allowed the sand fraction to be filtered,
dewatered and disposed of as a 'dry' tailings.
The filter recovered the majority of the water and the heat value to
provide reduced water requirements and reduced energy cost for the
process.
SOLUTION
RPA Process Technologies supplied the Filtres Philippe Horizontal
Vacuum Belt filter to extract excess water from the sands, thus
providing a dry tailings discharge from the process at the
demonstration plant.
The Filtres Philippe filter was selected for the design features, heavy
duty construction, and on-line reliability
(+98% availability).
The heavy duty design and special support system integrated into the
Filtres Philippe filter design were ideal for this type application
where high production rates are required.
The demonstration plant represented the next stage in the development
of a full-scale commercial plant; to follow at a later date based on
the performance of the pilot facility.
RESULTS
The Filtres Philippe Horizontal Vacuum Belt Filter successfully
dewatered the Tar Sands to produce a product that could be transported
on conveyors and in trucks.
Typical cake moistures of less than 10 wt percent were obtained during
the trials!
RPA also provided the Ronningen-Petter Magnetically Coupled Filter
(MCF) system to protect the cloth spray nozzles for the filter
installation.
This new technology filter has been well received by customers because
of its ease of use, fewer moving parts (which lower the maintenance
costs); along with no external seals which eliminates the risk of
valuable product loss.
This MCF technology is being introduced into the Hydrometallurgy
markets, so look for more about this filter soon.
-- by Ask Filter Man
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