Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Suncor uses both surface mining and steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) to recover bitumen. In SAGDx000D
operations, almost all the steam injected is recovered as produced water at the surface. It is highly desirable tox000D
recycle the maximum possible amount of water of SAGD process to reduce operational costs and overall waterx000D
consumption. The percentage of produced water recycled depends on the performance of the chemicalx000D
treatment process consisting of a warm lime softening unit, an After Filter, and a weak acid cation exchangex000D
unit. The chemical treatment of SAGD produced water is a complicated process with a lot of factorsx000D
influencing its performance. A wide range of colloid and interface science related phenomena are involved inx000D
SAGD produced water chemical treatment and need to be fundamentally understood. The basic understandingx000D
of these phenomena will lead to improved practice of SAGD produced water treatment. A series of jar testsx000D
will be carried out in synthetic waters to evaluate the impact of chemicals including type and dosage on thex000D
coagulation of CaCO3 and Mg(OH)2 particles as well as total suspended solids (TSS) and total organic carbonx000D
(TOC) removal. By comparing the water characterization data of the synthetic waters before and afterx000D
treatment, correlations will be constructed to correlate the performance of CaCO3 and Mg(OH)2 coagulationx000D
and TSS/TOC removal to chemicals species and dosage. The information obtained will be used to elucidate thex000D
coagulation and removal mechanisms. Basic questions like how coagulant interacts with the feed TSS/TOC ofx000D
the synthetic waters as well as formed CaCO3 and Mg(OH)2 particles will be answered.