Review of biological processes in oil sands: a feasible solution for tailings water treatment

Abstract

The bitumen extraction process from Athabasca oil sands ore produces large quantities of toxic processed water as tailings. The oil industry has reduced the demand for fresh water in the extraction process by recycling this tailings water. Continual recycling increases the toxicity of tailings water many times over, and poses a serious threat to surface and groundwater quality. For a sustainable expansion of Canada’s oil sands industry, it is essential to develop a technically practicable and economically feasible tailings water treatment technology. A review was carried out to describe the integral role of biological processes in oil sands history for identifying a successor tailings water treatment technology. This study proposes the application of an entrapped cells system as a feasible solution for tailings water treatment. Bio-augmentation followed by entrapment of the microbial community indigenous to tailings ponds can be a promising tailings water treatment technology.