CA2794587A1 - A composition and method for producing ceramic building materials by using alberta oil sands tailings - Google Patents
A composition and method for producing ceramic building materials by using alberta oil sands tailings Download PDFInfo
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- CA2794587A1 CA2794587A1 CA2794587A CA2794587A CA2794587A1 CA 2794587 A1 CA2794587 A1 CA 2794587A1 CA 2794587 A CA2794587 A CA 2794587A CA 2794587 A CA2794587 A CA 2794587A CA 2794587 A1 CA2794587 A1 CA 2794587A1
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- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
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- Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
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Abstract
A composition comprising fine clays (from oil sand tailings) 30-100%, coarse sand (from oil sand tailings) 0-30%, Na.cndot.K feldspar 0-30% and ball clay 0-25%, all by weight of dry bases, a method for preparation of ceramic materials and a method for production of ceramic building and/or construction materials such as tiles (floor, wall and roof) and bricks (curb, barrier, pavement and masonry) from mainly Alberta oil sands tailings, wastes of oil sands operations.
Description
A Composition and Method for Producing Ceramic Building Materials by Using Alberta Oil Sands Tailings Field of Invention 100011 The present invention relates to a composition and a method for preparation of ceramic materials from Alberta oil sands tailings, wastes of oil sands operations, and a method for production of ceramic building and/or construction materials such as tiles (floor, wall and roof) and bricks (curb, barrier, pavement and masonry) from the oil sands tailings wastes.
Background 100021 Many compositions and methods have been disclosed to utilize industrial wastes as primary raw materials for producing useful ceramic building and/or construction materials.
Industrial wastes are the by-products of construction, mining or manufacturing, agricultural and horticultural and other industrial processes. They possess both physical and chemical properties, which can interact with the natural or artificial ecosystems that they occupy.
Tailings waste lagoons and dams represent some of the largest man-made structures in the world. The large quantities of water stored in the voids of these tailings impoundments can make them potentially unstable and a potential risk to underlying ground water. Many tailings disposal facilities contain material that undergoes extremely slow self-weight consolidation.
Examples include the fine tailings produced in the Oil Sands industry, and the waste products from the phosphate mining industry. Social, legal and financial pressures are being directed towards the problems arising from industrial wastes. For example, in the United Kingdom the Special Waste Regulations (1996) SI 1996/972 has been replaced by the Hazardous Wastes Regulations in 2003/4 and the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations (2002) 1559 are enacted. These changes likely result in an increase in the cost of disposal of industrial wastes.
10003] Northern Alberta of Canada reserves 85% of the world's oil sand deposits. According to official statistics of Canada, the deposit of Alberta oil sand contributes approximately 175 billion barrels of crude oil, 20% is suitable for large-scale surface mining.
The mined ore typically consists of 68-83% sand, 3-16% clay, 4-5% water and 10-11% bitumen.
In mining operations, it takes about two tonnes of oil sands and 2.2-5.0 barrels of river water to produce a barrel of synthetic crude oil (SCO) and 1.5-2.0 barrels of mature fine tailing (MFT) containing 30% solids and 70% water by weight, a by-product of mining operations.
Currently, there are more than 800 million m3 tailings holding in more than 130 km2 of tailings ponds in the Alberta oil sands region. The tailings inventory is increasing at a rate of 50 million m3 per year. Based on a centrifuge simulation study, the tailings in tailings ponds need more than 130 years to settle by themselves, holding a significant amount of water and occupying a huge area of disturbed land. Surface oil sand companies are facing three major challenges: water use, tailings treatment and disturbed land reclamation. The legislations of Alberta require reclamation of both the land disturbed by oil sand mining activities (472 km2) and the land occupied by tailings ponds (130 km2) to self-sustaining ecosystems. In February 2009, the Energy Resources Conservation Board of Alberta, the oil industry governing body of Alberta government, issued its Directive 074, Tailings Performance Criteria and Requirements for Oil Sands Mining Schemes. According to the Directive 074, oil sands mining companies are required to process 50% of their tailings by the year of 2013 and turn their processed tailings into tailings deposits with trafficable surfaces within 5 years of their disposals.
[0004] U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,535 disclosed a method of treating coal mining waste to produce a cementitious material, which is self-hardening at atmospheric pressure, and may be used as structural fill, road base material, or alternatively as an aggregate consolidated barrier to prevent penetrating percolation and resulting surface water contamination.
Detailed information regarding the composition's density and plasticity is not disclosed. However, due to its cementitious nature, the well known disadvantages of the composition associated with cement based products are high porosity and structural instability, and therefore limiting in application and potential utility.
[0005] U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,427 disclosed a method of producing an autoclaved aerated cement building material (termed AAC) by a process that uses the available silica sand and other raw materials in mine tailings, in particular copper mine tailings. The AAC as produced and claimed is of limited utility because the composition lacks plasticity and is therefore incapable of efficient subsequent reformation. The disadvantages associated with the AAC
include high porosity and structural instability as a result of temperature and climate fluctuations.
[0006] US Pat. 6,204,430 and US Pat. 6,004,069 disclosed methods for stabilizing wastes, preparing construction materials and stabilizing soils using compositions including hexametaphosphate, with or without other additives. The wastes are a variety of materials including solid and liquid-containing wastes, including for example, common debris or hazardous, radioactive or toxic waste. This method involves combining a waste material with hexametaphosphate, and in some cases other additives. The resulting amended waste may also be compacted. Another method involves use of hexametaphosphate compositions to prepare construction materials. This method involves combining hexametaphosphate with a starting material such as soil, soil-containing compositions, mine tailings, mill tailings and combinations thereof. The resulting mixture is then compacted. The method yields a solid material in which the hexametaphosphate chemically and physically binds to soil constituents.
[0007] US Pat. 5,375,777 disclosed a process for making a building material with improved acid and water resistance from waste material. There is provided a process for preparing a building material. In the first step of this process, a waste product is ground so that substantially all of its particles are a thickness of less about 0.5 inches.
In the second step of the process, a resin precursor material and a hardener are mixed to form an epoxy mortar. In the third step of the process, the ground up waste material is mixed with the epoxy mortar. In the fourth step of the process, sand is mixed with the epoxy mortar/waste mixture. In the fifth step of the process entrained air is removed from the mix.
[0008] US Pat. App 10,587,554 disclosed a solid construction material and a method of preparing such a solid construction material, which is based upon a sludge or tailing material, such as a dredged material. In particular, the invention provides the possibility to control important parameters such as mechanical strength, bearing strength, stiffness specific weight, permeability, processibility and/or cost of a solid construction material obtainable from a fluid mixture.
[0009] US Pat. App 9,892,488 disclosed a method of making cement from tailings or rock fines containing silicate or siliceous compounds includes grinding the tailings or rock fines to a size in the range of from about 250 to about 425 mesh to produce ground pozzolan. The ground pozzolan is mixed with Type 1 normal Portland cement or Type 3 high early strength Portland cement in a ratio of at least about 0.1:1 by weight to produce a blended cement.
[0010] US Pat. 5,830,251 and US Pat. 5.935.885 disclosed a process of forming ceramic tiles having the appearance of tiles produced from clays. It provided for the use of recycled glass and fly ash as materials to be incorporated with other materials to produce high quality, low cost, high-value end products.
[0011] The composition of Canadian oil sand tailings are mainly coarse silica sand and fine clays in a typical sand-to-fine ratio of 4.25. The coarse and fine classifications are defined by the industry as its particle size being greater or less than 44 gm. They both are good and suitable to be used as main raw ceramic building and/or construction materials. To comprehensively use oil sands tailings wastes is a way that can turn Alberta oil sand operations into environmentally acceptable operations with much higher economic benefit.
However, so far, there is no prior art describing such an application.
[0012] One object of this invention is to offer a compositions and methods that use Canadian oil sand tailings to produce ceramic building and/or construction materials.
Another object is to provide a method of treating oil sand tailing by turning the wastes into value added products for North America market and make the oil sand an environmental sustainable industry.
Background 100021 Many compositions and methods have been disclosed to utilize industrial wastes as primary raw materials for producing useful ceramic building and/or construction materials.
Industrial wastes are the by-products of construction, mining or manufacturing, agricultural and horticultural and other industrial processes. They possess both physical and chemical properties, which can interact with the natural or artificial ecosystems that they occupy.
Tailings waste lagoons and dams represent some of the largest man-made structures in the world. The large quantities of water stored in the voids of these tailings impoundments can make them potentially unstable and a potential risk to underlying ground water. Many tailings disposal facilities contain material that undergoes extremely slow self-weight consolidation.
Examples include the fine tailings produced in the Oil Sands industry, and the waste products from the phosphate mining industry. Social, legal and financial pressures are being directed towards the problems arising from industrial wastes. For example, in the United Kingdom the Special Waste Regulations (1996) SI 1996/972 has been replaced by the Hazardous Wastes Regulations in 2003/4 and the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations (2002) 1559 are enacted. These changes likely result in an increase in the cost of disposal of industrial wastes.
10003] Northern Alberta of Canada reserves 85% of the world's oil sand deposits. According to official statistics of Canada, the deposit of Alberta oil sand contributes approximately 175 billion barrels of crude oil, 20% is suitable for large-scale surface mining.
The mined ore typically consists of 68-83% sand, 3-16% clay, 4-5% water and 10-11% bitumen.
In mining operations, it takes about two tonnes of oil sands and 2.2-5.0 barrels of river water to produce a barrel of synthetic crude oil (SCO) and 1.5-2.0 barrels of mature fine tailing (MFT) containing 30% solids and 70% water by weight, a by-product of mining operations.
Currently, there are more than 800 million m3 tailings holding in more than 130 km2 of tailings ponds in the Alberta oil sands region. The tailings inventory is increasing at a rate of 50 million m3 per year. Based on a centrifuge simulation study, the tailings in tailings ponds need more than 130 years to settle by themselves, holding a significant amount of water and occupying a huge area of disturbed land. Surface oil sand companies are facing three major challenges: water use, tailings treatment and disturbed land reclamation. The legislations of Alberta require reclamation of both the land disturbed by oil sand mining activities (472 km2) and the land occupied by tailings ponds (130 km2) to self-sustaining ecosystems. In February 2009, the Energy Resources Conservation Board of Alberta, the oil industry governing body of Alberta government, issued its Directive 074, Tailings Performance Criteria and Requirements for Oil Sands Mining Schemes. According to the Directive 074, oil sands mining companies are required to process 50% of their tailings by the year of 2013 and turn their processed tailings into tailings deposits with trafficable surfaces within 5 years of their disposals.
[0004] U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,535 disclosed a method of treating coal mining waste to produce a cementitious material, which is self-hardening at atmospheric pressure, and may be used as structural fill, road base material, or alternatively as an aggregate consolidated barrier to prevent penetrating percolation and resulting surface water contamination.
Detailed information regarding the composition's density and plasticity is not disclosed. However, due to its cementitious nature, the well known disadvantages of the composition associated with cement based products are high porosity and structural instability, and therefore limiting in application and potential utility.
[0005] U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,427 disclosed a method of producing an autoclaved aerated cement building material (termed AAC) by a process that uses the available silica sand and other raw materials in mine tailings, in particular copper mine tailings. The AAC as produced and claimed is of limited utility because the composition lacks plasticity and is therefore incapable of efficient subsequent reformation. The disadvantages associated with the AAC
include high porosity and structural instability as a result of temperature and climate fluctuations.
[0006] US Pat. 6,204,430 and US Pat. 6,004,069 disclosed methods for stabilizing wastes, preparing construction materials and stabilizing soils using compositions including hexametaphosphate, with or without other additives. The wastes are a variety of materials including solid and liquid-containing wastes, including for example, common debris or hazardous, radioactive or toxic waste. This method involves combining a waste material with hexametaphosphate, and in some cases other additives. The resulting amended waste may also be compacted. Another method involves use of hexametaphosphate compositions to prepare construction materials. This method involves combining hexametaphosphate with a starting material such as soil, soil-containing compositions, mine tailings, mill tailings and combinations thereof. The resulting mixture is then compacted. The method yields a solid material in which the hexametaphosphate chemically and physically binds to soil constituents.
[0007] US Pat. 5,375,777 disclosed a process for making a building material with improved acid and water resistance from waste material. There is provided a process for preparing a building material. In the first step of this process, a waste product is ground so that substantially all of its particles are a thickness of less about 0.5 inches.
In the second step of the process, a resin precursor material and a hardener are mixed to form an epoxy mortar. In the third step of the process, the ground up waste material is mixed with the epoxy mortar. In the fourth step of the process, sand is mixed with the epoxy mortar/waste mixture. In the fifth step of the process entrained air is removed from the mix.
[0008] US Pat. App 10,587,554 disclosed a solid construction material and a method of preparing such a solid construction material, which is based upon a sludge or tailing material, such as a dredged material. In particular, the invention provides the possibility to control important parameters such as mechanical strength, bearing strength, stiffness specific weight, permeability, processibility and/or cost of a solid construction material obtainable from a fluid mixture.
[0009] US Pat. App 9,892,488 disclosed a method of making cement from tailings or rock fines containing silicate or siliceous compounds includes grinding the tailings or rock fines to a size in the range of from about 250 to about 425 mesh to produce ground pozzolan. The ground pozzolan is mixed with Type 1 normal Portland cement or Type 3 high early strength Portland cement in a ratio of at least about 0.1:1 by weight to produce a blended cement.
[0010] US Pat. 5,830,251 and US Pat. 5.935.885 disclosed a process of forming ceramic tiles having the appearance of tiles produced from clays. It provided for the use of recycled glass and fly ash as materials to be incorporated with other materials to produce high quality, low cost, high-value end products.
[0011] The composition of Canadian oil sand tailings are mainly coarse silica sand and fine clays in a typical sand-to-fine ratio of 4.25. The coarse and fine classifications are defined by the industry as its particle size being greater or less than 44 gm. They both are good and suitable to be used as main raw ceramic building and/or construction materials. To comprehensively use oil sands tailings wastes is a way that can turn Alberta oil sand operations into environmentally acceptable operations with much higher economic benefit.
However, so far, there is no prior art describing such an application.
[0012] One object of this invention is to offer a compositions and methods that use Canadian oil sand tailings to produce ceramic building and/or construction materials.
Another object is to provide a method of treating oil sand tailing by turning the wastes into value added products for North America market and make the oil sand an environmental sustainable industry.
Summary of The Invention [0013] The present invention provides a composition and methods for preparing ceramic materials and producing ceramic building and/or construction materials such as tiles (floor, wall and roof) and bricks (curb, barrier, pavement and masonry) by using Alberta oil sands tailings wastes.
Brief Description Of The Drawings [0014] Fig. 1 is a schematic flow diagram of the method for preparation of ceramic materials from oil sand tailing wastes.
[0015] Fig. 2 is a tabular illustration of typical compositions of fine clays (<45 gm) and coarse sand (>45 gm) for ceramics.
[0016] Fig. 3 Solids and hydrocarbon content as a function of depth in the Suncor Settling Pond 3 (Redraw from data of Mikula etal.,1996) [0017] Fig. 4 Solids particle size distribution as a function of depth in the Suncor Settling Pond 3 (Redraw from data of Mikula etal.,1996) [0018] Fig. 5 is a tabular illustration of typical chemical compositions of different size fractions of oil sands tailings.
Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments [0019] One embedment of the present invention is described below with reference to Fig. 1, which is a schematic flow diagram of the method for preparation of ceramic materials from oil sand tailing wastes (1), which can be raw tailings discharged from a bitumen extraction plant or mature fine tailing (MFT) dredged from a tailings pond. In the case of raw tailings, received from a bitumen extraction plant, typically containing 50% solids, 0.40-1.30%
residual bitumen and balance water, the residual bitumen needs to be removed in a bitumen removal unit (2) before going to an iron removal unit (6), preferably the residual bitumen is removed in an integrated flotation unit disclosed in a previous application US
61/442,957. The integrated flotation unit separates the tailings into three streams: bitumen froth (3), fine clays (4) and coarse sand (5). It is very important to remove residual bitumen from either raw tailings or MFT because the spaces occupied by the bitumen in tailings will be left as void spaces after the bitumen is burned during firing. Present firing technology allows for the firing cycle in traditional tile production to be less than 1 hour. The shortest firing times of traditional clay bodies are limited by the organic material present in the clay. A high carbon level in the clay can lead to "black core" in the final tile product. Black core occurs when the center of the tile body obtains a dark color due to the reducing effects of incompletely oxidized carbon. This effect is undesirable in the production of light colored and unglazed tiles.
Another problem with high level of bitumen presence is that the sticky bitumen will reduce efficiency of magnetic iron removal (6) in the next process. The magnetic iron removal process can be skipped if the produced clays (8) are for colored ceramics or glazed ceramics.
Subject to ceramic composition requirement for achieving different ceramic characteristics, the produced clays (8) can be further fractionated in a size fractionation unit (10) into different size fractions (11), which will be detailed later in this specification. The separated coarse sand passes a grinding and purification unit (7) for bringing particle size down to less than 200 im sand (8) ready for ceramics.
Brief Description Of The Drawings [0014] Fig. 1 is a schematic flow diagram of the method for preparation of ceramic materials from oil sand tailing wastes.
[0015] Fig. 2 is a tabular illustration of typical compositions of fine clays (<45 gm) and coarse sand (>45 gm) for ceramics.
[0016] Fig. 3 Solids and hydrocarbon content as a function of depth in the Suncor Settling Pond 3 (Redraw from data of Mikula etal.,1996) [0017] Fig. 4 Solids particle size distribution as a function of depth in the Suncor Settling Pond 3 (Redraw from data of Mikula etal.,1996) [0018] Fig. 5 is a tabular illustration of typical chemical compositions of different size fractions of oil sands tailings.
Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments [0019] One embedment of the present invention is described below with reference to Fig. 1, which is a schematic flow diagram of the method for preparation of ceramic materials from oil sand tailing wastes (1), which can be raw tailings discharged from a bitumen extraction plant or mature fine tailing (MFT) dredged from a tailings pond. In the case of raw tailings, received from a bitumen extraction plant, typically containing 50% solids, 0.40-1.30%
residual bitumen and balance water, the residual bitumen needs to be removed in a bitumen removal unit (2) before going to an iron removal unit (6), preferably the residual bitumen is removed in an integrated flotation unit disclosed in a previous application US
61/442,957. The integrated flotation unit separates the tailings into three streams: bitumen froth (3), fine clays (4) and coarse sand (5). It is very important to remove residual bitumen from either raw tailings or MFT because the spaces occupied by the bitumen in tailings will be left as void spaces after the bitumen is burned during firing. Present firing technology allows for the firing cycle in traditional tile production to be less than 1 hour. The shortest firing times of traditional clay bodies are limited by the organic material present in the clay. A high carbon level in the clay can lead to "black core" in the final tile product. Black core occurs when the center of the tile body obtains a dark color due to the reducing effects of incompletely oxidized carbon. This effect is undesirable in the production of light colored and unglazed tiles.
Another problem with high level of bitumen presence is that the sticky bitumen will reduce efficiency of magnetic iron removal (6) in the next process. The magnetic iron removal process can be skipped if the produced clays (8) are for colored ceramics or glazed ceramics.
Subject to ceramic composition requirement for achieving different ceramic characteristics, the produced clays (8) can be further fractionated in a size fractionation unit (10) into different size fractions (11), which will be detailed later in this specification. The separated coarse sand passes a grinding and purification unit (7) for bringing particle size down to less than 200 im sand (8) ready for ceramics.
[0020] The fine clays (4) and coarse sand (5) have their typical compositions as shown in Figure 2. The fine clays are high in desirable Si02 (65.90%), A1203 (22.75%) and undesirable Fe203 (4.10%) to be used as ceramic building/construction materials. While the coarse sand (5) contains very high Si02 (93.8%) and low A1203 (2.75%).
[0021] Fine clays have a function as a binder in ceramic production. Clays have also a function of improving, when making a formed body by means of a press, formability of the formed body. In addition, clays have a function of melting during firing to fasten aggregates to each other. Silica sand has a function as an aggregate, and a function of minimizing the variation in the volume of the formed body during firing. Iron oxide has a function of keeping the tone of color of the ceramic products. However, for white or light colored ceramic products, iron removal becomes necessary.
[0022] In the case of using mature fine tailings (MFT), holding in tailings ponds and typically containing 30% fine solids, 2-3% residue bitumen and balance water, as a ceramic raw material, the fine solids and residue bitumen contents vary vertically as shown in Fig. 3, which is an illustration of solids and hydrocarbon content variations as a function of depth in the Suncor Settling Pond 3 in 1996. It is also known that solids particle size changes with depth in a tailings pond. Fig. 4 is an illustration of solids particle size distribution as a function of depth in the Suncor Settling Pond 3 in 1996, showing that the larger the particles the greater depth they stayed in. Due to the fact that different sizes of solids particles have different chemical characteristics, it is necessary to dredge the MFT in a way best suitable for different ceramic compositions.
[0021] Fine clays have a function as a binder in ceramic production. Clays have also a function of improving, when making a formed body by means of a press, formability of the formed body. In addition, clays have a function of melting during firing to fasten aggregates to each other. Silica sand has a function as an aggregate, and a function of minimizing the variation in the volume of the formed body during firing. Iron oxide has a function of keeping the tone of color of the ceramic products. However, for white or light colored ceramic products, iron removal becomes necessary.
[0022] In the case of using mature fine tailings (MFT), holding in tailings ponds and typically containing 30% fine solids, 2-3% residue bitumen and balance water, as a ceramic raw material, the fine solids and residue bitumen contents vary vertically as shown in Fig. 3, which is an illustration of solids and hydrocarbon content variations as a function of depth in the Suncor Settling Pond 3 in 1996. It is also known that solids particle size changes with depth in a tailings pond. Fig. 4 is an illustration of solids particle size distribution as a function of depth in the Suncor Settling Pond 3 in 1996, showing that the larger the particles the greater depth they stayed in. Due to the fact that different sizes of solids particles have different chemical characteristics, it is necessary to dredge the MFT in a way best suitable for different ceramic compositions.
[0023] With reference to Fig. 5, being a tabular illustration of typical chemical components of different size fractions, the finer the particles of a size fraction the lower in its Si02 and Fe203, and the higher in its A1203, meaning that same amount of MFT with different size fractions in a ceramic composition will result in ceramic products with different quality and characteristics. Predetermination of profiles of content and size of solids in a tailings pond is required before dredging MFT. The MFT can be then dredged at a certain depth as required by a ceramic composition so as to minimize cost for further grinding and particle size screening.
[0024] Another embedment of the present invention is a composition in general for ceramic building and/or construction materials containing fine clays (from oil sand tailings) 30-100%, coarse sand (from oil sand tailings) 0-30%, Nail( feldspar 0-30% and ball clay 0-25%, all by weight of dry bases, where the main chemical components of the composition are shown in a table below:
Si02 A1203 Fe203 K20 Na20 P CaO
Fine clays ( 5.0%) ( 5.0%) ( 2.5%) ( 0.5%) ( 0.5%) ( 0.3%) (from oil sand tailings) 65.9% 23.0% 4.1% 2.8% 0.4% 0.5%
Si02 A1203 Fe203 K20 Na20 Ca0 Coarse sand ( 5.0%) ( 2.0%) ( 0.3%) ( 0.3%) ( 0.1%) ( 0.1%) (from oil sand tailings) 93.8% 2.8% 0.3% 0.5% 0.1% 0.1%
Si02 A1203 Fe203 K20 Na20 CaO
K=Na -Feldspar ( 3%) ( 3%) ( 1%) ( 5%) ( 2%) ( 2%) 68% 19% 1% 10% 3% 2%
Si02 A1203 Fe203 K20 Na20 Ca0 Ball clay ( 3%) ( 3%) ( 1%) ( 1%) ( 1%) ( 1%) 55% 30% 1% 1% 1% 1%
The fine clays in the ceramic composition can be either a fractionated size fraction of raw tailings discharged from a bitumen extraction plant or a fractionated size fraction of MFT
from which the bitumen and iron are removed. The size fractionation of MFT can be carried out either by dredging the MFT from a certain vertical location in a tailings pond where a desired size fraction of fine solids present or by dredging the MFT from different vertical locations and forming a mixture of dredged material then using the size fractionation unit (10) to obtain different size fractions. In both cases, the residual bitumen in the fine clays must be removed before or during the size fractionation. The leftover bitumen level in the fine clays should be controlled less than 5% by weight of dry fine clay.
[0025] Another embedment of the present invention provides a method of producing the ceramic building and/or construction tiles (floor, wall and roof) and bricks (curb, barrier, pavement and masonry). Said method comprises the steps of ¨ removing residual bitumen and iron from oil sand tailings as shown in Fig.1 then followed by flocculation and sedimentation, ¨ preparing the composition according to required dosages of tailings and other materials, ¨ mixing, drum milling, maturing and spraying or flash drying the mixture to produce a body material or dust pressing powder for ceramic tiles, ¨ alternatively, mixing, pan milling and dewatering the mixture in a filter press or a rotational filter to produce extrusion paste to a water content of between 20 and 25 %
for bricks, ¨ shaping the body material to green-ware by pressing the dust pressing powder for ceramic tiles or by extruding the extrusion paste for bricks, ¨ drying the green-ware in a tunnel dryer, roller dryer or vertical dryer, ¨ firing the dried green-ware in a roller hearth kiln, tunnel kiln or periodically operated kiln.
[0026] Preferably, the diameters of particles of the body material is controlled less than 200 gm. Firing temperatures for different ceramic products should be controlled between 800-1,300 C. The green-ware can also be fired after glazing. All the processes used here, including iron removal, maturing, milling, shaping, drying and firing, are conventional in the industry.
[0027] The present invention utilizes mature technologies and waste materials to produce value added porcelains, chinaware and earthenware with a very low rate of defective products.
In addition, the present invention provides a cost effective way to achieve economic and environmental benefits.
[0028] The present invention will now be described with reference to the following, but not limited to, examples:
Fine clays coarse sand Na.K-ingredient Ball clay (from oil sand tailings) (from oil sand tailings) Feldspar Example 1 69% 0% 17% 15%
Example 2 59% 0% 21% 20%
Example 3 90% 0% 0% 10%
Example 4 75% 0% 15% 10%
Example 5 85% 15% 0% 0%
Example 6 100% 0% 0% 0%
Example 7 38% 30% 12% 20%
[0024] Another embedment of the present invention is a composition in general for ceramic building and/or construction materials containing fine clays (from oil sand tailings) 30-100%, coarse sand (from oil sand tailings) 0-30%, Nail( feldspar 0-30% and ball clay 0-25%, all by weight of dry bases, where the main chemical components of the composition are shown in a table below:
Si02 A1203 Fe203 K20 Na20 P CaO
Fine clays ( 5.0%) ( 5.0%) ( 2.5%) ( 0.5%) ( 0.5%) ( 0.3%) (from oil sand tailings) 65.9% 23.0% 4.1% 2.8% 0.4% 0.5%
Si02 A1203 Fe203 K20 Na20 Ca0 Coarse sand ( 5.0%) ( 2.0%) ( 0.3%) ( 0.3%) ( 0.1%) ( 0.1%) (from oil sand tailings) 93.8% 2.8% 0.3% 0.5% 0.1% 0.1%
Si02 A1203 Fe203 K20 Na20 CaO
K=Na -Feldspar ( 3%) ( 3%) ( 1%) ( 5%) ( 2%) ( 2%) 68% 19% 1% 10% 3% 2%
Si02 A1203 Fe203 K20 Na20 Ca0 Ball clay ( 3%) ( 3%) ( 1%) ( 1%) ( 1%) ( 1%) 55% 30% 1% 1% 1% 1%
The fine clays in the ceramic composition can be either a fractionated size fraction of raw tailings discharged from a bitumen extraction plant or a fractionated size fraction of MFT
from which the bitumen and iron are removed. The size fractionation of MFT can be carried out either by dredging the MFT from a certain vertical location in a tailings pond where a desired size fraction of fine solids present or by dredging the MFT from different vertical locations and forming a mixture of dredged material then using the size fractionation unit (10) to obtain different size fractions. In both cases, the residual bitumen in the fine clays must be removed before or during the size fractionation. The leftover bitumen level in the fine clays should be controlled less than 5% by weight of dry fine clay.
[0025] Another embedment of the present invention provides a method of producing the ceramic building and/or construction tiles (floor, wall and roof) and bricks (curb, barrier, pavement and masonry). Said method comprises the steps of ¨ removing residual bitumen and iron from oil sand tailings as shown in Fig.1 then followed by flocculation and sedimentation, ¨ preparing the composition according to required dosages of tailings and other materials, ¨ mixing, drum milling, maturing and spraying or flash drying the mixture to produce a body material or dust pressing powder for ceramic tiles, ¨ alternatively, mixing, pan milling and dewatering the mixture in a filter press or a rotational filter to produce extrusion paste to a water content of between 20 and 25 %
for bricks, ¨ shaping the body material to green-ware by pressing the dust pressing powder for ceramic tiles or by extruding the extrusion paste for bricks, ¨ drying the green-ware in a tunnel dryer, roller dryer or vertical dryer, ¨ firing the dried green-ware in a roller hearth kiln, tunnel kiln or periodically operated kiln.
[0026] Preferably, the diameters of particles of the body material is controlled less than 200 gm. Firing temperatures for different ceramic products should be controlled between 800-1,300 C. The green-ware can also be fired after glazing. All the processes used here, including iron removal, maturing, milling, shaping, drying and firing, are conventional in the industry.
[0027] The present invention utilizes mature technologies and waste materials to produce value added porcelains, chinaware and earthenware with a very low rate of defective products.
In addition, the present invention provides a cost effective way to achieve economic and environmental benefits.
[0028] The present invention will now be described with reference to the following, but not limited to, examples:
Fine clays coarse sand Na.K-ingredient Ball clay (from oil sand tailings) (from oil sand tailings) Feldspar Example 1 69% 0% 17% 15%
Example 2 59% 0% 21% 20%
Example 3 90% 0% 0% 10%
Example 4 75% 0% 15% 10%
Example 5 85% 15% 0% 0%
Example 6 100% 0% 0% 0%
Example 7 38% 30% 12% 20%
Claims (7)
1. A composition comprising fine clays (from oil sand tailings) 30-100%, coarse sand (from oil sand tailings) 0-30%, Na.cndot.K feldspar 0-30% and ball clay 0-25%, all by weight of dry bases, and a method for preparation of ceramic materials and a method for production of ceramic building and/or construction materials such as tiles and bricks from mainly Alberta oil sands tailings, wastes of oil sands operations.
2. The method for preparation of ceramic body materials of claim 1 comprises a bitumen removal unit, an iron removal unit and an optional size fractionation unit.
The said bitumen removal unit separates raw tailings discharged from a bitumen extraction plant or mature fine tailing (MFT) dredged from a tailings pond into three streams:
bitumen froth, fine clays and coarse sand.
The said bitumen removal unit separates raw tailings discharged from a bitumen extraction plant or mature fine tailing (MFT) dredged from a tailings pond into three streams:
bitumen froth, fine clays and coarse sand.
3. The composition of claim 1 and the method of claims 1 and 2, wherein preferable main chemical components of the fine clays, coarse sand, Na.cndot.K feldspar and ball clay are shown in a table below:
4. The composition of claims 1 and 3, wherein the fine clays in the ceramic composition can be either a further fractionated size fraction of raw tailings or a fractionated size fraction of mature fine tailing (MFT) from which bitumen and iron are removed.
The size fractionation of MFT can be carried out by either dredging the MFT from a certain vertical location in a tailings pond where a desired size fraction of fine solids present or dredging the MFT from different vertical locations and forming a mixture of dredged material then using the size fractionation unit to obtain different size fractions. In both cases, the residual bitumen in the fine clays must be removed before or during the size fractionation. The leftover bitumen level in the fine clays should be controlled less than 5% by weight of dry fine clay.
The size fractionation of MFT can be carried out by either dredging the MFT from a certain vertical location in a tailings pond where a desired size fraction of fine solids present or dredging the MFT from different vertical locations and forming a mixture of dredged material then using the size fractionation unit to obtain different size fractions. In both cases, the residual bitumen in the fine clays must be removed before or during the size fractionation. The leftover bitumen level in the fine clays should be controlled less than 5% by weight of dry fine clay.
5. The method of claims 1 and 2, wherein the coarse sand passes a grinding and purification unit for bringing particle size down to less than 200 µm sand ready for ceramics.
6. The method for production of ceramic building and/or construction materials of claim 1 comprises the steps of ¨ removing residual bitumen and iron from oil sand tailings as shown in Fig.1 then followed by flocculation and sedimentation, ¨ preparing composition according to required dosages of tailings and other materials, ¨ mixing, drum milling, maturing and spraying or flash drying the mixture to produce a body material or dust pressing powder for ceramic tiles, ¨ alternatively, mixing, pan milling and dewatering the mixture in a filter press or a rotational filter to produce extrusion paste to a water content of between 20 and 25 % for bricks, ¨ shaping the body material to green-ware by pressing the dust pressing powder for ceramic tiles or by extruding the extrusion paste for bricks, ¨ drying the green-ware in a tunnel dryer, roller dryer or vertical dryer, ¨ firing the dried green-ware in a roller hearth kiln, tunnel kiln or periodically operated kiln.
7. Preferably, the diameters of particles of the body material are controlled less than 200 µm. Firing temperatures for different ceramic products should be controlled between 800-1300 °C. The green-ware can also be fired after glazing. All the processes used here, including iron removal, maturing, milling, shaping, drying and firing, are conventional in the industry.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US201261556177P | 2012-11-04 | 2012-11-04 | |
| US61/556,177 | 2012-11-04 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2794587A1 true CA2794587A1 (en) | 2014-05-04 |
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ID=50679495
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA2794587A Abandoned CA2794587A1 (en) | 2012-11-04 | 2012-11-05 | A composition and method for producing ceramic building materials by using alberta oil sands tailings |
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| CA (1) | CA2794587A1 (en) |
Cited By (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN104150872A (en) * | 2014-08-06 | 2014-11-19 | 苏州科德溯源仪器有限公司 | Grapheme enhanced ceramic tile |
| CN114736000A (en) * | 2022-04-30 | 2022-07-12 | 福建省德化县宝瑞陶瓷有限公司 | Thermal shock resistant white blank and its making process |
| CN115443314A (en) * | 2021-04-29 | 2022-12-06 | 德州学院 | Method for preparing composite pigment and filler for paint by using oil sand tailings |
-
2012
- 2012-11-05 CA CA2794587A patent/CA2794587A1/en not_active Abandoned
Cited By (4)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN104150872A (en) * | 2014-08-06 | 2014-11-19 | 苏州科德溯源仪器有限公司 | Grapheme enhanced ceramic tile |
| CN115443314A (en) * | 2021-04-29 | 2022-12-06 | 德州学院 | Method for preparing composite pigment and filler for paint by using oil sand tailings |
| CN114736000A (en) * | 2022-04-30 | 2022-07-12 | 福建省德化县宝瑞陶瓷有限公司 | Thermal shock resistant white blank and its making process |
| CN114736000B (en) * | 2022-04-30 | 2023-02-10 | 福建省德化县宝瑞陶瓷有限公司 | Thermal shock resistant white blank and its making process |
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