Review of Biological Processes in Oil Sands – A Feasible Solution for Tailings Water Treatment

Bitumen extraction process from Athabasca oil sands ore produces large quantities of toxic processed water as tailings. The oil industry has reduced the demand of fresh water in the extraction process by recycling the tailings water. Continual recycling increases the toxicity of tailings water many folds and poses a serious threat to surface and groundwater quality. For a sustainable expansion of Canadaâ 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 entrapped cells system as a feasible solution for tailings water treatment. Bio-augmentation followed by entrapment of microbial community indigenous to tailings ponds can be a promising tailings water treatment technology.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author