| Naphthenic acids attribute to the toxicity of oil sands process water. Naphthenic acids quantification by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy depends significantly on which standard is used and Merichem naphthenic acids are a good standard. Naphthenic acids can be removed from oil sands process water using sodium persulfate as the oxidant in the presence of iron sulfate or zero-valent iron as the activator. Increasing temperature increased reaction rate between naphthenic acids and sodium persulfate. The chemical oxidation process has a significant effect on oil sands process water chemistry, especially, the pH dropped from 8.3 to about 2.4 after chemical oxidation. Naphthenic acids can be degraded from groundwater in the presence of soil using sodium persulfate with 95 % efficiency within 40 days at 22 °C. The chemical oxidation did not significantly decrease the number of total bacteria in the DNA extracted from the soil. |
