Effect of Oil Sands Slurry Conditioning on Bitumen Recovery from Oil Sands Ores

The effect of slurry conditioning on bitumen recovery and bitumen froth quality has been studied by using three oil sands ores tested with a laboratory hydrotransport extraction system (LHES) and a Denver flotation cell.;Tests with the Denver flotation cell show that the increase in slurry conditioning time resulted in a higher bitumen recovery and a better bitumen froth quality for both good and poor processing ores for a shorter flotation time of 5 min. For a longer flotation time of 20 min, increasing slurry conditioning time had little impact on bitumen recovery but led to a slightly better bitumen froth quality for the good processing ore whereas no effect on bitumen froth quality of the poor processing ore.;Results also show that higher slurry temperatures and stronger mechanical energy input were beneficial to both bitumen recovery and bitumen froth quality for all three oil sands ores tested on both devices.;Tests with the LHES show that an increase in slurry conditioning time yielded a lowered bitumen recovery for a long flotation time (30 min). Longer slurry conditioning time led to a better bitumen froth quality regardless of flotation time. However the over conditioning could be compensated by higher conditioning temperatures and higher slurry flow velocities.