Naphthenic acids (NAs) are soluble in water and are concentrated in oil sand process water (OSPW) as a result of caustic oil sands extraction processes. Significant environmental and regulatory attention has been focused on the naphthenic acids. A laboratory scale photocatalysis system was developed using UV254 florescent lamps. Experiments were conducted to determine the NA degradation efficie...

Naphthenic acids are naturally occurring carboxylic in crude oil with cyclic or aromatic rings their structure. These responsible for the acidity of oil, leading to corrosion problems refinery equipment and deactivation catalysts while creating a continuous need maintenance. Therefore, removing naphthenic has become an important requirement refining acidic oil. In this paper, experiments conduc...

Two aromatics-rich distillates R1 and R2 with different properties from naphthenic base vacuum gas oil were used for preparing mesophase pitch through high-pressure thermal treatment. 1H-NMR, FT-IR and VPO were employed to characterize the structural parameters of the raw materials. The products' optical texture and molecular structure were analyzed by polarized light optical microscopy, 1H-NMR...

Naphthenic acids (NAs) as toxic components in most petroleum sources are suspected to be one of the major pollutants in the aquatic environment following oil spills, and the polarity and persistence of NAs make it a potential indicator for oil contamination. However, the contamination and potential effects of pollutants in oil spill affected areas remain unknown. To investigate NAs in oil spill...

The objective of this study was to identify chemical components that could distinguish chemical mixtures in oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) that had potentially migrated to groundwater in the oil sands development area of northern Alberta, Canada. In the first part of the study, OSPW samples from two different tailings ponds and a broad range of natural groundwater samples were assessed...

Boreal wetlands play an important role in global carbon balance. However, their ecosystem function is threatened by direct anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. Oil sands surface mining in the boreal regions of Western Canada denudes tracts of land of organic materials, leaves large areas in need of reclamation, and generates considerable quantities of extraction process-affected materi...

Fen plant growth in peat contaminated with groundwater discharges of oil sands process water (OSPW) was assessed in a greenhouse over two growing seasons. Three treatments (non-diluted OSPW, diluted OSPW and rainwater) were tested on five vascular plants and four mosses. All vascular plants tested can grow in salinity and naphthenic acids levels currently produced by oil sands activity in north...

Naphthenic acids (NAs) are natural constituents in many petroleum sources, including bitumen in the oil sands of Northern Alberta, Canada. Bitumen extraction processes produce tailings waters that cannot be discharged to the environment because NAs are acutely toxic to aquatic species. However, aerobic biodegradation reduces the toxic character of NAs. In this study, four commercial NAs and the...