Clay Minerals Focus Group

• This Focus Group holds bi-annual workshops that serve as an educational forum for technical staff working in the oil sands industry as well as graduate students. The third workshop will be held in March 2013. In the Spring 2011, the Focus Group formalized regular quarterly meetings for CONRAD members to meet and discuss the challenges clays pose for bitumen production and tailings reclamation.

  Objectives:

  
  1. To become the source of expertise about clays in oil sands
  2. To review clay characterization methods and support development of new technologies for clay characterization used in oil sands to improve reliability of characterization achieved
  3. To review impact of clay minerals in oil sands processes
  4. To provide technical feedback on clays to CONRAD Tailings and Water Focus Groups and the CONRAD BPFRG Consortium.
  5. To provide a venue for technical feedback for graduate students and others pursuing research in clays in oil sands
  6. To develop a manual of relevant clay characterization techniques

  Accomplishments in 2011:

  • Reviewed several MBI procedures and are working towards creating a 2012 draft standard method for possible round-robin testing.
  • In March a 2nd Clay workshop was held with ~150 attendees providing a significant amount of important information on the impact of clay minerals on oil sands processing.

  Heather Kaminsky (Total E&P), Chair