A new process is being tested to reduce the toxicity of tailings ponds from oil sands production, talked about to great lengths in the article "New Solar Process Could Speed Up Tar Sands Cleanup", by Gas 2, a clean-driving blog. The proposed method involves the chemical reaction of the toxins, chlorine, and sunlight. We have learned a great deal about reactions in chemistry class, and this is an exciting new real-world application. In this case, single-displacement and decomposition reactions are being used to try to clean tailings ponds.We have learned, in notes and experiments, that the addition of energy can trigger a chemical reaction. In this new "solar process", sunlight (or the UV rays in sunlight) provide that triggering energy that causes a beneficial reaction to take place.
This blog post/article excitedly claims that a new process is being used to reduce the toxicity of harmful tailings ponds by 75-84%. Usually, it takes around 20 years for a tailings pond to be able to be reclaimed, while it continually releases toxins into the surrounding ground and water table. It works by adding chlorine or bleach to the water in a tailings pond. The sunlight then hits these chlorine particles, causing them to form "hydroxyl radicals", which are much more efficient at getting rid of the toxins in the water. Then, the sunlight causes any remaining chlorine to decompose, minimizing any extra toxicity adding chlorine to the water might have caused. However, the one problem is the main cause of the chemical reaction. Because sunlight cannot fully penetrate through a pond, it only reacts with the chlorine near the top. The next step is to innovate some sort of inexpensive mixing device that circulates all the tailings around. Then, the water can be run through wastewater treatment at a pre-exisiting facility, and be released back into the water table.
I am very excited by this article. I have had many opinions about the petroleum industry over the past few years, and this seems to promise a very effective counter to the extremely harmful tailings ponds created by the extraction of oil. In addition, the fact that the water is safe enough to go through one more process then be released back "into the wild" is very promising. I'm skeptical of this seemingly miraculous solution, but perhaps it is simple enough to work. I will end with a larger picture question, one that we as Canadians should be asking ourselves constantly.
As citizens of the country with some of the largest oil sands in the world, providing jobs for thousands, which should come first? Our economy or the health of the planet?
Link to article:
http://gas2.org/2014/09/25/new-solar-process-speed-tar-sands-cleanup/
The Earth and the people come first, always. The oil industry is arguably the largest money making business in the world and no government will ever stop reaping the benefits of the industry until there is no more oil. I really enjoyed reading your response and the article at hand. Of course the government cares more about billions of dollars over millions of people, but I'm glad to see that now they are at least trying to do something to reduce the impact on the environment. It will be interesting to see if they go through with this idea or if it even gets developed and the project becomes operational. I'd also like to see if the chemical process could be refined to become more effective, but if the government is sincere about this I feel that they could do a good job with it. All in all, I believe that the people and earth always comes first because without people the idea of an economy would not be able to exist, so I do hope this idea of a solution to reduce toxicity in the tailing pods.
ReplyDelete