Abstract
Conventional laboratory x-ray diffraction techniques are generally used to characterize minerals in oil sand ores and other extraction process streams and can usually provide mineralogical insight into reasons for poor processability. Often, however, a greater level of detail is required to quantify low levels of mixed layering in clay minerals and the multitude of non-clay minerals in the ores. The more intense x-ray sources available at synchrotrons with their inherent high resolution and tunable wavelength can often help in providing this level of detail. In addition, x-ray microscopy can help to characterize the organic contaminants that commonly affect clay behaviour in industrial processes. In this study, low levels of mixed layering of smectite were observed in the kaolinite and illite phases using synchrotron x-ray diffraction, in addition to heavy minerals undetectable using a laboratory rotating anode x-ray source. Using scanning transmission x-ray microscopy, the speciation of carbon components adsorbed on clay minerals after bitumen extraction suggests a preferential affinity of the clay minerals for high-molecular-weight aromatics in bitumen.
