Mature fine tailings produced in the processing of oil sands create serious water‐recovery problems; thus, it is important to characterize them and to improve the applicable dewatering technologies. Existing methods to dewater the tailings are found to be insufficient. Previous research has demonstrated that the addition of dual polymers is more efficient than using a single polymer to flocculate the fine tailings particles. Different from studies that took sophisticated procedures to assess the flocculation and dewatering efficiency of dual polymers, readily available and simple but effective experiments were conducted in this work. Evaluations were conducted with dual polymers comprised of low molecular weight poly(diallydimethylammonium chloride) (polyDADMAC) and high molecular weight cationic or anionic polyacrylamide (PAM). Turbidity and residual solids measurements for dewatered tailings treated with these polymers confirmed that the dual‐polymer approach yield superior performance compared to either polymer functioning alone. Zeta potential and microscopic observations indicated that the dosages of polyDADMAC and PAM that lead to near charge neutralization of the system result in maximal performance. We hypothesize that when dual polymers are added to the tailings, polyDADMAC acts to neutralize the charge and destabilize the fine particles, while high molecular weight PAM, either cationic or anionic, acts to aggregate the destabilized fines by the bridging mechanism. PolyDADMAC forms weak and tiny flocs when mixed with tailings particles. Cationic PAM transforms these small flocs into much larger ones, while anionic PAM connects them into aggregates. Therefore, synergism exists between polyDADMAC and PAM but this synergism is different, based on the charge of the PAM.

中文翻译：

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双重聚合物处理油砂尾矿的絮凝和脱水性能评价

在油砂加工中产生的成熟细尾矿会造成严重的水回收问题。因此，表征它们并改进适用的脱水技术非常重要。发现现有的使尾矿脱水的方法是不够的。先前的研究表明，添加双重聚合物比使用单一聚合物絮凝细尾矿颗粒更为有效。与采用复杂程序评估双重聚合物的絮凝和脱水效率的研究不同，这项工作进行了容易获得且简单但有效的实验。使用由低分子量聚二甲基二甲基氯化铵（polyDADMAC）和高分子量阳离子或阴离子聚丙烯酰胺（PAM）组成的双聚合物进行评估。用这些聚合物处理过的尾矿的浊度和残余固体含量的测量结果证实，与单独使用两种聚合物相比，采用双聚合物方法可获得更高的性能。Zeta电位和显微镜观察表明，导致系统几乎带电中和的polyDADMAC和PAM剂量导致了最佳性能。我们假设当在尾矿中添加双聚合物时，聚DADMAC起到中和电荷和使细颗粒失稳的作用，而阳离子或阴离子的高分子量PAM则通过桥联机理起到聚集失稳的细屑的作用。当与尾矿颗粒混合时，PolyDADMAC会形成微弱的絮凝物。阳离子PAM将这些小絮状物转变成大得多的絮状物，而阴离子PAM将它们絮凝成团块。所以，