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Theses and Dissertations
This collection contains theses and dissertations of graduate students of the University of Alberta. The collection contains a very large number of theses electronically available that were granted from 1947 to 2009, 90% of theses granted from 2009-2014, and 100% of theses granted from April 2014 to the present (as long as the theses are not under temporary embargo by agreement with the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies). IMPORTANT NOTE: To conduct a comprehensive search of all UofA theses granted and in University of Alberta Libraries collections, search the library catalogue at www.library.ualberta.ca - you may search by Author, Title, Keyword, or search by Department.
To retrieve all theses and dissertations associated with a specific department from the library catalogue, choose 'Advanced' and keyword search "university of alberta dept of english" OR "university of alberta department of english" (for example). Past graduates who wish to have their thesis or dissertation added to this collection can contact us at erahelp@ualberta.ca.
Items in this Collection
- 1Amundarain, Jesus
- 1Ansari, Nesma Nasir
- 1Berahman, Behnam
- 1Cardozo, Samuel D.
- 1Carvalho do Prado, Glaucia H
- 1Dechaine, Greg Paul
- 6Xu, Zhenghe (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 3Gupta, Rajender (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 3Liu, Qingxia (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 3Zeng, Hongbo (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 2Gray, Murray R. (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 2Thundat, Thomas (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
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A Molecular Dynamics Study of the Dissolution of Asphaltene Model Compounds in Supercritical Fluids
DownloadSpring 2011
The demand for a new solvent to treat oilsands was behind the purpose of this project; molecular dynamics simulation was used in this study. Supercritical water, supercritical carbon dioxide and other selected organic solvents in their supercritical state were studied. Meso-tetraphenyl porphyrin...
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A Preliminary Study on Pyrolysis and Gasification of Asphaltenes and Coal-Asphaltenes Slurry in Entrained Flow Reactor
DownloadFall 2012
The aim of this work is to study pyrolysis of coal-asphaltenes slurry in an atmospheric entrained flow reactor. Athabasca asphaltenes and Genesee coal, both from Alberta in Canada, were selected as the feedstock. Char characteristics and the structure of asphaltenes and slurry chars including...
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Spring 2011
A Surface Forces Apparatus (SFA) was used in this study to investigate the fundamental surface forces in oil sand processing research. Asphaltene coated surfaces were chosen as the research topic due to the critical role of asphaltenes in oil sands processing, from bitumen extraction, froth...
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Fall 2013
Two alkyl-bridged aromatic compounds, with molecular weights of 899.70 g/mol and 1127.99 g/mol, were thermally cracked with 1-hexadecene, 1- octadecene, or trans-stilbene, in a batch microreactor at 375–430 °C for 15 to 45 min. The objective of the study was to investigate the kinetics of the...
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Spring 2016
This work investigated different acid catalysts and olefinic alkylating agents for the alkylation of an industrial asphaltenes feed. The working hypothesis was that alkylation would change the solubility parameter and increase the H/C ratio of asphaltenes sufficiently to cause some asphaltenes...
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Fall 2012
This thesis explored the properties of asphaltene nano-aggregates in crude oil and toluene based solutions and fouling at process furnace temperatures, and the links between these two phenomena. The link between stability of asphaltenes at ambient conditions and fouling at the conditions of a...
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Fall 2016
Athabasca oil sands contain 8 to 14% bitumen and are recovered using surface mining or steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). During primary upgrading of bitumen, the vacuum residuum from the distillation column is sent to the solvent de-asphalting unit where a paraffinic solvent is used to...
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Fall 2015
Canadian oilsands bitumen contains one of the highest amounts of asphaltenes (16-20 wt %) among all crude oils. Asphaltenes are the lowest value fraction of bitumen. It differs from the other fractions of bitumen because of its insolubility in paraffinic solvents. Asphaltenes are insoluble in...
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Spring 2013
The self-association properties of two model compounds of asphaltene, 2,6-bis[2-(pyren-1-yl)ethyl]pyridine (PyPPy, C41H29N) and 2,6-bis[2-(phenanthren-9-yl)ethyl]pyridine (PhPPh, C37H29N), were studied in deuterated chloroform and deuterated methylene chloride. 1H NMR spectroscopy titration...
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Fall 2015
Oil sands found in Athabasca and Cold Lake regions of Northern Alberta form Canada’s primary source of energy reserves. Asphaltenes, a significant part of bitumen is often considered to be the least valuable component of crude oil due to various factors such as difficulty in transporting and...