Study of bubble-flat surface interactions

• Author / Creator

  Seyyed Najafi, Aref

• Canada has the largest known reserve of oil in the world in the form of oil sands: an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels of oil are deposited in combination of the sand, water and clay.
  The presented research is devoted to bubble-solid surface interaction, which is one of the critical areas of the oil sand processing and it is also a key point for many other processing technologies, such as mineral recovery, froth flotation, soil remediation, de inking of paper, heat transfer in boilers tube, biological and medical sciences.
  The goal of this work was to investigate new theoretical and practical approaches, which would help in better understanding of fundamentals of the flotation process in oil sands extraction. Among many achievements of this research are:
  1) development of the method for generation of a single micro bubble. Dependence of this process on micropipette tip size and inclination, gas type, taper length and other parameters has also been studied (Chapter 3);
  2) study of gas bubble - flat surface interactions based on a practical approach of determination of two dynamic parameters, sliding velocity and induction time of a gas bubble. Various types of gas bubbles (CO2, Air, H2, and O2) and collector surfaces (bitumen, treated hydrophobic and hydrophilic silica) were used in sliding velocity and induction time measurements. The sliding velocity of gas bubbles under an inclined collector surface was found to be in a strong dependence of water chemistry, type of gases, temperature, initial separation between bubble and collector surface (Chapter 4);
  3) developing an analytical model for predicting bubble sliding velocity based on previously developed models. The model was in a good agreement with experimental results (Chapter 5);
  4) establishing a new method for bubble zeta potential measurements. The measurements were in a good agreement with previously studies reported in literature (Chapter 6).
  Summarized above findings from this research represent valuable advances in understanding oil sands processing. The prospects of future work are provided in Chapter 8.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Bubble
  • Flotation
  • Oil sands
  • Extraction
  • Bitumen

• Graduation date

  Spring 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3RX34

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.