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Skip to Search Results- 1Afshar, Shima
- 1Arora, Nitin
- 1Darius, Juan
- 1Dechaine, Greg Paul
- 1Derakhshesh, Marzie
- 1Mozaffari, Saeed
- 2Yeung, Anthony (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 1Gray, Murray R. (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 1Gray, Murray R., (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 1Kresta, Suzanne M (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 1Liu, Qi (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
- 1Masliyah, Jacob (Chemical and Materials Engineering)
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Spring 2015
In many applications, it is desired to separate unwanted fine particulates from a liquid by gravity settling. An efficient separation, however, will be feasible only if a combination of aggregation and sedimentation occurs. To understand the kinetics of such a process, a mathematical model that...
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Spring 2021
At different stages during the extraction of bitumen from the Athabasca oil sands, the removal of unwanted fine solids whether suspended in aqueous or non-aqueous liquids continues to present serious challenges to the oil sands industry. These fine solids are unique in that their colloidal...
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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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Spring 2015
The minable oil sands extraction process can be understood on a scale of a single oil sand grain. When the oil sand ore is mixed with warm water, each sand granule is initially covered with bitumen film which ruptures under the composite effect of shear and interfacial forces, while water...
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Colloid Science of Sand Remediation: A Study Motivated by the Non-Aqueous Extraction of Bitumen from Oil Sands
DownloadFall 2014
The current water-based method of bitumen extraction requires withdrawal of fresh water from the Athabasca River — a practice which leads to the continual buildup of tailings ponds and other environmental concerns. As Alberta’s bitumen production is expected to more than double by 2020, there is...
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Spring 2011
Bitumen recovery by the water-based extraction process produces waste streams known as tailings. When discharged into the tailing ponds, the coarse solids in the tailings stream settle out quickly, while the fine solids accumulate over years of settling to a solids content of 30-35% by weight....
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Mechanisms of Aggregation and Separation of Water and Solids from Bitumen Froth using Cluster Size Distribution
DownloadFall 2016
The large-scale corrosion and equipment damage caused by water and solids respectively in bitumen froth necessitate their removal using various methods. This study is aimed at understanding how water and solids aggregate (water-water, water-solid and solid-solid) in bitumen froth and what the...
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Spring 2021
Asphaltenes are the heaviest and most polar group of molecules in crude oil. Colloidal behaviors of asphaltenes, including the aggregation and interfacial behaviors, have impacts on many petroleum production processes. For example, the aggregation of asphaltenes can lead to problems such as...
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Fall 2018
The production of a tailings waste stream is ubiquitous to mining and mineral processing operations, especially in Alberta’s oil sands industry. Due to the presence of colloidal clays such as kaolinite, which do not naturally sediment in suspension, water recycling and land reclamation remain...
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Rheology of Bitumen at the Onset of Asphaltene Aggregation and its Effects on the Stability of Water-in-Oil Emulsion
DownloadFall 2015
Asphaltenes are the heaviest fraction of bitumen. Asphaltenes not only play an important role in the high viscosity of bitumen but also in the water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion stability. Nevertheless, their exact function in the stability mechanism of W/O emulsion still remains unresolved. It is...