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Skip to Search Results- 1Afshar, Shima
- 1Amani, Mohammad Javad
- 1Amoako, Kwaku Akrofi
- 1Anas Khalil Sidahmed
- 1Archibald, Heather Anne
- 1Batycky, Anya
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Beyond Viscosity—How Density, Vibration and Interfacial Tension Affect Solvent Aided Bitumen Production
DownloadFall 2016
Bitumen and heavy oil comprise a significant percentage of proven oil reserves globally. The environmental impacts of producing these resources with current technologies is a concern for environmentalists, oil producing companies, resource rich jurisdictions and society at large. Dilution of the...
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Biodegradation of Hydrocarbons in Bitumen: Exploring Plant-Assisted and Microbial Stimulation Techniques
DownloadFall 2020
While bitumen is one of the oldest construction materials in the world and currently provides an important fuel needed to sustain our modern lifestyle, the disturbances caused by extracting and refining this material are considerable, with 895 km2 of land being disturbed in Alberta as of 2018...
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Spring 2024
Hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) is a common flocculant used in oil sands tailings dewatering technologies. Although HPAM is regularly used in tailings treatment and will eventually be incorporated into the reclaimed landscape of the oil sands, there are knowledge gaps surrounding the environment...
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Bitumen Extraction, Indigenous Land Conflicts, and Environmental Change in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region, 1963-1993
DownloadSpring 2021
This dissertation examines the first development phase of the Alberta oil sands industry from the 1960s to the early 1990s. It draws on public and private records from archives in Canada and the United States, the results of collaborative research with the Fort McMurray Métis, and oral history...
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Spring 2016
During the extraction of crude oil or bitumen, stable water-in-oil emulsions are inevitably formed. The emulsified water contains chloride ions and other organic acidic compounds that cause severe corrosion problems to the downstream plant equipment, creating operational and safety issues and...
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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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Fall 2011
The growing interest in the oilsands bitumen reserves, a large portion of which is unattainable by current industrial processes, has generated a need for an improved process for oilsands extracting and upgrading. The effects of using chabazite as a catalyst for cracking and upgrading of oilsands...
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Challenges of utilizing municipal compost as an amendment in boreal forest reclamation subsoil material
DownloadFall 2018
Forest reclamation sites are often located in areas not suited for agriculture and therefore have poor soil conditions. To assist in the rehabilitation of forests on these types of sites, organic amendments can be used. Close to large urban centers, compost derived from municipal organic waste...
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Fall 2023
At the heart of heavy oil and bitumen upgrading, thermal conversion technologies are found. One such process is visbreaking where bitumen is thermally converted into lighter materials. However, the conversion by visbreaking is limited by the onset of the formation of solid carbonaceous materials...
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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...