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Skip to Search Results- 1Afshar, Shima
- 1Chen, Huanchen
- 1Chen, Liang
- 1Chini, Seyed Farshid
- 1Dwaik, Carol G
- 1Gheshlaghi, Behnam
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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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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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Fall 2014
The formation of stable water-in-oil emulsions during bitumen extraction poses problems for water separation from diluted bitumen, which leads to equipment corrosion and catalyst fouling in downstream operations. Demulsifiers are used to break the stable emulsions and assist the separation of...
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Spring 2013
Removal of a drop from its substrate may be gradually (e.g. evaporation) or all at once (e.g. shedding). In this thesis, drop adhesion force as a base for understanding the all at once removal of a drop from its substrate, and drop evaporation in room temperature as one of the gradual removal...
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Dynamic Demulsification Mechanism of Asphaltene-Stabilized Water-in-Oil Emulsions by Ethylcellulose
DownloadFall 2015
In previous studies, nontoxic and biodegradable ethylcellulose (EC) was shown to be capable of breaking water-in-diluted bitumen emulsions. Nevertheless, the demulsification mechanism of EC has not been correlated to its effect on the physical properties of stabilizing interfacial asphaltene...
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Dynamics of spontaneous initial spreading and spreading of a hydrodynamically driven droplet under the influence of surrounding pressure
DownloadFall 2021
We investigate experimentally the early time dynamics of spontaneous spreading of silicone oils with various viscosities at elevated surrounding pressures. The surrounding medium pressure is increased in a monotone fashion starting from atmospheric pressure to a maximum value of 30 megapascal...
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Effect of Temperature, Phase Change, and Chemical Additive on Interfacial Properties and Performance of Steam Applications
DownloadFall 2019
When considering the wettability state during steam applications, we find that most issues remain unanswered. Removal of polar groups from the rock surface with increasing temperature improves water wettability; however, other factors, including phase change, play a reverse role. In other words,...
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Electrocoalescence of Water Droplets in Oil Emulsions: Effect of Electric Fields, Surfactants, and Chemical Demulsifiers
DownloadSpring 2019
Stabilization of water-in-oil droplets during bitumen extraction and refining process poses a major challenge in the oil sands industry. These crude oil emulsions are stabilized by rigid films at water droplet-oil interfaces. The salty water remaining in oil causes equipment corrosion, catalyst...