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Fall 2017

Brown, Daniel M.

Thunderstorms are common in boreal forest regions and can cause dangerous hazards such as lightning, forest fires, hail, wind, and flooding. Significant research has been conducted to help predict thunderstorms to mitigate or avoid the hazards and damage. The development of thunderstorms...

Fall 2017

Rashed, Yara A

This study examines the use of carbon xerogel (CX) material for the adsorption of naphthenic acids (NAs). The adsorption of NAs is crucial for the reclamation of unconventional oil processed water, more specifically Alberta’s oil sands process-affected water (OSPW). CX material is synthesized at...

Fall 2017

Aghaie, Ermia

The present research was conducted with the intent of evaluating the degradation of OCTG (Oil Country Tubular Goods) steel used in SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) applications, and developing a promising surface modification method and a novel composite coating using a technique that will...

Spring 2019

Cossey, Heidi

Extractions of hydrocarbons from bitumen and bitumen-containing process and process waste streams generated from surface mined oil sands were conducted using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2). Dynamic extractions were performed on a bench-scale batch supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)...

Spring 2019

Mohsen Safaei

There is increased focus on reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to reduce global warming. Combustion of fossil fuels are a key contributor to emissions of GHG. Alberta is the largest hydrocarbon base in North America due to its oil sands deposit. Bitumen from oil sands is refined to...

Spring 2019

Baker, Kathleen E.N.

My research was motivated by a fatality that occurred at an oil sands tailings operation on January 19, 2014, when a worker drowned in an underground cavern which formed under a leaking tailings transport system. At the time of the incident, the organization and workers did not know that ground...

Spring 2019

Woywitka, Robin

This thesis contributes to the development of chronological and geological frameworks for the archaeological record of the mineable oil sands regions in northeastern Alberta, Canada. This area contains a rich pre-European contact archaeological record that has largely been documented through...

Fall 2019

Poon, Ho Yin

Oil sands fluid fine tailings (FFT) are comprised of sand, silt, clay, residual organics, salt, trace metals and process-affected water (OSPW). In order to accommodate and remediate large amounts of FFT, a full-scale demonstration pit lake, where FFT was capped with a mixture of OSPW and fresh...

Spring 2019

Zheng, Xiaochuan

This thesis aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using System Dynamics (SD) techniques to develop a transparent, open-source and reproducible model capable of simulating long-term soil water dynamics in a tailings-cap system subject to upward flux from a consolidating tailings substrate. The...

Fall 2020

Collins, Catherine

Alberta’s oil sands generate large volumes of tailings from bitumen ore processing. These tailings ponds produce biogenic methane, which can be measured across 60-80% of the tailings surface. Based on current surface area data and emissions studies, tailings ponds could account for 8% of Canada’s...