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Spring 2011

Karimi, Arash

Thin film pyrolysis was used to thermally crack the pendant groups from asphaltene molecules. The cracked products were rapidly quenched to minimize further decomposition. The liquid products were condensed and collected, with over 91% material balance on the recovery of gas, liquid and coke...

Fall 2019

Stachiw, Samantha J

Bitumen mining and upgrading operations in the Athabasca Bituminous Sands Region (ABSR) may lead to increased concentrations of trace elements in the surrounding environment. Elevated concentrations of potentially toxic trace elements could pose a risk to local indigenous communities through the...

Spring 2015

Hajinasiri, Javad

Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) method is the main oil extraction method in Alberta that produces a huge volume of waste water. This thesis is focused on investigating the viability of membrane processes, as emerging water treatment technologies, for treatment of SAGD produced water. Three...

Fall 2016

Brandon, Jordan T

The remediation of oil sands wastes such as fluid fine tailings (FFT) and oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) are of increasing concern in the oil sands industry. End pit lakes are one remediation option currently being researched at commercial scale in Base Mine Lake (BML) operated by...

Fall 2018

Rabbani, Arif

The vastly untapped carbonate Grosmont Formation in north-eastern Alberta may hold in excess of a couple of hundred billion barrels initial volume of bitumen in place. Bitumen, an ultra-heavy hydrocarbon oil, possesses a density comparable to water, but a dynamic shear viscosity million times...

Fall 2017

Naghizada, Nazim

Asphaltene is the most difficult fraction of bitumen and heavy oil to upgrade, as it has low H/C, high molecular weight and metal content. Asphaltenes are insoluble in paraffinic solvents, and undergo aggregation and coke formation during refining and cracking processes. No attention is usually...

Spring 2017

Shi, Chen

Interactions mechanisms of deformable air bubbles and liquid droplets play critical roles in many established and modern industrial processes. Understanding the interaction mechanisms of oil droplets and air bubbles is of fundamental and practical importance to solve many challenging issues,...

Spring 2011

Wang, Shengqun

Removal of emulsified water is a challenge in oil sands and heavy oil processing. The flocculation and coagulation of emulsified water droplets depend on the interactions between the water droplets covered mainly by asphaltenes and oil-contaminated fine solids. To quantitatively evaluate the...

Spring 2012

Flury, Christopher T.

To understand the role of caustic addition and its effect on the bitumen extraction process, a novel flow cell and a Denver Cell extraction unit were utilized. This allowed for the comparison of sodium hydroxide and ammonium hydroxides effect on real oil sands ores. Several ores (A1, C-ore,...

Spring 2014

Garcia, Jose Luis

This work describes the effect that including a solvent in the reaction media of the autoxidation of Cold Lake bitumen has on the viscosity and also on the oxidation degree reached. The comparison of viscosity was performed both in the basis of equal residence time and equal oxygen conversion...