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An Examination of the Effect of Diluent on Microbial Dynamics in Oil Sands Tailings and the Mechanistic Insight on Carbon Dioxide-mediated Turbidity Reduction in Oil Sands Surface Water
DownloadFall 2019
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...
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Fall 2014
The extraction of bitumen from oil sands in Alberta, Canada, leads to the creation of tailings that are contained in lake-sized ponds under zero discharge policy. Stratification of tailings over time leads to the formation of mature fine tailings (MFT), an oil based emulsion containing residual...
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Bioremediation of oil sands process affected water sourced naphthenic acid fraction compounds
DownloadFall 2020
Current development of Alberta’s oil sands region requires large volumes of water, leading to an abundance of oil sands process affected water (OSPW). OSPW contains naphthenic acid fraction compounds (NAFCs) which have been found to contribute extensively to OSPW toxicity. Degradation of this...
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Development of Solvent Selection Criteria Based on Diffusion Rate, Mixing Quality, and Solvent Retrieval for Optimal Heavy-Oil and Bitumen Recovery at Different Temperatures
DownloadFall 2015
Heavy-oil and bitumen recovery requires high recovery factors to offset the extreme high cost of the process. Attention has been given to solvent injection for this purpose and it has been observed that high recoveries are achievable when combined with steam injection. Heavier (“liquid”) solvents...
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Spring 2019
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...
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Fall 2020
Concerns over the environmental impacts of thermal production methods for bitumen and heavy oil have led to the exploration of alternative technologies including solvent-assisted production methods. While solvent-assisted production methods have been studied extensively, apparent diffusion rates...
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Spring 2011
Extraction of hydrocarbons from an Athabasca oil sand slurry were conducted using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2). The oil sand was slurried to a 1:1 ratio with water and experiments were conducted using a laboratory-scale batch supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) system. Preliminary tests...
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Heavy Oil/Bitumen Recovery by Alternate Injection of Steam and Solvent (Hydrocarbon and CO2) in Fractured Carbonates and Oilsands
DownloadFall 2013
The world energy demand is constantly increasing and fossil fuels are still by far the main energy resource that supplies the world energy consumption market, therefore increasing oil recovery from all types of reservoirs is an important matter. The burning of fossil fuels for energy purposes, on...
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Spring 2019
The oil sands industry in Alberta, Canada has been thriving for over five decades, and this multi-million-year-old resource has fueled rapid economic growth in Alberta. However, the oil sands industry has left behind tons of oil sands tailings and oil sands process-affected water (OSPW), and the...
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Investigation of Pavement Management Practices and Pavement Material Performance in Alberta, Canada
DownloadFall 2018
Roadways are one of the most important pieces of public infrastructure in any municipality, province, or country. Roads connect economic corridors encouraging trade, provide citizens with the option to travel, and remain a necessity for all people to access work and the majority of the main...