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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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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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Heavy Oil/Bitumen Recovery by Alternate Injection of Steam and Solvent (Hydrocarbon and CO2) in Fractured Carbonates and Oilsands
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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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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 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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Development of an Experimental Apparatus for Studying the Effects of Acoustic Excitation on Viscosity
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An experimental apparatus was developed capable of measuring changes in fluid viscosity occurring due to acoustic stimulation. Controls allowed measurements at simulated oil sand reservoir pressures and temperatures with near real-time data visualization. Calibration was performed...
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Synergistic Role of Sodium Hydroxide and Sodium Citrate on Bitumen Slime Coating in Process Water
DownloadFall 2021
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is generally used as the primary processing aid in the water-based oil sands extraction for the recovery of bitumen. It was found by Syncrude Canada Ltd. that the combined use of sodium hydroxide and sodium citrate could effectively improve the bitumen recovery as compared...
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Fall 2021
The lower Athabasca River valley in northeastern Alberta, famous for oil sands mining, was also the site of one of North America largest Ice Age floods. During deglaciation, a large proglacial lake, Lake Agassiz, drained catastrophically through the Athabasca River valley. This catastrophic flood...
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Spring 2010
The demand for accurate bitumen-pentane mass transfer data was the main motivation behind this research. Difficulties such as complex phase behavior, high viscosity and opacity of the hydrocarbon invariably lead to failure of conventional techniques to measure mass transfer coefficients...