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Near-Wellbore Salinity Effect on Sand Control Plugging by Fines Migration in Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Producer Wells
DownloadFall 2023
Sand control screens are necessary for steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) wells drilled into oil sands to prevent sand production. However, the accumulation of mobilized fine particles near the wellbore can result in screen plugging, adversely affecting the well's flow performance. This...
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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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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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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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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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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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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...
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Reclamation of Unconventional Oil Processed Water through the Adsorption of Naphthenic Acids by Carbon Xerogel
DownloadFall 2017
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...
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Turbidity Mitigation in an Oil Sands End Pit Lake through pH Reduction and Fresh Water Addition
DownloadFall 2016
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...
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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...