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Fall 2014

Chen, Liang

The formation of stable water-in-oil emulsions during bitumen extraction poses problems for water separation from diluted bitumen, which leads to equipment corrosion and catalyst fouling in downstream operations. Demulsifiers are used to break the stable emulsions and assist the separation of...

Fall 2015

Rocha Aguilera, Gonzalo

As demand for fuel increases, new technologies that can convert heavy oil and bitumen into light fuels are needed. Natural zeolites have been proven to catalyze reactions that decrease molecular weight, density, nitrogen, and metals content as well as vacuum residue content when mixed with raw...

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 2014

Nimana,Balwinder Singh

Oil sands in Canada are significant in fulfilling the current and the future energy demands of North America. The development of these resources, besides the increased awareness in global carbon management, has given way to various policy regulations such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS)...

Spring 2016

Entezari Najafabadi, Iman

The bitumen production from oil sands surface-mining operations produces large volumes of mineral wastes called tailings. Characterization of the oil sands tailings is of importance to monitor their state for trafficability and reclamation issues, to assess the tailings operation performance, and...

Spring 2010

Ni, Xiao

Molecular dynamics simulation and density functional theory were applied to calculate heats of immersion (ΔHimm) of n-heptane, toluene, pyridine and water on two model sand surfaces and two model clay surfaces. Our results indicated that water showed the highest ΔHimm for the model clay surfaces...

Spring 2011

Frederick, Kurt R.

Biofilms are significant contributors to primary production, nutrient cycling, bio-stabilization and the food web of wetland ecosystems. Photoautotrophic biomass (PB) and primary production (PP) were determined for biofilms exposed to various treatments and materials in wetlands near Fort...

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...

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...

Fall 2013

Lozowy, Andriko J

This thesis is a multi-modal exploration of the photographer-researcher as a methodological opportunity to gain multiple, collaborative and collective perspectives on living in relation to the Alberta oil sands zone of North America. Using participatory-photography with youth, this thesis is one...