Search

Fall 2020

Brown, Nicholas

While bitumen is one of the oldest construction materials in the world and currently provides an important fuel needed to sustain our modern lifestyle, the disturbances caused by extracting and refining this material are considerable, with 895 km2 of land being disturbed in Alberta as of 2018...

Spring 2014

Smitka, Kristine Y

This dissertation analyzes the relationship between literature and new media through an investigation of the book in a Canadian context and draws on book history and new media studies. To better understand the relationship between print and digital forms of publishing, I look backwards to a...

Spring 2023

Franklin, James

As part of reclaiming landscapes mined for bitumen, ecosystems must be revegetated to restore self-sustaining ecosystems in the boreal forest of western Canada. Current reclamation practices can involve the construction of large landforms, sometimes from overburden containing up to 8%...

Spring 2022

Yihan Zhao

Coal is mined for energy generation around the world, resulting in extensive disturbances to soil health and vegetation, and producing large amounts of waste. Heavy metals enter the environment through coal industry activities before being transmitted to the food chain. Reclaiming post mining...

Fall 2019

Murata, Alison P

Contamination of land, water, and air is a widespread concern often associated with anthropogenic activities. Remediation of contaminated sites is necessary to minimize negative impacts on human health and the environment and allow for safe, productive use of land. Although contaminated sites...

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...

Fall 2013

Collins, Catherine Elizabeth Victoria

Surface mining for bitumen extraction results in production of tailings that are deposited into large ponds. Tailings in the ponds support diverse microbial communities capable of metabolizing organic compounds and producing biogenic gases (methane, CH4 and carbon dioxide, CO2). Because of low...

Spring 2010

Mani, Farnaz

In the development of a non-aqueous bitumen extraction process, a major obstacle is solvent loss due to hydrocarbon attachment to the reject sand grains. A proposed solution to this problem is to wash (i.e. remediate) the oil-contaminated sand grains with water and surfactants. This research is...

Fall 2009

Guo, Ying

An agricultural land was adversely affected by salt released by the oil and gas industry. Remediation was needed to recover the land to agricultural productivity. Field-scale and laboratory-scale experiments were conducted to identify a practical and reliable remediation technique that could be...

Spring 2011

Lerner, Robert

This study examines the effects of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAO1) biofilm, with a concentration of cells similar to that reported for saturated aquifers, on the transport of poly(acrylic acid) stabilized nanoscale zero valent iron (pnZVI) in 14 cm long, saturated, laboratory packed columns, with...