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Spring 2011

Wu, Chendi

Understanding the mechanism of bubble-particle interactions plays a critical role in advancing flotation technology. In this study, submicron size bubbles with an average diameter less than 1 μm and a life time of at least several hours were generated using a novel hydrodynamic cavitation method....

Spring 2011

Xie, Jinggang

A Surface Forces Apparatus (SFA) was used in this study to investigate the fundamental surface forces in oil sand processing research. Asphaltene coated surfaces were chosen as the research topic due to the critical role of asphaltenes in oil sands processing, from bitumen extraction, froth...

Spring 2011

Javaheri, Ali

The demand for a new solvent to treat oilsands was behind the purpose of this project; molecular dynamics simulation was used in this study. Supercritical water, supercritical carbon dioxide and other selected organic solvents in their supercritical state were studied. Meso-tetraphenyl porphyrin...

Fall 2011

Zhu, Ren

Carbon dioxide (CO2) was shown as a promising alternative for oil sands tailings treatment with economical and environmental benefits. This thesis aims to understand the role of CO2 addition in settling and densification of oil sands tailings. In this study, CO2 was pressurized into two...

Spring 2011

Thomas, Tenny

Bitumen recovery by the water-based extraction process produces waste streams known as tailings. When discharged into the tailing ponds, the coarse solids in the tailings stream settle out quickly, while the fine solids accumulate over years of settling to a solids content of 30-35% by weight....

Spring 2010

Wang, Xiaoyan

Commercial Magnafloc 1011and in-house synthesized Al-PAM were used as flocculants for model tailings, laboratory extraction tailings and tailings from paraffin froth treatment unit. The polymers were tested for their flocculation ability in settling and filtration. For model tailings, both...

Spring 2010

Adegoroye, Adebukola

Understanding mineralogy and surface properties of fine solids is vital in oil sands processing and tailings management. Fine solids in oil sands are often contaminated by tightly bound organic matter (OM) originally or during hydrocarbon removal, thereby increasing surface hydrophobicity and...

Fall 2010

Salehi, Mohammadreza

Continuous accumulation of Mature Fine Tailings (MFT) is a major challenge to oil sands industry. To reduce the inventory of MFT through development of novel tailings treatment technologies, it is essential to understand the stabilization mechanism of fine solids in MFT. This project aims at...

Spring 2010

Zheng, Haijun

Filtration performance of mineral concentrate is mainly controlled by solid particle size and surface hydrophobicity. Filtration of coarser particles with more hydrophobic surfaces produces better filtration performance characterized by higher filtration rate (U) and lower final moisture content...

Spring 2010

Jia, Bei

Bitumen froth from oil sands extraction typically contains 60 wt.% bitumen, 30 wt.% water, and 10 wt.% solids. To meet downstream process specifications, the water and solids in bitumen froth have to be removed. The objective of this study is to identify the source of the water reporting to the...