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Fall 2019

Raveendran, Rahul

Process monitoring involves ensuring that the process systems are run safely and operated in the most profitable manner. On the other hand, causal modelling involves studying the causal interactions among the variables in a process system. The knowledge of these interactions is useful in process...

Fall 2019

Jing Chang

Kaolinite is one of the most commonly-used clay minerals in the production of paper, plastics, and ceramics, etc. However, kaolinite is also a hard-to-remove mineral in the processing of valuable minerals or energy resources, such as bauxite, metal sulphide ores, and oil sands. The main problem...

Spring 2019

Qiao, Peiqi

Asphaltenes are polyaromatic compounds present in crude oils, which are defined as being soluble in aromatic solvents and insoluble in n−alkanes. The partition of self−associated asphaltene aggregates at oil−solid and oil−water interfaces is the root cause of a number of major problems...

Fall 2016

Kuznicki, Natalie P.

Phase separation of stable oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions poses major challenges for a variety of industries, including the petroleum industry. The stability and destabilizing of petroleum emulsions highly depend on interfacial properties such as surface/interfacial charges, interfacial...

Spring 2017

Wang, Xi

In this research, flocculation of fractionated asphaltenes was studied using dynamic light scattering (DLS). Three asphaltene fractions were obtained based on its adsorption characteristics onto calcium carbonate. The DLS results showed that the irreversibly-adsorbed asphaltenes (Irr-Ads),...

Fall 2012

Zhang, Ling

Over the past decade, comb-type copolymers have attracted much attention in polymer chemistry and physics, nanotechnology, bioengineering and industrial applications. Using a surface forces apparatus (SFA), the molecular and surface interactions of two different kinds of comb-type polymers,...

Spring 2018

Yuechao, Tang

The interactions between polymers and solid-water interfaces involve various interesting physical processes, which are fundamental questions for both scientific research and a variety of practical applications, such as underwater adhesives, anti-fouling and stabilization of interested...

Spring 2017

Xie, Lei

The colloidal stability governed by various surface interactions including van der Waals (VDW) interaction, electrical double layer (EDL) interaction, hydrophobic interaction, and some other interactions, plays an important role in a wide range of natural phenomena and engineering applications....

Spring 2020

Gong, Lu

Fouling problem has been one of the most challenging problems in oil industries. Asphaltenes, fine solids, and water-oil emulsions have been regarded as the major components in the fouling phenomena during oil production. Investigating the interactions between foulants (e.g., asphaltenes, fine...

Spring 2012

Wang, Jing

A fundamental understanding of the molecular interactions between asphaltene molecules in bulk and at oil-water interface is of great value in crude oil production. Yet, the chemical composition and molecular structures of asphaltenes are not fully understood. The objective of this study is to...