Legacy Theses
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University of Calgary masters and doctoral theses submitted in paper format prior to the electronic thesis and dissertation program.
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Browsing Legacy Theses by Department "Chemical and Petroleum Engineering"
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Item Open Access 2-D up-scaling of naturally fractured reservoirs(2002) Xie, Jin; Pooladi-Darvish, MehranItem Open Access 3d modeling and experimental studies of ni/ysz anodes in an sofc with internal reforming of methane(2007) Nikooyeh, Kasra; Hill, Josephine M.Item Open Access A (w/o) microemulsion approach for in-situ preparation of high concentrations of colloidal metal oxide nanoparticles(2007) Nassar, Nashaat; Husein, MaenControl over nanopa1ticle size 1s a key factor which labels a given nanoparticle preparation technique successful. When organic reactions are mediated by ultradispersed catalysts the concentration of the colloidal nanocatalysts and their stability become key factors as well. Ultradispersed metal oxide nanoparticles have applications as heterogeneous catalysts for organic reactions, and were recently demonstrated as effective H2S(gl absorbents. The catalytic activity and absorption effectiveness of metal oxide nanoparticles depend primarily on their surface area, which in turn, is dictated by their size, colloidal concentration and stability. This work presents a water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsion approach for in-situ preparation of ultradispersed metal oxide/hydroxide nanoparticles, namely: iron and copper and discusses the effect of different (w/o) microemulsion variables on their stability and highest possible time-invariant colloidal concentration (nanoparticle uptake). The concentration of the stabilized metal oxides corresponded to the nanoparticle uptake. In-situ preparation of colloidal catalysts and absorbents minimizes aggregation associated with storage and transportation. Much higher surface area per unit mass of nanoparticles and per unit volume of the colloidal suspension than reported in the literature was obtained. The following trends in the colloidal concentration were common for the (w/o) microemulsion system and the heavy oil matrix. An optimum water to surfactant mole ratio, R, was found for which a maximum nanoparticle uptake was obtained. Nanoparticle uptake increased linearly with the surfactant concentration and displayed a power function with the precursor salt concentration. A mathematical model based on correlations for water uptake by Winsor type II microemulsions accurately accounted for the effect of the aforementioned variables on the nanoparticle uptake by the microemulsions. Furthermore, the in-situ microemulsion approach developed in the first part was applied for in-situ preparation of effective H2Scgl colloidal absorbents within heavy oil matrix. H2 Scgl is a by-product of insitu heavy oil upgrading with potential negative impact on underground water. In this work, preliminarily evaluations of the effectiveness of the in-situ prepared colloidal iron oxide/hydroxide in heavy oil matrix for the absorption of H2 S(gJ was conducted successfully.Item Open Access A bifurcation study of natural convection in porous media with internal heat sources(1994) Choi, Eungsoo; Chakma, AmitItem Open Access A chemical reaction kinetic study into the low severity pyrolysis of Athabasca bitumen(1998) Wilcott, Heather R.; Behie, Leo A.Item Open Access A comparison of pressure flow solvers for dynamic process simulation(2006) Mohajer, Mahyar; Svrcek, William Y.Item Open Access A field scale reservoir simulation of a hybrid isc-sagd technology applicable to the Athabasca oil sands(2010) Forero Rodriguez, Cesar Augusto; Moore, R. Gordon; Mehta, S. A. (Raj)Item Open Access A kinetic model of the hydrocarbon fraction reactions during the low-and high-temperature oxidation of Athabasca bitumen(1999) Stipanov, Josko; Moore, R. GordonItem Open Access A laboratory program for data interpretation of core analysis(2002) Zhao, Feng (Kevin); Kantzas, ApostolosItem Open Access A method for converting aqueous demetallization products into dispersed metal oxide nanocatalysts in heavy oil(2012) Abdrabo, Amr Abdelrazek Elgeuoshy Meghawry; Husein, MaenMetallic heteroatoms deactivate expensive catalyst and, thus, should be removed at early stages during crude oil processing. Electro and biological demetallization are examples of two emerging techniques which remove the metallic heteroatoms; mainly nickel and vanadium, into ions or ionic complexes ultimately residing in the aqueous phase of a two phase water/oil system. This work investigates the conversion of the aqueous metallic species into metal oxide nanoparticles, which are effective upgrading catalysts, dispersed in the oil phase. The conversion step commenced in-situ within a water-in-oil emulsion structure, and the resultant nanoparticles remain very well dispersed in the heavy oil phase. The product nanoparticles were characterized, after successful collection from the oil phase, using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDX). Despite the complexity of the heavy oil system, results confirmed the in-situ formation of NiO and V2 05 nanoparticles with mean sizes of 20 and 15 nm, respectively. Some aggregates have, nevertheless, formed, due to the relatively high temperature requirement of the method. Investigating the catalytic role of the as-prepared nanoparticles was limited to the NiO nanoparticles, since only low concentrations of V20s could be prepared. An attempt to increase the concentration of dispersed V2 05 by using precursors with higher solubility in water was not successful. A semi-batch reactor setup was employed to investigate the catalytic hydrocracking of heavy oil in the presence of dispersed NiO nanoparticles. On the other hand, batch reactor arrangement was employed to study the thermalcracking of heavy oil in the presence of dispersed NiO nanoparticles.Item Open Access A Model for asphaltene flocculation using an equation of state(1986) Gupta, Anup Kumar; Heidemann, Robert A.A model for asphaltene flocculation behavior which is based on an equation of state is proposed and compared with the data available in the literature. The solid state model is based on the solubility of asphaltenes in various alkanes and the density of solid asphaltenes. This is combined with the Peng-Robinson equation of state for the fluid phase to correlate and predict asphaltene flocculation. It has been observed that the results generated are very sensitive to the interaction parameters in the mixing rules and a method is proposed to determine them by fitting selected experimental data. An additional part of this work involved the characterization of bitumen. A characterization scheme is proposed for Athabasca bitumen involvingf pseudo-com ponents which are structurally different. Structural data obtained from proton and carbon-13 magnetic resonance spectroscopy for these four pseudo-components were used to obtain the critical properties from the correlations of Alexander et al(1985). This characterization is found comparable to those proposed earlier for the prediction of gas solubility in Athabasca bitumen.Item Open Access A Model for the formation kinetics of gas hydrates from methane, ethane and their mixtures(1986) Englezos, Petros; Kalogerakis, Nicolas E.Item Open Access A Model for the prediction of the solubility of bitumen in hydrocarbon diluents(1987) James, Niel Edward; Mehrotra, Anil KumarItem Open Access A New four-parameter cubic equation of state for polar and non-polar fluids(1986) Trebble, Mark Alexander; Bishnoi, Prithwi R.A new four-parameter cubic equation of state has been developed which can accurately predict the PVT behaviour of polar and non-polar fluids. Extensive PVT data for seventy-five pure components were used to compare the new equation to ten recently published cubic equations. Significant improvements in PVT predictions were obtained over extreme ranges of temperature and pressure. Other thermodynamic properties were evaluated including second virial coefficients, enthalpy, isobaric heat capacity, speed of sound, and Joule-Thomson coefficients. Prediction of these properties was generally good. Limitations on the use of temperature dependence in the "b" parameter have been identified and adhered to in this work. Violation of these restrictions have been shown in two recently published cubic equations of state with the result that they predict negative heat capacities under certain conditions. An extensive evaluation of quadratic mixing rules has been performed in this work for thirty-three binary sy sterns. As many as four binary interaction parameters have been utilized. All subsets of these interaction parameters have been optimized and recommended values are provided for each binary. In most cases it was possible to fit vapour-liquid equilibrium data very well with one or two interaction parameters, even though some very non-ideal binary systems were considered. A ternary system of water-methanol-acetone was predicted very accurately using binary interaction parameters regressed from binary VLE data only.Item Open Access A New method of deconvolution unmasks reservoir pressure response of varying rate drawdown tests(1992) Low, Granger James; Stanislav, Jaroslav F.Item Open Access A new model for flow regime recognition based on pore level simulation studies of tight gas formations(2011) Rahmanian Shahri, Mohammad Reza; Aguilera, Roberto; Kantzas, ApostolosItem Open Access A new model for multi-component gas adsorption prediction(2010) Li, Fei; Kantzas, ApostolosItem Open Access A new non-cubic equation of state(2000) Kedge, Christopher J.; Trebble, Mark A.Item Open Access A novel methane emission control technique for bioreactor landfills(2006) Perdikea, Konstantina; Mehrotra, Anil Kumar; Hettiaratchi, J. Patrick A.Item Open Access A Numerical and Physical Study of Relative Permeability in High-Pressure Air Injection Process(2009) Niz Velásquez, Eider; Moore, R. Gordon; Mehta, S. A. (Raj)