Nassar, NashaatHmoudah, Maryam2016-05-042016-05-0420162016http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2970Oil will continue to be a major source of future non-renewable energy, and hence new cost-effective technologies for upgrading and recovery of conventional and unconventional oils are needed. This study presents a new environmentally sound and low-cost, yet highly efficient pyroxene nanoparticles (NaFeSi2O6, PY). Low temperature hydrothermal synthesis route was used to prepare different sized and surface-structural-modified PY nanoparticles, which were characterized by different characterization techniques like XRD, BET, FTIR, TGA, TPD-CO2, TPD-NH3, XPS, SEM and HRTEM. These nanoparticles were applied for the adsorptive removal of violanthrone-79 (VO-79) as an asphaltene model molecule. The adsorption isotherms were described by the Sips isotherm model. Similarly, the prepared nanoparticles were employed for the adsorptive removal of visbroken residue (VR-C5) asphaltenes, and the solid-liquid-equilibrium (SLE) model was used to describe the adsorption isotherms. The promising catalytic effect of PY nanoparticles towards adsorbed VR-C5 asphaltenes was investigated using TGA coupled with mass spectrometry.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.EnergyEngineering--ChemicalEngineering--EnvironmentalPyroxeneAegirineNanoparticlesAsphaltenesAdsorptionCatalysisVisbroken Residuemaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/27059