The oil sands industry currently faces significant challenges. Its social license is in question at a time when environmental regulation is tightening, all coupled with depressed oil prices and high capital costs for new projects. In the near term at least, oil sands-related activity will likely not focus heavily on development of new large-scale surface-facility capital projects. Instead, the focus will and should be on developing and applying new technology to improve the effectiveness of ongoing sub surface operations. Improvements to ultimate recoveries from reservoirs, improvement in energy efficiency (i.e. reduced steam-oil-ratio) in heterogeneous reservoirs, and the ability to access the parts of current producing fields that have production challenges such as top gas and bottom water. New insights into these problems will allow for extension and improvement of existing thermal operations, provide access to top gas/bottom water zones that are currently second tier resources, and promote the development of next generation production technologies with significantly lower environmental impacts. One leading suggestion to achieve these goals is the use of solvents combined with alternative technologies for steam generation.
Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship
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Doctoral Scholarship
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Doctoral Scholarship
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EWR Steacie Memorial Fellowship
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Engineering Research Award
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Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award
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Graduate Teaching Award
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Great Supervisor Award
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Great Supervisor Award
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Hatch Innovation Award
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International Award for Outstanding Young Chemical Engineer
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Mid-Career Research Award
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A Janus facilitated transport membrane with asymmetric surface wettability and dense/porous structure: enabling high stability and separation efficiency
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
A geomechanically-constrained dynamic fractal wormhole growth model for simulating cold heavy oil production with sand simulation
Conference Proceedings
A sand arch constrained dynamic fractal wormhole growth model for simulating cold heavy oil production with sand simulation
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Analysis of non-equilibrium foamy oil behavior in pressure depletion processes
Master Thesis
Analysis of non-equilibrium foamy oil flow in cyclic solvent injection processes
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Analyzing the Impacts of Discretization and Meshing in Numerical Simulation of Unconventional Reservoirs
Master Thesis
Buckling Effect of Sole Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8 Nanoparticles Adsorbed at the Water/Oil Interface
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
CO2 Foam and CO2 Polymer Enhanced Foam for Heavy Oil Recovery and CO2 Storage
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Design of optimal operational parameters for steam-alternating-solvent processes in heterogeneous reservoirs – A multi-objective optimization approach
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Design of warm solvent injection processes for heterogeneous heavy oil reservoirs: a hybrid workflow of multi-objective optimization and proxy models
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Does Polymer& rsquo$\mathsemicolon$s Viscoelasticity Influence Heavy-Oil Sweep Efficiency and Injectivity at 1 ft/D?
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Does Polymer's Viscoelasticity Influence Heavy Oil Sweep Efficiency and Injectivity at 1ft/day?
Conference Proceedings
Effect of Non-ionic Surfactants on the Adsorption of Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds at Water/Oil interface: A Molecular Simulation Study
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Electrochemical investigation of the interactions of organic and inorganic depressants on basal and edge planes of molybdenite
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Evaluating the Performance of CO2 Foam and CO2 Polymer Enhanced Foam for Heavy Oil Recovery: Laboratory Experiments in Unconsolidated and Consolidated Porous Media
Conference Proceedings
Evaluation of Polymer-Assisted Carbonated Water Injection in Sandstone Reservoir: Absorption Kinetics, Rheology, and Oil Recovery Results
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Extensional Rheological Data from Ex-situ Measurements for Predicting Porous Media Behaviour of the Viscoelastic EOR Polymers
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Extensional Rheological Role on the Viscoelastic Polymer Flooding: Unanswered Questions, Myth or Reality?
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Facile and scalable surface functionalization approach with small silane molecules for oil/water separation and demulsification of surfactant/asphaltenes-stabilized emulsions
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Functional Mussel-inspired Coatings with Applications in Wastewater Treatment
Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation
High-efficiency and Durable Removal of Water-in-Heavy Oil Emulsions Enabled by Delignified and Carboxylated Basswood with Zwitterionic Nanohydrogel Coatings
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Hydrophobic Interactions in Water and Hydrophilic Interaction in Oil of Polymers, Emulsions and Bubbles
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Hydrophobic Interactions in Water and “Hydrophilic” Interaction in Oil of Polymers, Minerals, Emulsions and Bubbles
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Hydrophobic/Hydrophilic Interactions and Surface Wettability
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Incorporating Phase Behavior Constraints in Multi-objective Optimization of Warm Vaporized Solvent Injection Process
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Interactions of Emulsion Drops and Gas Bubbles in Complex Fluids: Hydrophobic Interaction in Water and Hydrophilic Interaction in Oil
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Intermolecular and Interfacial Interactions in Engineering Processes: Emulsions in Oil Production as An Example
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Intermolecular and Surface Forces at Solid/Oil/Water/Gas Interfaces in Petroleum Production
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Intermolecular and Surface Interactions at Solid/Oil/Water/Gas Interfaces in Oil Production
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Intermolecular and Surface Interactions in Engineering Processes
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Investigating the Viscoelastic Polymer’s Rheological Influences on the Sweep Efficiency and Injectivity During Heavy Oil Recovery Applications
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Model Asphaltenes between Surfaces of Varying Polarity
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Molecular Dynamics Simulation on Water/Oil Interface with Model Asphaltene Subjected to Electric Field
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Molecular Interaction and Adhesion Mechanisms of Mussel-inspired Adhesive Coatings
Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation
Molecular Simulation of Folding and Aggregation of Multi-Core Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Multi-Objective Optimization of the Steam Alternating Solvent (SAS) Process using Pareto-based Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms
Master Thesis
Numerical pore-scale simulation of propane injection for heavy oil displacement processes
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Numerical simulation of non-equilibrium foamy oil for cyclic solvent injection in post-CHOPS reservoirs
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
One-Step Nanoextraction and Ultrafast Microanalysis Based on Nanodroplet Formation in an Evaporating Ternary Liquid Microfilm
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Optimization of the steam alternating solvent process using Pareto-based multi-objective evolutionary algorithms
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Probing the In-Situ Redox Behavior of Selenium on Pyrite Surface by Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Probing the Interaction Mechanism between Oil Droplets with Asphaltenes and Solid Surfaces Using AFM
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Probing the Interactions of Emulsions, Bubbles and Fine Solids in Complex Fluids and Confined Space
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Probing the Interfacial Forces and Surface Interaction Mechanisms in Petroleum Production Processes
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Probing the interactions between Pickering emulsion droplets stabilized with pH-responsive nanoparticles
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Probing the interactions between Pickering emulsion droplets with pH-responsive nanoparticles
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Quantification of Sor Reduction during Polymer Flooding Using Extensional Capillary Number
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Quantification of the viscoelastic effects during polymer flooding: a critical review
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Recent Advances in Bubble-based Technologies: Underlying Interaction Mechanisms and Applications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Recent Advances in Hydrophobic Interactions and Surface Wettability
Conference/Symposium/Workshop Contribution
Recent Advances in the Quantification and Modulation of Hydrophobic Interactions for Interfacial Applications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Role of Molecular Architecture in the Modulation of Hydrophobic Interactions
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Single-Step Silica Nanofluid for Improved Carbon Dioxide Flow and Reduced Formation Damage in Porous Media for Carbon Utilization
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Static and Dynamic Performance ofWet Foam and Polymer-Enhanced Foam in the Presence of Heavy Oil
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Surface Interaction Mechanisms in Mineral Flotation: Fundamentals, Measurements, and Perspectives
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Surface Interactions between Water-in-Oil Emulsions with Asphaltenes and Electroless Nickel–Phosphorus Coating
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Techniques for Fast Screening of 3D Heterogeneous Shale Barrier Configurations and Their Impacts on SAGD Production Behavior
Master Thesis
The Influence of Rock Composition and pH on Reservoir Wettability for Low-Salinity Water-CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Applications in Brazilian Reservoirs
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
The potential of xylanases to reduce the viscosity of micro/nanofibrillated bleached Kraft pulp
Research Report
Unraveling the Hydrophobic Interaction Mechanisms of Hydrocarbon and Fluorinated Surfaces
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article