Attachment/transport of particulates at the oil-water interface
Leyli Mirmontanzeri, Ms.Sc. student in Chemical Engineering
The Canadian oil sands industry is beginning to develop methods of separating bitumen from the sand grains through dissolution of heavy oil in organic solvents (Non-Aqueous Bitumen Extraction); this is to reduce the current high demand for fresh water from the ecosystem. My research is focused on the removal of suspended particulates from a hydrocarbon medium by use of interfacial attachment / mass transport. We propose to introduce small amounts of water into the hydrocarbon medium to create a network of oil-water interfaces and to investigate how water chemistry may influence particulate attachment to, or transport across, the oil-water interface. The underlying physics of these phenomena will be studied using state-of-the-art micromechanical techniques.
The Canadian oil sands industry is beginning to develop methods of separating bitumen from the sand grains through dissolution of heavy oil in organic solvents (Non-Aqueous Bitumen Extraction); this is to reduce the current high demand for fresh water from the ecosystem. My research is focused on the removal of suspended particulates from a hydrocarbon medium by use of interfacial attachment / mass transport. We propose to introduce small amounts of water into the hydrocarbon medium to create a network of oil-water interfaces and to investigate how water chemistry may influence particulate attachment to, or transport across, the oil-water interface. The underlying physics of these phenomena will be studied using state-of-the-art micromechanical techniques.
