Imperial Research Grant

For more than a decade, this program has provided funding for research projects carried out by faculty members and their students.

Areas of interest

Environment

• Remediation of soil impacted by recalcitrant petroleum hydrocarbons, salts (mostly NaCl) or both, to as close to pristine conditions as possible
• Improved delineation of soil impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons, salts or both
• Boreal forest wetland reclamation
• Novel environmental monitoring technologies (e.g., remote sensing, eDNA)
• Fundamental understanding of the interactions of minerals and residual hydrocarbon in the aqueous phase and what causes enhanced separation (e.g., use of additives such as polymers)
• Enhancements in SOx, NOx reduction technologies

In-situ bitumen recovery

• Bitumen-hydrocarbon-steam phase behaviors (VLLE) with temperature and pressure variation (up to > 200°C)
• Dispersion and diffusion in porous media of methane in bitumen 
• Formation of hydrates upon depressurization of C2-C3-C1-bitumen-HC mixtures
• Miscible and partially miscible finger modeling (using macroscopic parameters)
• Mass transfer in solvent finger/bitumen matrix networks (diffusion and dispersion)
• Modeling of heat and mass transfer boundary layers in steam-thermal-solvent processes
• Modeling of asphaltene or asphaltene-rich heavy phase transport in heavy oil recovery process 

In-situ facilities

• Improvements in multiphase pumps, novel water softening, water hardness analyzers, waste heat utilization, external heat source engines, abrasion resistant materials
• Improved methods to detect, remove or prevent scaling and fouling on piping and vessels while minimizing downtime
• Improved methods of produced fluid measurement - quantification of multiphase produced fluid streams in presence of high temperature, vapour, solvents and viscous bitumen
• Improved methods to differentiate between native bitumen and reproduced injected solvent which have overlapping hydrocarbon components
• Economic optimization of in-situ solvent recovery processes and facilities under global constraints

Analytical Techniques for petroleum products

• In-use online analysis of petroleum products
• Failure modes of in-service petroleum products
• Failure modes of industrial components that are lubricated with petroleum products
• Forensic analysis of lubricants and related industrial equipment
• Analytical techniques for new and used lubricants
• Oxygenate and speciation measurement in hydrocarbons
• Bio-content determination in petroleum hydrocarbons
• Metal measurement in process waters including sour water

Refinery products, processes and facilities

• Novel approaches for the removal of sulphur, phosphorous and nitrogen from hydrocarbon streams
• Improved understanding of fouling and corrosion of process equipment both hydrocarbon and inorganic, and means to mitigate same
• Novel approaches for quality enhancements for fuel products, oxygenate containing fuel products, and asphalts
• Improvements in yields, run lengths, and molecular composition of product streams in refinery processing equipment
• Improved production of basestocks from crudes
• Breakthrough technology for energy efficiency improvement in refinery processing equipment, namely fired heaters and heat exchanger
• Enhanced process control system - modeling of refinery systems (improved molecular characterization, reaction kinetics, hydrodynamic modeling)
• Novel techniques for water conservation within a modern refinery
• Novel techniques to predict cold flow properties of fuels from feed qualities and operating conditions in fixed bed reactors
• Novel quench system designs for fixed bed reactors providing uniform fluid flow and quick installation and inspection

Machine Learning applied to simulation of chemical processes

• Predictive Analytics: Equipment failure prediction, such as compressors, pumps, etc.
• Hybrid Modeling of chemical processes: Combining first principle models with data driven models for a more comprehensive simulation
• Use of Machine Learning algorithms for root cause analyses purposes.
• Machine Learning Research in Petroleum processes
• Tower Flooding predictions with data driven algorithms
• Artificial Neural Network modeling and optimization of chemical processes, including FCC, Hydrotreating, Reforming, Distillation, etc.
• Data anomalies and deviation detection with Machine Learning for monitoring purposes

Chemicals

• Improvements related to polyethylene manufacturing
• Improvements related to polyethylene products particularly polyethylene for injection and rotational molding applications
• Improvements related to ethane/propane gas cracking to produce ethylene
• Improvements related to manufacturing of vinyl intermediates, aromatics and naphtha based solvents
• Improvements related to plastics recycling – technology improvements to enable improved flexible plastic packaging recycle chains
• Improvements related to advanced recycling technologies
• Investigate the effect of different bio sources in biofuels (gas and diesel) on polyethylene physical properties
• Investigate and improve the organoleptic properties of polyethylene
• Investigate methods to improve the barrier properties of rotational and injection molded parts
• Investigate methods to improve the paintability of rotational and injection molded parts
• Explore applications of polyethylene combined with bio-based materials
• Investigate methods to evaluate and improve the Environmental Stress Crack Resistance performance of polyethylene
• Safe transfer of synthetic polymer particles and dust properties
• Investigation into and new methods to characterize the long term performance of polyethylene

Geoscience

• Diagenetic history, cementation, clay formation, burial history and petrographic studies of the McMurray Fm to determine the variation in ore quality
• Emplacement variability and degradation of Northern Alberta bitumen using novel approaches
• Resolve the stratigraphy and sedimentology of Post Cretaceous sediments in the Athabasca region
• Applications of remote sensing to mine development
• Investigation of mud sedimentation in shallow water clastic depositional environments
• Modeling of oil migration pathways through the Palaeozoic sediments of the Athabasca basin
• Application of geophysical methods in predicting oil sands reservoir properties
• Application of geophysical methods, other than seismic, to characterize the caprock formation in oil sands thermal projects
• Hybrid modelling of reservoir processes
• Optimization of reservoir operation