Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of Millimeter-Sized Preformed Particle Gel For Conformance Control Treatments Using Simple Models, Ali Abdulmohsen Al Brahim

Masters Theses

Millimeter-sized preformed particle gels (PPGs) have been successfully used to tackle the high-permeable zones, fractures and channels in mature oilfields for conformance control improvement. PPGs can significantly reduce the permeability of abnormal fractures and divert injected water to the low permeable zones where hydrocarbon was not swept by previous water flooding. Due to the irregularity of PPGs in shapes after swollen, their strength cannot be easily measured using the conventional methods. Therefore, the open hole screen plate models with various hole diameters and density were designed to establish a simple technique that can be used to measure the strength of …

Experimental Study Of Crude Oil Emulsion Stability By Surfactants And Nanoparticles, Zainab Alabdulmohsen

Masters Theses

"Surfactants and nanoparticles are materials being widely used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Surfactants are mainly used to reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water which could form a stable film of emulsion between these two immiscible fluids. Also, nanotechnology is a potential candidate to offer another solution to improve oil recovery. Nanoparticles can form a solid layer at the droplet's interface and stand as resistant stabilizer under harsh reservoir conditions.

This research investigates whether the combination of surfactants and nanoparticles can provide a more stable emulsion than surfactants only. Two parts of experimental study have been done in …

Evaluation Of Preformed Particle Gel Treatment Using Homogeneous And Heterogeneous Models, Hilary Ogochukwu Elue

Masters Theses

"This research investigates the effects of preformed particle gel (PPG) in remedying the problems of excess water production and low oil recovery of heterogeneous reservoirs by placing the PPG in the high-permeability layer, thus diverting displacing brine to the unswept low permeability layer. This investigation was completed with three tasks.

The first task was to evaluate the PPG swelling kinetics and strength as a function of concentration of brine. The result of this task indicate that PPG prepared with low concentration of brine swells more, becomes weaker, more deformable than PPG prepared with high concentration of brine.

The second task …

Flow Mechanisms And Numerical Simulation Of Gas Production From Shale Reservoirs, Chaohua Guo

Doctoral Dissertations

"Shale gas is one kind of the unconventional resources which is becoming an ever increasing component to secure the natural gas supply in U.S. Different from conventional hydrocarbon formations, shale gas reservoirs (SGRs) present numerous challenges to modeling and understanding due to complex pore structure, ultra-low permeability, and multiple transport mechanisms.

In this study, the deviation against conventional gas flow have been detected in the lab experiments for gas flow through nano membranes. Based on the experimental results, a new apparent permeability expression is proposed with considering viscous flow, Knudsen diffusion, and slip flow. The gas flow mechanisms of gas …

Effect Of Polymer On Disproportionate Permeability Reduction To Gas And Water For Fractured Shales, Lingbo Liu

Masters Theses

"Large volumes of fracturing fluid are required in shale slickwater fracs, and a considerable amount of polymer friction reducer would remain in microfractures if the polymer has not been broken before gas production. It is of major interest to evaluate the effect of polymer on water/gas flow behavior in the microfractures of shale reservoirs. We fabricated six shale fracture models with different fracture widths and set up a core flooding apparatus to conduct brine/gas-injection experiments before and after polymer treatment. A method by which to calculate the residual resistance factor for gas (F_rr,gas) was defined. The experimental results …

Co₂ Miscible Flooding Application And Screening Criteria, Mingfei Yin

Masters Theses

"Field experience has shown that CO₂ miscible flooding is an effective method to improve oil recovery, but only with proper reservoir candidate selection and optimal project design. This paper discusses both CO₂ miscible and immiscible flooding mechanisms and offers some guidelines for flooding operations. New developments in MMP determination are also introduced.

This research is based on a summary of field data from 134 CO₂ projects in the U.S. Several numerical methods have been applied for data cleaning. After cleaning, data from 128 projects have been analyzed and correlated. Carbonate reservoirs and sandstone reservoirs are the two …

1-D Coordination Polymer Of Transition Metal As A Precursor To Generate Surface Active Transition Metal Catalyst, Siddharth Gopalakrishnan

Masters Theses

"The work describes the synthesis, characterization and properties of Ni, Co and Cu based 1-D coordination polymer with 1, 4-benzenedicarboxylic acid as linker and 1-methylimidazole as co-ligand. The structure of the coordination polymers were investigated employing SCXRD and showed the formation of supramolecular 3-D architecture of the 1-D coordination polymer through non covalent CH..π, π.. π, and H-bonding interaction. These 1-D coordination polymers were further characterized by IR spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. Thermal decomposition of these polymeric metal complexes gave rise to carbon coated metal and metal carbides nanoparticles, for the 1-D structures of Co and …

Studies On The Role Of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Polyacrylamides In Fine Coal Flotation, Ontlametse Kenneth Molatlhegi

Masters Theses

"The current study investigated the effect of novel organic/inorganic (hybrid) polyacrylamide polymer as ash (slimes) depressant in fine coal flotation for the possibility to enhance the combustible recovery and ash rejection. Raw coal samples contain about 25% of ash-forming minerals were crushed, grinded to -75um and floated in the presence of in-house synthesized hybrid Polyacrylamide (Al(OH)₃-PAM or Al-PAM) at different operational parameters. Denver flotation cell with a 5-Liters capacity was used and the parameters investigated include: Al-PAM dosage, Al-PAM conditioning time, dual use of Al-PAM and a dispersant, impeller rotation speed and pulp's pH. For comparison purposes, commercially …

Steam Flooding Screening And Eor Prediction By Using Clustering Algorithm And Data Visualization, Na Zhang

Masters Theses

"Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques are vitally important in the oil industry because these techniques could not only extend the life of wells, but also produce 10% to 30% additional oil from the reservoir. However, selecting the most suitable EOR techniques for unknown reservoirs is not easy for decision making. Based on literature, EOR screening criteria could help to find the best candidates for unknown projects, which is classified into two categories: conventional EOR screening and advanced EOR screening. In this research, an artificial intelligent (AI) method, hierarchical clustering algorithm, is adapted to analyze both steam flooding projects and worldwide …

A Review On Plasma Technologies Applied To Thermo-Chemical Biomass Conversion, François Gitzhofer

Biorefinery I: Chemicals and Materials From Thermo-Chemical Biomass Conversion and Related Processes

No abstract provided.

Upgrading Of Fast Pyrolysis Byproducts For Material Use With High Value, A. Funke, M.M. Abbas, N. Dahmen

Biorefinery I: Chemicals and Materials From Thermo-Chemical Biomass Conversion and Related Processes

No abstract provided.

Bio-Hydrocarbons Through Catalytic Pyrolysis Of Used Cooking Oils: Towards Sustainable Jet And Road Fuels, Marco Buffi, Andrea Maria Rizzo, David Chiaramonti

Biorefinery I: Chemicals and Materials From Thermo-Chemical Biomass Conversion and Related Processes

No abstract provided.

Upgraded Production Of A Hydroxylactone Anhydrosugar By Cellulose Pyrolysis And Its Application In The Synthesis Of Biologically Active Compounds, Ines Mancini, Andrea Defant, Federico Dosi', Danilo Malferrari, Daniele Fabbri

Biorefinery I: Chemicals and Materials From Thermo-Chemical Biomass Conversion and Related Processes

No abstract provided.

Biodiesel Synthesis From Domestic Used Cooking Oil In Southern Europe: Evaluation Of Fuel Quality, T.D. Tsoutsos, St. Tournaki, O. Paraiba, D. Antunes, F. Giglio, P. Quero Garcia, J. Braga, H. Adrianos, M. Filice

Biorefinery I: Chemicals and Materials From Thermo-Chemical Biomass Conversion and Related Processes

No abstract provided.

Carbon Dioxide Capture With Amine Functionlized Graphene Oxide, Renee Zeleszki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract: amine functionalized graphene oxide was used as sorbent in order to achieve carbon dioxide capture. In this study, micro size graphite flakes was prepared according to modified hummers method and "hummers' method with additional kmno4." Graphene oxide was then functionalized with ethylenediamine (eda). Different purification methods for graphene oxide were studied as well as different functionalization method times. Graphite oxide and functionalized graphene oxide has been analyzed with fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ftir) for chemical structure. Thermal gravimetric analysis (tga) was used to test co2 capture capacity. Functionalized graphene oxide that has been purified with 30 washes via centrifuge …

Long Term Blood Oxygenation Membranes, Joseph V. Alexander

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Hollow fiber membranes are widely used in blood oxygenators to remove carbon dioxide and add oxygen during cardiopulmonary bypass operations. These devices are now widely used off-label by physicians to perform extracorporeal blood oxygenation for patients with lung failure. Unfortunately, the hollow fiber membranes used in these devices fail prematurely due to blood plasma leakage and gas emboli formation.

This project formed ultrathin (~100nm) polymer coatings on polymer hollow fiber membranes. The coatings were intended to “block” existing pores on the exterior surfaces while permitting high gas fluxes. This coating is synthesized using surface imitated control radical polymerization.

The coating …

Inhalable Nanocomposites And Anticancer Agents For Cancer Therapy, Nathanael A. Stocke

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Cancer is designated as the leading cause of mortality worldwide and lung cancer is responsible for nearly 30% of all cancer related deaths. Over the last few decades mortality rates have only marginally increased and rates of recurrence remain high. These factors, among others, suggest the need for more innovative treatment modalities in lung cancer therapy. Targeted pulmonary delivery is well established for treating pulmonary diseases such as asthma and provides a promising platform for lung cancer therapy. Increasing local deposition of anticancer agents (ACAs) and reducing systemic exposure of these toxic moieties could lead to better therapeutic outcomes and …

Pilot Scale Demonstration And Evaluation Of Innovative Non-Deslimed Non-Classified Gravity-Fed Hm Cyclone, Yumo Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Coal preparation plants are required in some cases to produce a high-grade product using a low specific gravity cut-point. For these situations, a second higher gravity separation would be desirable to generate a mid-grade product that can be utilized for electricity generation thereby maximizing coal recovery. A study was conducted to evaluate the potential of achieving efficient separations at two different density cut-points in a single stage using a three-product dense medium cyclone. Variations in density cut-point and process efficiency values were quantified as a function of the feed medium density, feed medium-to-coal ratio, and feed pressure using a three-level …

Modeling Of Spallation Phenomenon In An Arc-Jet Environment, Raghava Sai Chaitanya Davuluri

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Space vehicles, while entering the planetary atmosphere, experience high loads of heat. Ablative materials are commonly used for a thermal protection system, which undergo mass removal mechanisms to counter the heat rates. Spallation is one of the ablative processes, which is characterized by the ejection of solid particles from the material into the flow. Numerical codes that are used in designing the heat shields ignore this phenomenon. Hence, to evaluate the effectiveness of spallation phenomenon, a numerical model is developed to compute the dynamics and chemistry of the particles. The code is one-way coupled to a CFD code that models …

Plasma Processes And Cancer - Special Topical Cluster Of The 2nd Iwpct Meeting, Masaru Hori, Mounir Laroussi, Kai Masur, Yuzuru Ikehara

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Although the emerging multidisciplinary field of plasma medicine has been around for nearly two decades important advances have already taken place that could one day revolutionize healthcare and the way various challenging diseases can be treated.1-3Amongst these advances the effects of low temperature plasma (LTP) on cancer cells in vitro and in vivo stand out.4-13Current cancer treatment modalities, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, have serious side effects and tend to lose their benefits to the patients after a while. Therefore, novel and improved therapies that can be used alone …