Engineering Commons^™

Date-Leaf Carbon Particles For Green Enhanced Oil Recovery, Bashirul Haq, Md Abdul Aziz, Dhafer Al Shehri, Nasiru Salahu Muhammed, Shaik Inayath Basha, Abbas Saeed Hakeem, Mohammed Ameen Ahmed Qasem, Mohammed Lardhi, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Green enhanced oil recovery (GEOR) is an environmentally friendly enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process involving the injection of green fluids to improve macroscopic and microscopic sweep efficiencies while boosting tertiary oil production. Carbon nanomaterials such as graphene, carbon nanotube (CNT), and carbon dots have gained interest for their superior ability to increase oil recovery. These particles have been successfully tested in EOR, although they are expensive and do not extend to GEOR. In addition, the application of carbon particles in the GEOR method is not well understood yet, requiring thorough documentation. The goals of this work are to develop carbon …

Electro‐Driven Materials And Processes For Lithium Recovery—A Review, Anna Siekierka, Marek Bryjak, Amir Razmjou, Wojciech Kujawski, Aleksandar N. Nikoloski, Ludovic F. Dumée

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The mass production of lithium‐ion batteries and lithium‐rich e‐products that are required for electric vehicles, energy storage devices, and cloud‐connected electronics is driving an unprecedented demand for lithium resources. Current lithium production technologies, in which extraction and purification are typically achieved by hydrometallurgical routes, possess strong environmental impact but are also energy‐intensive and require extensive operational capabilities. The emergence of selective membrane materials and associated electro‐processes offers an avenue to reduce these energy and cost penalties and create more sustainable lithium production approaches. In this review, lithium recovery technologies are discussed considering the origin of the lithium, which can be …

Social Impacts Of Climate Change And Occupational Heat Stress And Adaptation Strategies Of Mining Workers In Ghana, Victor Fannam Nunfam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Excessive heat exposure due to rising temperatures associated with climate change adversely affects workers’ health, safety, productivity, and psychosocial well-being in occupational settings. In the hot and tropical regions of developing countries, long hours of physically demanding work, coupled with inadequate adaptation policies to climate change, increases the occurrence of heat-related illnesses and injuries, and contributes to the loss of productive capacity, poor decision making, and other negative effects on the social well-being of workers.

Based on the theories of social impact assessment, risk assessment, adaptation and resilience planning, this study assesses the social impacts of climate change and occupational …

Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors For Mainstream Industrial Processes, Gary Allwood, Graham Wild, Steven Hinkley

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper reviews fiber Bragg grating sensing technology with respect to its use in mainstream industrial process applications. A review of the various types of sensors that have been developed for industries such as power generation, water treatment and services, mining, and the oil and gas sector has been performed. A market overview is reported as well as a discussion of some of the factors limiting their penetration into these markets. Furthermore, the author’s make recommendations for future work that would potentially provide significant opportunity for the advancement of fiber Bragg grating sensor networks in these mainstream industries.

Impacts Of Artisanal And Large Scale Gold Mining On Tropical Rivers In West Africa: A Case Study From The Brong Ahafo Region Of Ghana, Karunia F. Macdonald

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Mining communities in more than 70 developing countries, mostly in the tropical regions, still practise artisanal and small scale gold mining (ASGM). ASGM commonly operates along rivers and streams for easy access to process water and as receptacles for mine water discharges. A largely unregulated industry, ASGM employs rudimentary mining and processing methods including the use of mercury amalgamation, and is often found near to larger scale and modern mining (LSM) operations.

The substantial use of mercury by ASGM has drawn the attention of agencies and researchers but so has its persistent economic role in providing much needed rural employment. …

Bio-Physical Closure Criteria Without Reference Sites: Realistic Targets In Modified Rivers, Melanie L. Blanchette, Mark Lund, Robyn Stoney, Digby Short, Colm Harkin

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The use of reference sites for establishing closure criteria in areas disturbed by mining activities is common practice. ‘Reference’ sites are those considered to be largely unimpacted by anthropogenic activity (retaining desirable natural characteristics), and occurring near disturbed sites. Sites are considered rehabilitated when their biophysical condition approximates that of the reference site. However, this approach often creates impossible or unrealistic targets for miners seeking to close rehabilitated lands. For example, reference sites are often limited in availability (or non-existent) due to impacts by other land uses. Further, any available reference sites might not be realistic matches for the rehabilitated …

Energy Efficiency And Carbon Dioxide Emissions Across Different Scales Of Iron Ore Mining Operations In Western Australia, Shanuka Dilhani Palamure

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

During the last two decades, Western Australian iron ore mining industry experienced an exponential production growth arising from increased global demand for steel. The upturn in the iron ore price and considerably lower production cost encouraged extensive mining and consequently high-grade ore reserves were gradually depleted. Despite the energy-intensive nature of mining, high profitability motivated the mining companies to extract marginal-grade deposits with additional processing requirements, which increased energy consumption and ultimately increased the cost of iron ore production. This thesis sought to identify the energy efficiencies of open-cut iron ore mining operations, in terms of scale of operation as …

Improving Processing By Adaption To Conditional Geostatistical Simulation Of Block Compositions, R. Tolosana-Delgado, Ute A. Mueller, K. G. Van Den Boogaart, C. Ward, J. Gutzmer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Exploitation of an ore deposit can be optimized by adapting the beneficiation processes to the properties of individual ore blocks. This can involve switching in and out certain treatment steps, or setting their controlling parameters. Optimizing this set of decisions requires the full conditional distribution of all relevant physical parameters and chemical attributes of the feed, including concentration of value elements and abundance of penalty elements. As a first step towards adaptive processing, the mapping of adaptive decisions is explored based on the composition, in value and penalty elements, of the selective mining units. Conditional distributions at block support are …

The Psychological Wellbeing Of Women Operating Mining Machinery In A Fly-In Fly-Out Capacity, Anne Bailey-Kruger

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The present study aimed to address the gap in the current mining research by investigating women’s experiences of working in the mining industry in a “bluecollar” work role and the impact of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) mining on their wellbeing. An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach (IPA) was used as a framework to explore the experiences of 19 female machine operators through in-depth interviewing at one mineral mine site in Queensland, Australia. IPA analysis revealed three themes as identified by the participants. The first theme described how workplace barriers to job progression were salient issues for the women, particularly in respect to discrimination …

Geostatistical Methods For Estimating Iron, Silica And Alumina Grades Within The Hardcap Of The Section Seven Iron Deposit, Tom Price, Philip John Savory

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Many iron ore deposits have a weathered zone (Hardcap) near the surface which is highly variable in grades. Estimating the amount of ore grade material (HG) in this zone is difficult as a result of this variability. The Section Seven Deposit at Tom Price is largely mined out and has production data available in the form of grade blocks that were marked out during mining as HG and non- HG. Hardcap domains and a block model representing them were created and estimates were made from original exploration data using Ordinary Kriging, Global Change of Support, Indicator Kriging and Median Indicator …

The Simulation Of Material Types In A Western Australian Iron Deposit, Jacqueline Ferreira

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Geostatistical methods are currently used by mining companies to determine a resource model of the tonnage and head grade that may be obtained from a potential orebody, making it one of the first and most vital operational stages in any mining project. Currently long term mine planning is based on the estimated head grades model, which provides vital information on the quality of the ore. The risks associated with mining a particular ore may be reduced if geometallurgical information, such as material types, is incorporated into the operational flow model. Material type proportions are obtained from evaluated reverse circulation (RC) …

Fuzzy Controlled Hydraulic Excavator With Model Parameter Uncertainty, Ganesh Kothapalli, Mohammed Hassan

Research outputs 2011

The hydraulic actuated excavator, being a non-linear mobile machine, encounters many uncertainties. There are uncertainties in the hydraulic system in addition to the uncertain nature of the load. The simulation results obtained in this study show that there is a need for intelligent control of such machines and in particular interval type-2 fuzzy controller is most suitable for minimizing the position error of a typical excavator’s bucket under load variations. We consider the model parameter uncertainties such as hydraulic fluid leakage and friction. These are uncertainties which also depend up on the temperature and alter bulk modulus and viscosity of …

Fractal Relationships And Spatial Distribution Of Ore Body Modelling, D. J. Kentwell

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The nature of spatial distributions of geological variables such as ore grades is of primary concern when modelling ore bodies and mineral resources. The aim of any mineral resource evaluation process is to determine the location, extent, volume and average grade of that resource by a trade off between maximum confidence in the results and minimum sampling effort. The principal aim of almost every geostatistical modelling process is to predict the spatial variation of one or more geological variables in order to estimate values of those variables at locations that have not been sampled. From the spatial analysis of these …