Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Automating Distillation Column Internals Design Via Reinforcement Learning: A Hybrid Action Space Approach, Holden B. Broussard

Masters Theses

Distillation columns are the most used separation technique in all chemical fields. The design of column internals presents a hybrid action space problem, where trayed internal parameters are continuous and packed parameters are discrete; Hybrid meaning the action space consists of both discrete and continuous design parameters. Hybrid action spaces have presented a challenge in the reinforcement learning space, since the most robust algorithms are designed to handle specific action types. This research develops and validates a hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning framework that divides the action spaces into different agents. The Controller agent selects between internal types, the Soft Actor- …

Geological Carbon Storage In Deep, Low Permeable Shale Reservoirs: Insights From The Haynesville Formation, Louisiana, Himakshi Goswami

Masters Theses

As global initiatives to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions intensify, depleted unconventional shale gas formations have emerged as critical candidates for large-scale geological carbon storage (GCS). This study investigates the feasibility, dynamic trapping mechanisms, and operational optimization of CO₂ sequestration in deep, low-permeability shale reservoirs, using the Upper Jurassic Haynesville Shale in northwest Louisiana as a comprehensive case study. Compositional reservoir simulation (CMG GEM 2021.10) was performed using the SPE Haynesville dataset, with CO₂ injected at a rate of 10,000 ft³/day across single and multiple depth intervals spanning 11,290–11,314 feet. Results demonstrate that multi-depth injection significantly improves residual trapping, reduces buoyancy-driven …

Mitigating Surfactant-Gas Interactions In Associated Gas Reservoirs: A Simulation And Machine Learning Guided Approach, Francis Dela Nuetor

Masters Theses

Surfactant flooding is a promising chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method for mobilizing residual oil through interfacial tension reduction and wettability alteration. However, its performance in associated-gas reservoirs can be limited by salinity, gas composition, surfactant adsorption, and possible chemical instability. This study investigates the effect of salinity on surfactant flooding efficiency using an integrated reservoir simulation and machine learning workflow. A synthetic three-dimensional reservoir model was developed in ECLIPSE using a 10 × 10 × 3 Cartesian grid to simulate surfactant flooding over a 300-day production period under salinity conditions ranging from 100 to 50,000 ppm. Key outputs, including …

Optimizing Co₂ Wag Flooding Parameters For Enhanced Oil Recovery And Formation Damage Control In Asphaltene Reservoirs Using Soft Experimentation, Derrick Amoah Oladele

Masters Theses

CO₂ Water Alternating Gas flooding has become an important enhanced oil recovery process in increasing oil production in medium to heavy oil reservoirs. However, CO₂ injections have the potential to cause asphaltene destabilization, leading to precipitation, deposition, and pore plugging. This study evaluated and optimized the effect of CO₂ flooding parameters to maximize oil recovery and minimized formation damage. Eclipse 300 compositional reservoir simulator was used to assess the effect of CO₂ Water Alternating Gas (WAG) Injection Rate, WAG Ratio, and CO₂ Water Alternating Gas (WAG) Injection Pressure on the reservoir. Predictive models for Cumulative Oil Production (FOPT) and Asphaltene …

Transfection Of Ionizable Lipid Nanoparticles On Raw 264.7 And Mda-Mb-231, Lavanya Bhargava

Masters Theses

"This thesis investigates the preparation, characterization, and transfection efficiency of various ionizable lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) formulated for the delivery of mRNA encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) in RAW 264.7 macrophages and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines. The ionizable cationic lipid studied are ALC-035, C12-200, C14-4, PPZ-A10, DLin-MC3-DMA. The study addresses the need for effective gene delivery systems to provide a safe and versatile platform that protects and transports nucleic acids into target cells. LNPs were synthesized using microfluidic mixing methods, incorporating lipid components such as the cationic lipids, DSPE, DOPE, cholesterol and PEG lipids to achieve controlled particle sizes, …

Extraction And Separation Of Metal Cations From Synthetic Acidic Solutions Using Emulsion Liquid Membrane, Nouhaila Filali

Masters Theses

The work is organized into two main papers supported by experimental and comparative studies using Emulsion Liquid Membrane (ELM) systems. The first paper explores the individual extraction of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, As, Ni) from synthetic phosphoric acid using Alamine 336 and D2EHPA as carriers. Alamine 336 achieved the highest extraction efficiency (>90%) and stability, offering a promising route to reduce toxic impurities in fertilizer-grade acid. The second paper examines the selective separation of Ni2+ and Co2+ from various acidic solutions using the ELM configuration. Systematic variation of carriers, stripping agent and feed acidity, clarified transport mechanisms and stability, …

Co2 Capture Utilizing Novel Deep Eutectic Solvents: Modeling, Process Simulation, And Cost Analysis, Nazneen Aspi Kolah

Masters Theses

One of the most pressing global issues that humans face is climate change caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide (CO2). Conventional solvents utilized for CO₂ capture, such as amines, are widely used in industrial applications due to their high CO2 absorption capacity. However, deep eutectic solvents (DES) have attracted a lot of academic attention recently due to their biodegradability and low energy for regeneration.

This research serves as a foundational proof-of-concept for using DESs in industrial gas separation processes. Five DES are evaluated for CO2 removal from flue gases. Aspen Plus is utilized to simulate the performance …

Fe-Ni-Cu-Pge Sulfide Transport Mechanisms And Carbon-Sulfur Interactions In Lower Crustal Magmatic Settings: A Study From The Valmaggia Ultramafic Pipe, Ivrea-Verbano Zone, Italy, Shelby Leann Clark

Masters Theses

"Constraining the processes that control the transport and deposition of sulfides in the deep lithosphere is an important step in expanding ore deposit exploration search space to include exhumed lower crustal rocks. The ultramafic sulfide ore-bearing Valmaggia pipe in the Ivrea-Verbano Zone of NW Italy, an exhumed cross section of the overlying lower continental crust and subcontinental lithospheric mantle, gives critical insight into metallogenic processes in lower crustal settings. The ~300 m wide metasomatized pipe hosts Fe-Ni-Cu-(PGE±Co±Au) sulfide mineralization that is commonly associated with locally abundant carbonates and hydrous silicates (phlogopite, amphibole). Previous studies suggested that sulfides were physically transported …

Fiber Assisted Re-Assembly Preformed Particle Gel For Conformance Control, Zhe Sun

Masters Theses

"In Enhanced Oil Recovery technology today, gel treatments have been implemented as a cost-effective method to improve the oil sweep efficiency in reservoirs by plugging the high permeability zones. This study presents a novel gel composition to be used in conformance control in order to improve oil recovery for mature oilfields.

The product is a fiber-assist re-assembly preformed particle gel which could be generalized to the preformed particle gels (PPG). The product developed in this study could be injected into the reservoir act as a conformance control agent by plugging water thief zones and channels in the beginning process. Due …

Process Improvement Of Cu(Ii)-Trymethylamine-Based Active Clay Measurement Test And Total Clay Measurement Test, Christopher Michael Remily

Masters Theses

Foundry work requires a mold made of a mixture of sand, “active clay” to absorb gas, and binders to combine the two and hold the molds shape. When the metal is melted to be poured into the mold, the solubility dramatically increases, causing gas to be temporarily dissolved in the metal. This gas causes small surface pits to form once the metal cools, causing part failure. This causes the need to absorb the gas. Since the clay is used in the process, there needs to be a way to determine how much remains active, which is done with a dye …

On Hydrophobic Deep Eutectic Solvents: Thermo-Physical Properties And Applications In Gas Solubility, Shan Khai Liew

Masters Theses

Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been widely recognized as one of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. GHGs cause global warming, which will bring a lot of problems and irreversible changes. To curb CO2 emissions, much effort has been done. There are many technologies available for CO2 capture, such as amine scrubbing, pressure or temperature swing adsorption, membrane separation, and many solvents and absorbents that have been proposed for CO2 capture (e.g., zeolite, silica materials, graphene, activated carbon, etc.) at every stage (pre-combustion, post-combustion, oxy-combustion). However, these materials have their own drawbacks. Hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents (HDES) is a green …

Scalable And Continuous Fabrication Of Dendrimer Based Gene And Protein Delivery Systems, Joseph Johnston

Masters Theses

"Gene and protein therapeutics play critical roles in the drug market and represent the future of biopharmaceuticals. Polymeric nanoparticle-based gene/protein delivery systems are promising owing to their ability to protect the cargo from degradation, improving intracellular delivery and transfection efficiency as well as abundant sources and flexibility to be modified. Yet the successful industrialized production and clinical application of polymeric nanoparticle-based delivery systems have long been limited by unsatisfied delivery efficiency and the lack of reproducible and scalable methods for the preparation of uniform nanoparticles with good batch to batch consistency. To address the unsatisfied efficacy and difficulty in scale-up …

Comprehensive Evaluation Of Novel Medium-Temperature And High-Temperature Resistant Re-Crosslinkable Preformed Particle Gels For Conformance Control, Zhanmiao Zhai

Masters Theses

"Gel treatment has been widely used to control excessive water production and improve oil recovery in mature oilfields. In comparison to traditional preformed particle gel (PPG), re-cross linkable preformed particle gel (RPPG) has a significant advantage in treating abnormal features such as open fractures, fracture-like channels, and void space conduits (VSC). This research provides a comprehensive evaluation of two novel RPPG products developed in our lab: medium-temperature resistant RPPG (MT-RPPG) for a Middle East reservoir and a high-temperature resistant RPPG (HT-RPPG) for North Sea reservoirs (130 ^oC).

We assessed the effect of the monomer types and concentration, pH, salinity, …

Investigation Of Post-Acid Stimulation Impacts On Well Performance Using Fracture Modeling And Reservoir Simulation In A Jurassic Carbonate Reservoir, Muaath Alansari

Masters Theses

"Well stimulation (well fracturing) became an essential tool in the Oil and Gas industry to unlock the potential of unconventional reservoirs all over the world and especially in the Middle East. In Kuwait, well stimulation is obligatory when dealing with deep Jurassic carbonate reservoirs. Thus, the well fracture designing process plays a very critical role in determining the success of the stimulation job and the improvement of the recovery.

Several wells stimulated with 20% HCL have shown wide variations in both short and long term well production performance. The research aims to investigate and identify the possible reasons causing these …

Power Generation From Waste Heat During Oil Production, Subrahmanya Chandra Bhamidipati

Masters Theses

"The increase in the world population is causing a significant increase in the global demand for energy. This rise in demand is generally met with the use of fossil fuels. But there is considerable pressure to lessen the release of carbon through the combustion of fossil fuels. One way that the oil and gas industry can provide increased energy without carbon combustion is by extracting the latent heat energy contained in produced oil, gas and water from producing reservoirs, and from water which is cycled through depleted, end-of-life or abandoned reservoirs. Extracting this energy and using it to provide direct …

Relationships Among Mineralogy, Geochemistry, And Oil And Gas Production In The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Hayley Roxana Beitel

Masters Theses

"The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) is an unconventional shale reservoir located in southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi. Limited mineralogical and geochemical data for the TMS have been published. The data that do exist indicate that the formation is heterogeneous. Consequently, previous investigators and oil and gas companies have not managed to effectively link mineralogical and chemical changes to oil and gas production in the TMS. These linkages are critical to establish for future exploration efforts. In this study, we attempt to establish these relationships by gathering all existing mineralogical and chemical data in the TMS, including newly acquired data from …

Analysis Of Refracturing Activities In The Major Shale Plays In The United States, Faisal Shammam

Masters Theses

"Refracturing of existing horizontal multistage wells has increased over the past decade in the oil industry. This work aims to investigate all the refracturing operations in the most active shale plays in the united states (Bakken, Niobrara, Marcellus, Permian, Eagle Ford, Barnett, and Haynesville) in terms of completion technique, candidate selection, treatment types, and refracturing production efficiency. To collect the data of the refractured wells, an advanced data analytics approach was applied to separate the refractured wells from 170,000 wells reported in FracFocus, a public chemical registry for hydraulic fracturing in the United States, and combine it with DrillingInfo database, …

Atherosclerosis: Pathology, Role Of Sd-Ldl, Particle Size Characterization Of Sd-Ldl With Multiangle Light Scattering, Akshay Sudhakar Ukey

Masters Theses

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease due to the accumulation of lipids in the inner wall of arteries. As per the report of Center of Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in every 4 deaths is due to heart diseases each year. Atherosclerosis occurs when artery walls harden by the buildup of cholesterol, forming multiple atherosclerotic plaques within the aorta (4). Out of the modern medicines available to control cholesterol, statin is amongst the foremost widely used because it is both safe and effective in lowering high risk patients (9). However, usage of high statins dosage typically leads to some mild …

Oxidized Phospholipid Regulation Of Chronic Inflammation In Endothelial Cells, Cameron Scott Brutsche

Masters Theses

Atherosclerosis, the primary cause of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), has become one of the top causes of death in the world. As low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles become trapped and oxidized inside arterial walls, the primary oxidation products of 1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphatidylcholine (PAPC) induce the binding of monocytes which can potentially lead to fatty plaque build ups. A fragment of one of these oxidation products, OxPAPC, has previously been studied and can act as standard for testing new phospholipids and how they affect protein expression levels. The central hypothesis of this study was that three newly studied classes of oxidized fatty …

Development Of Amine-Functionalized Mesoporous Alumina For Radioiodine Removal From Water, Mansour Mohammed Alsalbokh

Masters Theses

“Radioactive materials have spread due to careless disposal and nuclear disasters. Some radionuclides can exist in an aqueous media, like radioactive iodine. As a result, in this work amine-functionalized mesoporous alumina was developed to adsorb radioactive iodine from the liquid phase. Bismuth was incorporated, using a wet impregnation method, to test it as a possible silver replacement. Amine grafting was used to functionalize the surface of the mesoporous alumina. All materials prepared in this work were characterized by N₂ physisorption, FTIR and TGA to determine the textural properties, surface functionality, and amine loading. The synthesized materials were tested for …

Data Analytics Of Natural Gas Injection Enhanced Oil Recovery For Unconventional Reservoirs, Ali Waqar

Masters Theses

"Unconventional Enhanced Oil recovery, via the injection of natural gas has attracted great attention, as studies and projects have shown to be promising. An overview of pertinent studies has been carried out. Core Scale Laboratory Experiments, Core Scale Simulation, Field Scale simulation and pilot projects are analyzed. Data is collected for Core, Reservoir, Operational, and recovery information. Thereafter, Data analysis techniques are applied to identify data ranges, distributions, trends, relationships, and to eventually reach conclusions.

Huff and Puff injection is the preferred mode of injection, delivering most promising results for unconventional reservoirs. Across all the studies, with increase in amount …

Evaluation Of Eor Potential Of Low Salinity Polymer In Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery On The Alaska North Slope, Shize Yin

Masters Theses

"Alaska's North Slope (ANS) contains vast amount of viscous oil resources that have not been extracted. This study focuses on the investigation over the potential shown by low-salinity polymer flooding in improving the recovery of ANS heavy oil through laboratory experiments.

At the beginning, coreflooding experiments were performed with silica sandpacks. The synergy between low-salinity water flooding and polymer flooding was proved, and the low-salinity polymer showed a better performance than the normal-salinity polymer. Further, the sandpacks prepared with formation sand from an oilfield on the ANS was then employed so as to simulate the reservoir condition. A series of …

Microgel Placement And Plugging Performance In Sand Filled Fracture For Conformance Control, Baihua Lin

Masters Theses

“Preformed particle gels (PPG) has been widely applied for conformance control in heterogeneous reservoirs with fractures and super-K channels. As a plugging agent, PPG could plug the fractures or high permeability streaks and divert the displacing fluid into low permeability matrix. Many studies have been conducted to investigate the potential of PPGs as a water cut reduction and improved oil recovery agent using homogeneous sandpacks or heterogeneous core samples with man-made open fractures. However, no research has been carried out to understand how PPG injection and plugging performance will be changed if the fractures are filled with sands. Herein, the …

Asphaltene Stability In Crude Oil During Carbon Dioxide Injection And Its Impact On Oil Recovery: A Review, Data Analysis, And Experimental Study, Sherif M. Fakher

Masters Theses

"Crude oils are usually associated with many compounds, some of which are favorable and others, which are not. One of the most unfavorable components of crude oil that pose severe operational problems and decreases oil production significantly are asphaltenes. These compounds are solids that are homogenized in the crude oil at room temperature but tend to separate from solution when agitated. They can deposit in the reservoir pores, wellbore, and transportation pipelines thus causing severe operational problems and oil recovery reduction.

Even though researchers have been studying asphaltenes for more than 100 years, there is still an ambiguity concerning asphaltene …

Diffusion Kinetics In Promising Adsorbents For Gas Capture Processes, Teresa Gelles

Masters Theses

"This reports the results of experimental studies aimed at characterizing the transport properties of promising adsorbents for various gas capture processes by the "zero length column" (ZLC) technique. ZLC was used to measure the intracrystalline diffusivities of single and binary components of ethane and ethylene in powder and pellet samples of paraffin-selective adsorbents Ni(bdc)(ted)_0.5 (Ni-BT) and ZIF-7 for the purpose of olefin/paraffin separation. Results show that binary gaseous systems result in intracrystalline diffusion time constants slightly lower than those in single component gaseous streams due to coadsorption effects. It was also found that ethylene diffusion was affected by surface …

Investigating The Use Of Class C Flyash-Based Geopolymer Cement As A Potential Alternative To Portland Cement To Seal Co₂ Storage Wells, Priyesh Parimal Jani

Masters Theses

"Capturing emitted carbon dioxide from the source of emission and storing it underground is one effective way to reduce the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere and is called carbon capture and storage (CCS). For the successful CCS project, it is necessary to ensure long term storage of injected CO₂ inside these selected reservoirs. Portland cement used to cast wells in these reservoirs degrade in CO₂ environment and can create migration path for leakage of CO₂. The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive review about the problem, to propose a new geopolymer …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling Of Proppant Static Settling Velocity In High Viscosity Friction Reducers, Chen Yuan

Masters Theses

"In the current petroleum fracturing industry, it is necessary to understand the downhole migration and settling velocity of the proppant. If we can master this information well, it will be a great help to obtain effective propped fracture conductivity. In order to study the transport of proppants in the well, we used laboratory experiments and computer numerical simulations to compare the results to get a meaningful conclusion. We spent a lot of time building models on a powerful computer and comparing the experimental conclusions. We finally decided to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as the simulation platform, discrete phase method …

Modeling Overpressure Development During Shale Rock Compaction Coupling Poroelasticity And Permeability Evolution Above 3km Depth, Wenyu Zhao

Masters Theses

"The evolution of pore pressure including overpressure during sedimentation is an important process to consider when analyzing whether high pore pressure causes rock failure. High pore pressure is caused by under-compaction due to the rapid burial of low-permeability sediments, and as a result, porosity decreases less rapidly with depth than in normally compacted sediments where porosity decreases exponentially with depth. While under-compaction related pore pressure magnitudes have been determined empirically, in most numerical modeling approaches, the pore pressure is either applied as a static magnitude or coupled to a fluid flow simulator. This study simulates the pore pressure evolution during …

Gel Composition And Brine Concentration Effect On Hydrogel Dehydration Subjected To Uniaxial Compression, Xinrui Zhao

Masters Theses

"Gel treatment is a process that injects the gel into a reservoir to control the conformance and improve the sweep efficiency of injection fluids. At a certain pressure gradient, the gel dehydrates in a reservoir due to mechanical forces. This work evaluates the effects of the gel composition and brine concentration on gel dehydration under uniaxial compression. A sodium acrylate-co-acrylamide based gel cross-linked with N, N'-Methylenebisacrylamide (MBAA) was used for the study. The compression test is performed with a rheometer with a plate-plate geometry. The gel dehydration under pressure was measured to see how gel dehydration would be impacted by …

Breaker Evaluation And Formation Damage Remediation Of Re-Crosslinkable Preformed Particle Gel (Rppg), Enze Zhou

Masters Theses

"Re-crosslinkable preformed particle gel (RPPG) is a newly developed preformed particle gel for improving sweep efficiency and oil recovery by blocking or reducing the conductivity of fractures and fracture-like channels or conduits. However, RPPG has the potential to plug the facilities or damage the formation if a treatment is not properly conducted.

This work presents the performance of selected oxidizing breakers on the degradation of RPPG. The influence of a few factors on the degradation process was investigated, including breaker type, breaker concentration, temperature, gel concentration, gel aging time, and gel size. Results indicate that breaker type, concentration, and temperature …