Research at the Schulich School of Engineering

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL AND PETROLEUM ENGINEERING

The research programs in the department of chemical and petroleum engineering are known internationally for advances in key areas of science and technology. Over 30 faculty members and 300 graduate students work on research teams dedicated to finding solutions and advancing knowledge in four areas: chemical process and materials biomedical energy environment

The principles of economic, safe and environmentally sound processes prevail in all of the research undertaken in the department.

Research is supported by laboratories equipped with sophisticated apparatus that enables researchers to understand the fundamental underlying principles necessary for the development of practical applications.

Research Chairs
Dr. Leo Behie Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering Dr. Alex De Visscher Canada Research Chair in Air Quality and Pollution Control Engineering Dr. Apostolos Kantzas Canada Research Chair in Energy and Imaging Dr. Zhangxing (John) Chen NSERC/Alberta Energy Research Institute/Foundation Computer Modelling Group Chair in Reservoir Modelling Dr. Geir Hareland NSERC/Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors Chair in Drilling Engineering Dr. R. Gordon Moore University Professorship in Air Injection Based Oil Recovery Dr. Antonin (Tony) Settari EnCana Petroleum/Petroleum Society Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering Dr. Ludo Zanzotto NSERC/John Lau/Husky Energy Industrial Chair in Bituminous Materials Dr. Roberto Aguilera ConocoPhillips/NSERC/Alberta Energy Research Institute Chair in Tight Gas Engineering Dr. Josephine Hill Canada Research Chair in Hydrogen and Catalysis Dr. Jerry Jensen Schulich Chair in Geostatistics Dr. David Keith Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment

Research Centres
Alberta Ingenuity Centre for In Situ Energy (AICISE)
Co-Directors: Dr Pedro Pereira-Almao and Dr. Steve Larter Development of an underground refinery to recover and upgrade the oil sands is the objective of this centre. There should be virtually no greenhouse gas emissions, limited consumption of natural gas and negligible water and diluent requirements. The research focuses on the development and ultra dispersion of nanoparticle-sized catalysts within the reservoir. The key will be providing the optimum temperature for the catalysts to generate hydrogen from steam or some of the bitumen. This will require the development of innovative monitoring of the underground conditions through fluid chemistry, seismic and geochemistry techniques. The Ingenuity Centre is part of the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy.

Centre for Environmental Engineering Research and Education (CEERE)

Director: Dr. Anil Mehrotra Environmental Engineering is a multidisciplinary field of research that spans chemical, civil, mechanical and petroleum engineering disciplines and involves collaborative research efforts and co-supervision of graduate students. Dispersion of pollutants and remediation, including the expanding field of bioremediation, are focus areas for these researchers.

Pharmaceutical Production Research Facility (PPRF)

Director: Dr. Leo Behie The Pharmaceutical Production Research Facility (PPRF) is a state-of-the-art level II tissue culture laboratory with an attached pilot plant. Researchers have an extensive and impressive amount of experience in a multitude of bioengineering areas, including the development of human viral vaccines, protein expression, pharmaceutical scale-up, modeling cell behaviour and the development of bioreactor related technologies. More recently the focus has shifted to stem-cell bioengineering.

Tomographic Imaging and Porous Media (TIPM) Laboratory

Director: Dr. Apostolos Kantzas TIPM Laboratory is a University of Calgary affiliate that conducts research in the areas of flow through porous media, chemical reactor engineering, environmental engineering and bioengineering. This facility is one of the largest tomographic analysis laboratories in North America. Research highlights include enhanced oil and gas recovery, magnetic resonance sensor development for the oil and gas industry and the environmental industry, and research on multiphase flow phenomena in chemical reactors. The institute has patented technology on magnetic resonance multi-phase metering and wastewater treatment using a photocatalytic reactor.

Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy

Executive Director: Dr. David Layzell The institute was established in 2003 to provide leadership and coordination for developing and implementing energyand environment-related initiatives at the university. It aims to be a global leader in generating multi-disciplinary insights and technologies to inform policy and investment decisions that will lead to more sustainable energy systems.

Research Groups
Asphaltene and Emulsion Research Catalysis For Bitumen Upgrading and Hydrogen Production Research Group Fundamental Research in Reservoir Modeling Gas Hydrates Improved Heavy Oil Science and Technology Laboratory for Environmental Catalytic Applications Petroleum Reservoir Integrated Modelling and Engineering Group Pharmaceutical Production Research Group Porous Media and Process Tomography Research Group In Situ Combustion Research Group

Chemical Processes and Materials

Development of new chemical plants or processes from evaluating a potential concept to creating a profitable reality is often an enormously complex task. It requires understanding chemical processes on a microscopic or macroscopic scale with time frames that span from milliseconds to thousands of years. Research in chemical engineering at the Schulich School of Engineering is based on the fundamental chemical, mathematical and physical principles of mass, momentum and heat transfer. Researchers undertake mathematical model development, numerical simulation, process control, advanced materials, catalysis and thermodynamics research to apply to developments in the petroleum industry. However, the departments research also has wide ranging applicability in other chemical process industries.

Computational Fluid Dynamics

The focus in this area of research is on the flow dynamics of complex fluids in pipes and at the interfaces of porous media.
Researchers are developing greater understanding of the coupling of molecules under stress order to create accurate mathematical models and numerical simulations of flow dynamics. This analysis is important to improve and optimize processes used in the manufacturing of composite materials as well as in the emerging field of nanocomposites. Other research projects focus on support of the energy and manufacturing sectors. Research on drag reduction in pipe flow using polymer and fibre additives or through the modification of microstructures on flow surfaces has immediate application in the oil industry. Both experimental and numerical studies of interfacial instabilities in porous media are conducted to analyze this type of instability known as viscous fingering, which is often encountered in oil recovery and polymer processing. The dynamics of jets are also being studied because of the commercial applications for mixing and dispersal of one fluid phase in another.

Process Control and Simulation

Increased computing power at reasonable cost has placed the goal of plant-wide intelligent control within the reach of the design and operation engineers.
Researchers are developing and refining robust models new control algorithms, simulation models and instrumentation capable of simulating both steady state and dynamic plant operations. These models allow the engineer to evaluate new operational parameters that go beyond the original design criteria and to optimize resource consumption.

Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is the starting point for all chemical processes.
Researchers in the department have developed and refined an equation (called the Trebble-Bishnoi Equation of State) that is widely used in industrial simulators around the world. The equation is capable of accurately predicting thermophysical properties for components as diverse as helium and table salt. Other research in this area include experimental work on phase behaviour that will enhance oil recovery methods. Specifically designed high-pressure equipment has been designed and constructed in house for this purpose.

Process Kinetics
Measuring the kinetics of a chemical reaction is understood to the millisecond. This enables researchers to develop new catalysts, understand the behavior of complex mixtures such as oil sands slurries and understand how solids are formed and deposited in machinery, pipelines and oil reservoirs.
Solutions are also sought to carry out reactions involving water-soluble and oil-soluble compounds. These reactions suffer from the incompatibility problem arising from the fact that the two reactants will not dissolve in the same kind of solvent. So, to carry out these reactions, expensive non-conventional solvents have been used. Researchers are finding less expensive replacements for these solvents using microemulsions as microreactors.

Advanced Materials
Researchers in this area improve their understanding of materials with widespread applications and develop new or more optimal materials in five categories: catalysts, asphaltenes, bituminous materials, nanoparticles, and polymers.

Catalysts Changing the reaction rate and/or the conditions under which the reaction will occur can make a new process economically viable. New catalysts on the nanoscale are being prepared and characterized within this research group for use in: fuel cells, in-situ and field oil sands upgrading, and removal of volatile and soluble organic materials and bacteria from air and water. Asphaltenes Asphaltenes are the heaviest and most polar components in crude oils. They are able to self-associate into molecular aggregates, which makes them particularly prone to precipitate from crude oils upon a change in temperature, pressure or composition. They can form deposits that interfere with the smooth operation of oil recovery. Research in this group focuses on understanding the fundamentals of this behaviour and how to treat it to emulsion stability. Bituminous Materials Canada, as a large, relatively sparsely populated country, has an extensive network of roads that require environmentally friendly paving technologies. Research in bituminous materials includes: Characterization of crude oils for their potential to produce asphalts. Development of lines of new asphalt products for paving, roofing and other purposes. Development of new asphalt production technologies. Utilization of post-consumer wastes in producing improved asphalt materials. Characterization of bituminous materials Design and advanced testing of paving mixes.

Nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the ability to form materials and build machines atom by atom. Nanomachines can be programmed to manufacture other nanoscale materials and machines. This eliminates most of the raw material waste and pollution associated with bulk technology methods. Researchers at Schulich School of Engineering have developed a patentable process for the production of photosensitive and catalyst nanoparticles. The performance of these particles is reported to be much better than bulk materials. In addition, researchers are currently investigating selective separation of carbon nanotubes. Polymer & Rheology Two types of mouldings made with polymers are optimized by research in the department called rheology, which is the study of the deformation and flow of matter under the influence of an applied stress. One type of moulding is used to produce hollow plastic parts either of large dimensions, or for particular applications: another is a method of rapid prototyping that is gaining widespread use in manufacturing for low-cost models, prototypes and one-of-a-kind parts. Researchers in the department develop models to diversify the type of suitable materials and applications of end products, reduce the moulding cycle time, and optimize the properties of end products.

Biomedical
At the Schulich School of Engineering, researchers in all engineering disciplines collaborate with those in medicine, science and kinesiology in the multidisciplinary field where engineering principles are combined with biology, chemistry and physics to solve complex medical problems. Two primary research groups work in specilaized areas. The Pharmaceutical Production Research Facility (PPRF) is the primary bioengineering facility within the department. Researchers are exploring the potential of stem cells while building on their expertise in pharmaceutical scale-up, modeling cell behaviour, and the development of bioreactor-related technologies. The Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Research Laboratory combines engineering principles with cell biology, molecular biology, and biochemistry concepts to investigate the effect of forces on human cell physiology for elucidation of disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets.

Stem Cells
The capacity of stem cells to divide and replace specialized cell types makes them very desirable for the treatment of chronic conditions, such as Parkinsons disease and diabetes, which are caused by the death of specialized cells in specific tissues and are currently deemed to be incurable. In order for stem cell transplantation to offer cures it is necessary to find methods to grow large quantities of stem cells in a reproducible, clinically acceptable manner.
Researchers at the Schulich School of Engineering are recognized leaders in developing scale-up protocols for the production of neural stem cells to be used in the treatment of neural disorders. They are finding ways to grow mammary epithelial stem cells as part of a program to discover therapeutic targets for breast cancer; and are developing new approaches for the production of pancreatic cells aimed at treating diabetes. These researchers are also growing other tissue-specific stem cells to be used in tissue engineering applications such as, the generation of artificial livers, cartilage and heart muscle.

Neural Stem Cells The use of fetal cells is mired in ethical controversy and there is an inadequate supply. Neural stem cells generated in bioreactors offer a more ethically acceptable alternative. Researchers at the Schulich School have developed methods to generate these cells in large computer-controlled bioreactors, for the development of effective treatment options for Parkinsons disease. Mesenchymal Stem Cells Mesenchymal stem cells are believed to respond to injury by dividing and creating bone, cartilage, muscle, tendon, ligament and other connective tissues. Researchers are developing and optimizing culture methods to expand these cell populations derived from bone marrow. Through the generation of new media and suspension culture bioreactor protocols, the current goal of this project is to generate enough cells for preclinical trials aimed at treating multiple sclerosis.

Pancreatic Stem Cells Two approaches to address the cause of type I diabetes are being researched. The first is to expand populations of endocrine cells derived directly from cadaveric pancreases. The other involves expanding a recently discovered cell subpopulation within the pancreas, which exhibits stem cell properties and has been shown to give rise to endocrine cells in culture. It is anticipated that the scale-up research being conducted here will contribute to a diabetes cure. Hepatic Oval Cells Hepatic oval cells are a small subpopulation of cells found in the liver that exhibit stem cell properties and are believed to play a major role in liver regeneration. Development of methods for expanding these cell populations will lead to clinical therapies for liver disorders.

Embryonic Stem Cells Embryonic stem cells, when cultured outside the body, retain the capacity to generate fully functional cells from any tissue. However, clinical implementation is hampered by the poorly defined, small-scale culture methods currently used generate large numbers of embryonic cells and their derivatives. The objective is to expand and differentiate embryonic stem cells in a controlled bioprocess with the aim of generating functional bone and cartilage cells. Mammary Epithelial Stem Cells Mammary epithelial stem cells are adult stem cells capable of recapitulating the mammary gland throughout a females reproductive lifespan. Researchers are finding ways to isolate and scale-up the production of both normal mammary epithelial stem cells and their cancerous counterparts so that they can be further studied in an effort to find therapeutic targets for breast cancer.

Vascular Bioengineering
To improve understanding of cardiovascular disease and factors complicating treatment, researchers investigate the effect of blood flow and the biochemical environment upon endothelial cells, which line the arteries. Vascular bioengineering research incorporates design and implementation of cultivation systems to expose cells to physiological flow, surface evaluation by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry and molecular analysis.
Vascular Cell Experimental Models In vitro experimental models of the human vasculature are being developed to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in the protection or contribution to cardiovascular disease imparted by blood flow and pressure. The experiments isolate the target tissue/vessel from the physiological effects of other organs and tissues allowing each variable to be altered separately, including proteins that regulate gene expression. These models may serve as good systems to determine efficacy and side effects for pharmaceutical or gene therapies. Vascular Inflammation Cardiovascular disease has been shown to be an inflammation-dependent disorder. Examining the action of biochemicals under inflammatory conditions under both healthy flow (disease protective), disturbed flow (disease prone), and static conditions may elucidate protective functions.

Leuko-depletion
Leukocytes or white blood cells, when present in whole blood and blood products, are responsible for a variety of adverse side effects associated with transfusion.
The Canadian Blood Services removes leukocytes from blood products prior to transfusion in a filtration process called leuko-depletion. During processing, a significant amount of the blood products are sometimes discarded for a variety of reasons; one of these is the failure to meet quality assurance. Therefore, finding ways to decrease losses associated with filtration is important. Research in the Schulich School of Engineering focuses on explaining and improving the leuko-depletion process and the filtration device that is used, in order to reduce losses.

Energy
The search for new and alternative energy sources is a major research focus of academia and industry as the global energy demand is expected to rise 54 per cent over the next two decades. Alberta has the second-largest remaining oil reserves in the world. Researchers in the department are actively involved in conceptualization and design of new and/or improved recovery methods for conventional and heavy oil and increasingly in-situ upgrading of oil sands. Only 10 percent of Albertas oil sands is recoverable with current technology. Canada has a goal to simultaneously expand production from the oil sands while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Alberta also has extensive coal reserves offering a source of energy, as well as the potential for coal bed methane. Promising research on coal bed methane is being undertaken to determine the optimum environmentally friendly approach to recover these reserves. Hydrogen is seen as offering a viable alternative to petroleum. Research on catalysts for hydrogen production as well as fuel cell research is underway. In the department, efforts are focusing on new technologies to access and use these natural resources in an environmentally responsible manner. These efforts include advanced oil recovery, reservoir characterization and simulation, unconventional gas, and catalyst development.

Advanced Oil Recovery

Air Injection/Combustion High Pressure Air Injection is an improved oil recovery process where compressed air is injected into a high-gravity, high-pressure oil reservoir. Oxygen reacts with a small fraction of the oil to produce carbon dioxide. The resulting flue gas creates an immiscible, semi-miscible or miscible sweep. The research combustion tube is a one-dimensional model of this process. The tube is packed with actual reservoir samples and operated at reservoir pressure to optimize the process. In-situ Upgrading of Bitumen and Heavy Oil If heavy oil and bitumen could be upgraded in-situ, then the need to transport and dispose of large quantities of unwanted by-products, such as sand, heavy metals, carbon dioxide, sulphur and coke, would be considerably reduced or eliminated. Research is targeting the development of a process that minimizes and controls carbon rejection and uses the rejected carbon from the upgrading process to catalytically generate the essential hydrogen. Foamy Oil Improved understanding of the depletion of foamy oil reservoirs is expected to arise from experimental work to determine the dependency between oil and gas relative permeability and capillary number. This will enable researchers to refine the mathematical model, which will be validated through history matching several solution gas drive experiments. Gravity Drainage Processes Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) has revolutionized recovery of oil sands and heavy oil. However, for every barrel of produced oil, three barrels of water are required. Research is focused on techniques for lowering water requirements by using steam additives such as carbon dioxide, flue gas generated from steam production or other solvents (for example, butane). In Vapour Extraction (VAPEX), the solvent analogue of SAGD, vaporized solvents (for example, propane) are injected into the upper-horizontal well. The solvent dissolves into the viscous oil making it mobile enough to drain downward to the production well. New correlations are being developed to scale from the lab to field because of the high uncertainty associated with scaling dispersion coefficients. New front tracking algorithms are being developed because the large grid sizes of the current simulation models have difficulty capturing rapid changes in properties with position near the gas-liquid interface. A consortium of researchers is also providing basic data and mechanistic understanding for the qualitative assessment of any solvent-assisted bitumen recovery process. Hybrid Combustion Processes Researchers are actively pursuing recovery methods that combine in-situ combustion with gravity drainage processes or cold production. Air injection after cold production is believed to benefit from lower oil saturations thus reducing the tendency for liquid blockage during ignition and the early life of the process. The wormholes created during cold production permit large volumes of air injection yielding high temperature combustion reactions.

Reservoir Characterization and Simulation

Predicting reservoir performance is increasingly complex as the petroleum industry resorts to development of lower quality fields. A high performance parallel computing facility is the cornerstone of the research and is being used to develop specific techniques using a Windows cluster environment.

Fractured reservoirs Research is being done to determine if, when pressure is increased, gas-oil capillary pressure may be reduced by a larger factor than the interfacial tension. Reduced capillary pressure leads to improved recovery by gas-oil gravity drainage. Research to develop a new methodology of integrated analysis of hydraulic fracturing is being conducted. Applications include: the stimulation of low permeability gas resources, waterflooding at fracture pressure; and re-injection of drilling cuttings. Reservoir simulation Coupled reservoir mechanisms are important in large offshore reservoirs and thermal recovery methods. Current research includes: development of dual porosity geomechanical models, application of geomechanics to pressure transient analysis and development of more efficient coupling strategies. Formation damage in injection wells is being studied to better understand plugging mechanisms and develop new modeling techniques to design ultra high-capacity disposal wells. The technology is also applicable for environmentally friendly deep disposal of produced sand and drilling cuttings.

Geomechanics Collaborative research with the department of geology and geophysics is leading to the introduction of the geomechanical concepts in seismic interpretation. Tomographic Imaging Using CT Scanners and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometers developed for medical applications, researchers are seeking innovative ways to improve the recovery from oil reservoirs, such as visualizing the flow of oil, water and gas in reservoir rocks with applications in enhanced oil and gas recovery, and Enhanced Coal Bed Methane. Magnetic resonance spectrometers are designed for wellhead measurements in oil fields. Microtomography can discriminate features of objects with resolution from 5m and has been applied to evaluate the internal microstructure of foamed gels used in enhanced oil recovery, and pore structure of porous media ranging from reservoir rocks to bones.

Unconventional Gas
Coal Bed Methane Coal permeability and gas storage capacity for different gases are two of the most crucial parameters in development of coal bed methane. Different gases adsorb on coal to different degrees. Swelling and shrinkage caused by adsorption and desorption of different gases or by displacement of one gas by another are expected to affect coal permeability. The possibility of using waste gases (carbon dioxide, flue gas) and simultaneously disposing of them is being evaluated and coal reservoir characterization techniques tested. Underground Coal Gasification This other clean coal technology brings product gas to the surface by injecting oxidants into coal seams. In the early research and development stages, several key scientific and technical areas are being explored to develop modeling of the combustion and gasification, explore optimal processes and operation monitoring, assess environmental risk and look at the feasibility of storage of captured CO2.

Hydrates It is estimated that the amount of natural gas trapped in hydrates around the world is approximately two orders of magnitude larger than the recoverable gas in conventional reservoirs. Hydrates are found all over the world and countries that are not known for natural gas would be able to meet some of their energy needs if an economic methodology is developed for extracting this resource. Through fundamental research on the kinetics of hydrate formation and deformation, researchers are developing mathematic models that can be used for the prediction of hydrate behaviour. The research is expanding into practical applications of this knowledge. Tight Gas Tight gas is defined as reservoirs with challenges relating to performance predication and productivity. Researchers are developing enhanced reservoir simulation models and hydraulic fracture methods that will reduce the costs of producing tight gas, which is currently four to five times that of conventional gas.

Clean Fuels
Fuel cells Fuel cells convert fuel and oxygen into electricity. If hydrogen is used as a fuel, then the only by-product would be water. The main difficulty in directly reacting hydrocarbons is the propensity for coke formation. Research is being conducted on the design of electrocatalysts for solid oxide fuel cells to minimize or eliminate coke deposition when the hydrocarbons are converted to hydrogen.

Hydrogen production Hydrogen demand is expected to increase because it is a much-needed commodity for upgrading of heavy oil and bitumen. Also, it might be the preferred energy source for fuel cells if this technology becomes economically competitive. The environmental sustainability of using upgraded oil sand by-products is of increasing interest to researchers. Research is being conducted on specifically designed, nanosized adsorbents and catalysts that will be introduced into the reservoir porous media. Research is also under way to develop a process for hydrogen production from agricultural residues.

Environment

Energy and the environment are integrally connected as many of the energy challenges that face the global community have their origins in the conventional energy industry. The environmental researchers in the department collaborate extensively with researchers in other engineering disciplines to conceptualize and design new methodologies or to optimize existing processes for reducing or remediating contaminated soil, water and air. The implications of global warming have researchers investigating greenhouse gas mitigation. This includes methods to capture and store carbon dioxide and the associated risks. The research encompasses technical, economic and regulatory aspects of carbon dioxide management. The philosophy of recycle, reduce and reuse is incorporated into the research. There is a continuing focus that the processes that chemical engineers develop to convert raw materials to valuable products must leave a minimal environmental footprint.

Air pollution control

Researchers are using photocatalysis to investigate the kinetics of the degradation of pollutants and of the generation and subsequent destruction of reaction products, a more refined feasibility analysis and scale-up are conducted.
Solutions are also sought to carry out reactions Research using non-thermal plasma involves the generation of high-energy species in a gas phase, which oxidize a wide range of air pollutants. Experimental studies on the characteristic stream will be conducted with a range of operating conditions to determine the optimum residence time and operating voltage and also to investigate chemical interaction between different molecules. The dispersion of chemical and biological agents (contaminants) in urban areas is a security concern. High performance computing is an effective tool to predict the level of contaminant concentrations.

Biodegradation and Remediation

Clean up of contaminated soil/land is an industrial environmental concern, particularly for the petroleum industry.
This research initiative targets the development of efficient physico-chemical methods for the treatment of soils. The fundamentals of methane oxidation by biofiltration are investigated as this technique reduces the greenhouse gas effects. Other areas of investigation include: Life cycle analysis of energy generation systems transport and final destination of primary and secondary pollutants in the atmosphere impact of hydrocarbon contaminants on groundwater in fractured sandstone and mudstone bedrock.

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation

The research explores advanced fossil and non-fossil energy systems, linking fundamental research with economics and policy analysis, risk assessment and social science aimed at understanding how individual values shape energy and environmental choices.

Integrated Assessment Linking together processes for capturing the carbon content of fossil fuels while generating carbon-free energy products, such as electricity and hydrogen, and sequestering the resulting CO2, could lower CO2 emissions. Many of the technologies are well known. The research focuses on: risk assessment, modeling and mitigation; regulatory design; economics; public perception; and technical and economic analysis of biomass fuels. CO2 Sequestration Research is being conducted on how injected CO2 improves oil recovery, especially in naturally fractured reservoirs. In addition, research is being conducted to enhance the understanding and improve modeling of different mechanisms of CO2 trapping in oil reservoirs and aquifers. Systematic analysis is being undertaken by researchers to provide a quantitative assessment of the probability of leakage. This research applies advanced statistical reservoir modeling techniques and is being integrated with research on understanding how risks can be mitigated and economically managed.

Water Resource Management

Research within the department is concentrated in remediation methods with particular interest in the removal of hydrocarbons from water.

Reuse of Produced Water The petroleum industry continuously seeks beneficial ways to reduce, reuse or recycle produced water. The net water consumption for SAGD can be reduced if the produced water is recycled through the boilers and steamers. The research is investigating scaling and heat transfer of produced water on a variety of alloys used in the construction of boilers and steamers. Research on reuse is aimed at reducing salinity and removal of heavy metals and organic compounds. Reactor The production of oil and gas, on occasion, has also been the source of hydrocarbon contaminated water and air streams. In a multidisciplinary program with the Department of Chemistry, a photo-catalytic reactor has been developed that can purify dilute water streams that are contaminated with organic pollutants. The same technique is applied for disinfecting water that contains E.coli.

Faculty
Chemical Processes and Materials Jalel Azaiez Celine Bellehumeur Matthew Clarke Michael Foley Josephine Hill Maen Husein Ayo Jeje Ryan Krenz Marco Satyro William Svrcek Harvey Yarranton Ludo Zanzotto Environment Jalal Abedi Alex De Visscher Thomas Harding Maen Husein Apostolos Kantzas David Keith Anil Mehrotra Biomedical Leo Behie Ayo Jeje Michael Kallos Kristina Rinker Arin Sen Energy Jalal Abedi Roberto Aguilera Raj Bishnoi John Chen Mingzhe Dong Ian Gates Thomas Harding Geir Hareland Josephine Hill Jerry Jensen Apostolos Kantzas Brij Maini Raj Mehta Gordon Moore Pedro Pereira-Almao Mehran Pooladi-Darvish Anthony Settari

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Schulich School of Engineering University of Calgary EN B202, 2500 University Dr. NW Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4 Tel: (403) 220-5751 Fax: (403) 284-4852 Email: chemeng@ucalgary.ca www.ucalgary.ca/chemicalengineering

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Schulich School of Engineering University of Calgary EN B202, 2500 University Dr. NW Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4 Tel: (403) 220-5751 Fax: (403) 284-4852 Email: chemeng@ucalgary.ca www.ucalgary.ca/chemicalengineering/