Shale reservoirs have become a very important source of hydrocarbons, especially in North America. Shales are rocks with very low permeability and therefore, produce the hydrocarbons stored in them is difficult. In order to do it, oil companies have to inject high pressurized fluids to break the rock. But, by using this unique strategy, most hydrocarbons are being left in the subsurface. This work aims to use mathematical and numerical models to investigate different methods that can lead to recover a bigger portion of the hydrocarbons stored in shale reservoirs.

OERA use hydroacoustic echosounder surveys to evaluate the impact on marine life of tidal turbines in the Bay of Fundy. OERA use Echoview software to read in the raw sensor data (e.g. voltages) and convert it to a visual representation. Echoview contains some algorithms to detect the bottom of the ocean. However, the Fundy data is very noisy from several sources including air bubbles, “entrained air” pushed below the surface of the water, and irregular surfaces on the bottom of the ocean. In order to analyze the survey data, manual pre-processing is currently required to annotate the data.

Crushing and grinding rock is the largest consumer of energy at a mining operation. Ball Mill grinding is the main technology that is used for fine grinding, yet it is known to be very inefficient with respect to energy consumptions; estimates are that less than 2% of energy input to ball mills translate into particle breakage. The High-Pressure Grinding Roll (HPGR) is known to be much more energy efficient for breaking coarse particles and the present proposal is aimed at demonstrating that the HPGR is more energy efficient than ball mill grinding of fine particles.

The drilling success rate is the most important goal for any oil/gas company. For a start-up company, any failure in drilling will be a disaster. To this end, the Petro-Lin Energy Corp. wishes that through the combination of mature hydrocarbon prediction techniques and new research results such as machine learning, the success rate of hydrocarbon prediction, the theoretical basis for well placement can be provided in Roncott oil-field, which will improve the success rate in drilling.

Bio-heap-leaching is a hydrometallurgical process used to process low grade chalcopyrite ore as the cost of alternative routes of processing and refining are not economically viable. However, a viable solution has been found: to add a catalyst that dramatically enhances the kinetics of leaching while not being too expensive, environmentally detrimental or affecting downstream processes. Jetti resources is using this technology to enhance the heap-leaching rate of chalcopyrite.
This new catalyzed leaching technology can also be applied in tanks and other reactor configurations.

The overall goal of the proposed program is the co-development of education programs and academic research with opportunities to apply this understanding in context of SEF/industry activities. The outcomes will benefit SEF’s business activities in Mongolia and other developing countries with significant mineral resource potential. The program will also support investment and business opportunities for Canadian companies that are working in Mongolia.

Shale reservoirs store gigantic volumes of petroleum (oil and gas). However, because of the complex nature of the reservoir rock, it is difficult to recover the oil and/or gas stored in shales. Under normal conditions, it is possible to extract only as much as 10% of the resources in place, thus leaving behind a huge potential that promises to satisfy the energy needs of Canada for several decades.

Foamy oil behavior is a unique phenomenon associated with cold production of heavy crude oils. It is believed that the foaming mechanism has a significant impact on the abnormally high production rate of viscous crude oils observed in many heavy oil producing reservoirs through solution gas drive.
Due to the non-equilibrium nature of the foamy oil flow, the mathematical modeling of this process involves few challenges. The main non-equilibrium process exist between solution gas and free gas that leads to a significant supersaturation of dissolved gas in the oil phase.

Offshore petroleum exploration requires a multitude of techniques to identify a petroleum system in an offshore area. Novel microbiology technologies which focus on the distribution of marine microbes (microbial biogeography) have been proposed as complementary tools to conventional techniques for oil and gas exploration. Hydrocarbon seepage from subsurface petroleum reservoirs is hypothesized to explain the transport of thermophilic bacterial endospores, i.e. “thermospores”, to cold seabed sediments.

The aim of this proposed research is the development of an efficient technology to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) via Dry Reforming of Methane (DRM) to produce value-added products. DRM, one the promising CO2 utilization technologies, has gained much attention as not only it reduces greenhouse gases (GHG), but also converts them to a valuable product, syngas. There are two main knowledge gaps associated with DRM process, which hinders the industrial application: 1. Catalyst deactivation, and 2. The high energy requirement for the CO2 conversion reaction.