The presence of harmful bacteria in drinking water sources can seriously harm the population that receives the contaminated water. The current standard methods for testing drinking water for bacteria heavily rely on using central laboratories. For small rural communities that are far from these laboratories, this scheme may represent 2-7 delays until they find out about the quality of their drinking water sources. This can be catastrophic if the residents of these communities drink contaminated water while waiting for the results.

This research aims at better understanding the performance of Wireline Applied Stimulation Pulse (WASP) technique in formation damage reduction in oil and gas wells. Hydrocarbon production rate decreases as a result of plugging the sand control devices located in the wellbore region. Shock waves generated by the WASP technique help breaking the sources of formation damage into smaller pieces; As a result, small particles can be carried to the surface.

Title: Design and development of a grating-based flow-cytometer
“Flow cytometry is a technique used to detect and measure physical and chemical characteristics of a population of cells or particles. A sample containing cells or particles is suspended in a fluid and injected into the flow cytometer instrument. The sample is focused to ideally flow one cell at a time through a laser beam and the light scattered is characteristic to the cells and their components. Cells are often labeled with fluorescent markers so that light is first absorbed and then emitted in a band of wavelengths.

The project is a demonstration of Advanced Energy Technologies (AET)’s patented refining process for upgrading heavy oil products without diluent or extreme heat treatments. This produces lighter, higher value oil that is easier to work with throughout the process stream, with greater efficiency and less cost. AET will be conducting demonstration runs of the Hydrogen Activator Technology (HAT) on Albertan feedstock, partnering with local oil companies to secure heavy oils, bitumen and refinery residues.

Thermal insulation of buildings and storages reduces the energy consumption for heating. Polyurethane foams are one of the efficient material for insulation. Currently, polyurethane foam industries use raw materials derived from petroleum. This research project aim to replace some of petrochemical-based materials used in polyurethane foam with biobased materials. This can reduce the dependency on petroleum oil and create new market for biobased materials. The development of biobased polyurethane foam is a challenging exercise.

Pipelines are often subjected to longitudinal stresses due to ground movements such as moving slopes and discontinuous permafrost areas. In these cases, numerical models are used to calculate strain demand which is then compared to tensile and compressive strain capacities (TSC and CSC) which are functions of the pipeline and girth weld material properties. In terms of strain demand, we have shown that current numerical models are inappropriate as they neglect the Bourdon effect–the tendency of pressurized pipes to straighten–at the location of bends and elbows.

The research project would involve developing and executing an experimental program to optimize the application of electrokinetic dewatering technology for oil sands tailings called EKS-DT developed by ElectroKinetic Solutions (EKS). This research will involve conducting a series of high priority experiments for process optimization and innovation. Three main research categories involving electrokinetic tailings consolidation modelling, optimum electrode design and optimum power sequencing have been identified as crucial areas for improving the technology.

The Operational Excellence (OpEx) team at Spartan Controls is actively involved in several initiatives for developing advanced process control (APC) solutions to the oil sands industry. The OpEx team collaborates with Professor Biao Huang’s research group through the NSERC Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in the Control of Oil Sands Processes program for solutions that require extensive research and development.

Models quantifying the grade and tonnage of mineral deposits form the basis of important and costly decisions for planning, optimization and extraction of a natural resource. Models are initially generated from sparse exploration sampling; however, information is continuously collected until resource extraction. Predicted values that reconcile well with true values following extraction instill confidence in the production forecasts.

Breaking Barriers to Social Conscious Business in Edmonton is a research project that aims to help the business community in the Edmonton downtown core and beyond better serve their community through socially-conscious business practices by shedding light on what barriers and facilitators business owners face in adopting socially conscious business practices in their day-to-day operations.