NSERC-IRC in Unconventional Oil Recovery

 

Dr. Babadagli held an NSERC-Industrial Research Chair in Unconventional Oil (July 2011-2016) and is currently a Senior Chairholder in the second term of the IRC (November 2016-2021)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We would love to hear from you!  If you would like to inquire about joining the IRC consortium or would like additional information, please contact us at any time.

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Description of the Program

Energy and natural resources engineering falls into one of NSERC’s strategic areas based on the federal government’s future development plans. Alberta holds the second largest hydrocarbon reserves in heavy-oil and bitumen, and development is a major part of the country’s agenda. In fact, 85% of these resources are below the minable depth and they require in-situ recovery techniques. The province is considered one of the top oil centers in the world and new developments in the area of unconventional recovery will be felt globally. The strong interest and support from the industry for establishing this IRC program indicates heavy-oil and bitumen recovery is a high priority for these companies. Direct and immediate transfer of new knowledge and technologies will be provided to the industry. 

This research program conducts applied and fundamental research to develop and test new technologies for in-situ recovery of heavy-oil and bitumen, and transfer these technologies to the Canadian oil industry providing them with immediate solutions for their operating needs. The main component of the IRC research program is two-fold:

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1. Improvement of existing technologies through experimental and computational modeling and visualization. Fundamental and applied research will be conducted by the IRC chair program to understand the underlying mechanisms and the physics of the heavy-oil and bitumen recovery processes – namely thermal and solvent injection techniques. This will lead to identifying the reasons for low recovery and inefficiency of these applications. This includes advanced techniques like micro (pore) to giga (field) scale experimental and numerical modeling studies. The IRC research program will effectively identify the main reasons behind the inefficiency of these processes. 
    

2. Test new materials, tools and techniques to improve the efficiency of the thermal and solvent processes. The research will be focused on fluids/materials that respond electrostrictively, magnetostrictively and react to changes in temperature or pressure. Under the research program, new techniques also include non-classical modeling approaches such as random walk, particle tracking, and other types of pore or larger scale stochastic techniques.

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Vision

The vision of the IRC research chair program is to be the leading research group working on the applicability of advanced technologies for the efficient depletion of unconventional oil reserves through experimental (nano-scale and visual micro-fluidics approaches to core scale) research; and computational (micro/pore-scale to field-scale) research, which would introduce efficient and environmentally friendly alternatives, and next-generation recovery techniques for application in Canada and throughout the world. 

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