Heavy Oil Properties & Processing Research Program

 

Faculty, Staff & Students

HOPP Supervisor
Current Group MembersCollaborationAlumniSummer Students
 

 

Current Group Members


Who

Position

Contact Information

Dr. Harvey Yarranton Professor, Principle Investigator for Heavy Oil Properties & Processing (HOPP) hyarrant@ucalgary.ca
Florian Schoeggl PVT Lab Manager fschoegg@ucalgary.ca
Kaveh Shaygan Ph.D. Candidate kaveh.shaygan@ucalgary.ca
Benjamin Zuluaga Diaz Ph.D. Candidate benjamin.zuluaga@ucalgary.ca
Jose Beleno Ph.D. Candidate jose.beleno@ucalgary.ca
Alejandra Gomez M.Sc. Student maria.gomezrodriguez@ucalgary.ca
Carolina Tamayo Duran M.Sc. Student leidy.tamayodurn@ucalgary.ca
Keyner Nunez Mendez M.Sc. Student Keyner.Nunez@ucalgary.ca
Nicolas Tellez Duran M.Sc. Student freider.tellezduran@ucalgary.ca
Camilo Lopez Lagos M.Sc. Student camilo.lopez1@ucalgary.ca


Visitors at HOPP:     (past visitors, click here)


Other Collaboration in HOPP:


Who Position Contact Information Web Page Link
Dr. Apostlos Kantzas Professor akantzas@ucalgary.ca Department web page
Dr. Giovanni Natale Assistant Professor gnatale@ucalgary.ca Department web page
Dr. William Svrcek Professor Emeritus svrcek@ucalgary.ca  
Dr. Brij Maini Professor Emeritus bmaini@ucalgary.ca  
Dr. Murray Gray Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta Murray.Gray@albertainnovates.ca Alberta Innovates
Dr. John M. Shaw Professor, Petroleum Thermodynamics jmshaw@ualberta.ca University of Alberta, Chemical & Materials Eng, Dept web page


Find out more about us and what we work on:
     

 

Florian Schoeggl

Research Associate and HOPP PVT Lab Manager

Research:  Investigations into the properties of bitumen by PVT including viscosity, density and phase behaviour of heavy oils with various solvents.  Other project are visbreaking bitumen and heavy oil.  Florian manages the PVT laboratory, is  builder for many apparatus in the PVT lab, trains graduate students and is technologist for various projects at HOPP.

Education & Experience:  Florian was involved in the design and commissioning of  pumps and compressors in industry for 12 years before joining HOPP.  He is also a pilot and has instructed at and operated flight schools in Canada. 

Hometown:  Calgary, Alberta

 

Kaveh Shaygan
  
Ph.D. Candidate

Thesis Subject:  Kaveh's project looks at gravity drainage with solvent film flow over inclined bitumen in a porous media. 

Education & Experience: M.Sc. in Drilling Engineering (2019) and B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering (2017), Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

Hometown:  Iran

 

Benjamin Zuluaga
  
Ph.D. Candidate

Thesis Subject:  Benjamin's project studies the phase behaviour of mixtures of bitumen, steam and condensable solvents. This is a PVT study to measure viscosity, density and precipitation of asphaltenes in bitumen/steam/condensable solvent mixtures. 

Education & Experience:  M.Sc. in Engineering in Materials and Processes (2018) and B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (2013), Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Facultad de Minas).

Hometown:  Colombia

 

Jose Beleno
  
Ph.D.
Candidate

Thesis Subject:  Jose's project investigates the effect of combinations of visbreaking and  deasphalting bitumen on the density, viscosity and stability of the products.  This involves design and commission of a new induction heating continuous reactor to compare to previous work from a continuous visbreaking reactor.

Education & Experience: M.Sc. in Engineering (2019), University of the Andes; B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (2016), National University of Colombia, Bogota, Colombia.  Before joining our group, Jose was an Industrial Planning Analyst at Tenaris TuboCaribe, Colombia.

Conference Presentations:

Beleno Alcazar, J.A., Schoeggl, F.F. and Yarranton, H.W., "Equivalent Resident Time (ERT) As a Potential Correlation Parameter for Bitumen Visbreaking," 2023 AIChE Spring Meeting & 19th Global Congress on Process Safety, Houston TX, USA., March 2023.

Hometown:  Colombia

 

Alejandra Gomez

M.Sc. Student - Defending June, 2023

Thesis Subject:  Alejandra's research project examines the deposition of asphaltenes during flow at high temperatures.

Education & Experience: B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Industrial de Santander (2019), Colombia. Before joining us, Alejandra interned at EcoPetrol.

Conference Presentations:

Gomez Rodriguez, M.A., Schoeggl, F.F., and Yarranton, H.W.  "Asphaltene Deposition in Vertical Open Flow," 2023 AIChE Spring Meeting & 19th Global Congress on Process Safety, Houston TX, USA., March 2023.

Hometown:  Colombia

 

Carolina Tamayo Duran   

M.Sc. Student - Defending June, 2023

Thesis Subject:  Carolina has developed a method of non-aqueous extraction of bitumen from oilsands. Her project will determine if the emulsion stabilizer content of the asphaltenes varies across a variety of oil sand ores and if it differs between traditional aqueous (BEU) and non-aqueous extraction methods.

Education:  B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Industrial de Santander, 2019.

Hometown:  Colombia

 

Keyner Nunez Mendez  

M.Sc. Student

Thesis Subject:  Keyner's project looks at gravity drainage of bitumen in porous media at temperatures above 20 C.

Education:  B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from Universidad Industrial de Santander, 2020.

Hometown:  Bucaramanga, Colombia

 

Nicolas Tellez Duran   

M.Sc. Student

Thesis Subject:  Nicolas' project looks at the density and viscosity of mixtures of bitumen, steam and condensable solvents.  This work is in parallel with the PVT project that Benjamin is working on.

Education:  B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering (2018) and B.Sc. in Civil Engineering (2021) from Universidad Industrial de Santander.

Hometown:  Bucaramanga, Colombia

 

Camilo Lopez Lagos  

M.Sc. Student

Thesis Subject:  Camilo's project looks at visbreaking bitumen feeds from different sources with a continuous induction heating batch reactor.

Education:  M.Sc. in Process Design (2020), University of the Andes; B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (2016) from National University of Colombia. Before joining us, Camilo was also a researcher in chemistry for four  years a the United Nations.

Hometown:  Bogota, Colombia

 

     


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