University of Calgary

Harvey Yarranton

Harvey YarrantonProfessor

P.Eng.

  • Room: EN D204C
  • Telephone: (403) 220-6529
  • Fax: (403) 282-3945
  • E-mail: hyarrant [at] ucalgary [dot] ca
  • Research Web Site
B.Sc. (Alberta) 1985
Ph.D. (Alberta) 1997

Awards / Accolades

Current Research Interests:

Dr. Yarranton's research interests are in the general areas of interfacial science and thermodynamics applied to bitumen and heavy oil production and processing. A common thread uniting his research is asphaltenes. Asphaltenes are a solubility fraction of crude oils that can precipitate upon a change in temperature, pressure or composition. They can foul petroleum reservoirs, wellbores and surface facilities leading to production losses and increased operating costs. Asphaltenes can also stabilize water-in-oil emulsions formed during crude oil production. These emulsions also lead to increased operating costs and can be a disposal problem. Current research projects in these areas are:

  • heavy oil properties and phase behaviour
  • asphaltene molecular self-association
  • asphaltene precipitation
  • asphaltene particle aggregation
  • role of oil constituents in stabilizing water-in-oil emulsions
  • solids-stabilized emulsions
  • treatment of water-in-heavy oil emulsions
  • bitumen extraction and froth treatment

Dr. Yarranton was a Senior Petroleum Engineer with Amoco Canada Petroleum Co. Ltd. and Dome Petroleum Ltd. (1985-1993). He remains involved in applied reservoir engineering.

Selected Recent Publications:

1. Yarranton, H.W., Sztukowski, D.M., Urrutia, P., "Effect of Interfacial Rheology on Model Emulsion Coalescence, Part I: Interfacial Rheology", J. Colloid Interface Sci, 310, 2007, 246-252.

2. Yarranton, H.W., Urrutia, P., Sztukowski, D.M., "Effect of Interfacial Rheology on Model Emulsion Coalescence, Part II: Emulsion Coalescence", J. Colloid Interface Sci, 310, 2007, 253-259.

3. Romanova, U.G., Valinisab, M., Stasiuk, E.N., Yarranton, H.W., Schramm, L.L., Shelfantook, W.E., "The Effect of Oil Sand Extraction Conditions on Froth Treatment Performance", J. Can. Petr. Tech., 45(9), (2006), 36-45.

4. Sabbagh, O., Badamchizadeh, A., Svrcek, W.Y., Yarranton, H.W., "An Equation of State Approach to Modeling Asphaltene Precipitation", Energy & Fuels, 20(2), (2006), 625-634.

5. Sztukowski, D.M., Yarranton, H.W., "Rheology of Asphaltene-Toluene/Water Interfaces", Langmuir, 21, (2005), 11651-11658.

6. Wiehe, I.A., Yarranton, H.W., Akbarzadeh, K., Rahimi, P.M., Teclemariam, A., "The Paradox of Asphaltene Precipitation with Normal Paraffins", Energy & Fuels, 19(4), (2005), 1261-1267.

7. Akbarzadeh, K., Bressler, D.C., Wang, J., Gawrys, K.L., Gray, M.R., Kilpatrick, P.K., Yarranton, H.W., "Association Behavior of Pyrene Compounds as Models for Asphaltenes", Energy & Fuels, 19(4), (2005), 1268-1271.

8. Alboudwarej, H., Pole, D., Svrcek, W.Y., Yarranton, H.W., "Adsorption of Asphaltenes on Metals", Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 44(15), (2005), 5585-5592.

9. Akbarzadeh, K., Alboudwarej, H., Svrcek, W.Y., Yarranton, H.W., "A Generalized Regular Solution Model for the Prediction of Asphaltene Precipitation from n-Alkane Diluted Heavy Oils and Bitumens", Fluid Phase Equilibria, 232, (2005), 159-170.

10. Sztukowski, D.M., Yarranton, H.W., "Oilfield Solids and Water-in-Oil Emulsion Stability", J. Colloid Interface Sci., 285 (2005), 821-833.

 

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