News

• Rob and John attended the GPA Europe Conference in Paris, France. John presented a talk titled "Degradation of Desiccants Beyond Hydrothermal Stability" (November 14-16, 2022).
• Rob co-presented at a roundtable session titled "Corrosion considerations for the sulphur plant operator: A practical approach toward mitigating corrosion risks across various operating scenarios" at the CRU Sulphur conference held at The Hague, Netherlands (October 24-26, 2022).
• Safeer and John attended the Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CCEC) in Vancouver, BC, where Safeer presented "Solubility and density of industrially relevant supercritical CO₂ mixtures in near critical conditions" and John gave a presentation on "Degradation of adsorbents in thermal swing processes" (October 23-26, 2022).
• Rob delivered a talk in the Association of the Chemical Profession of Alberta Seminar Series, titled "Sulfur in Alberta: A historical look at production and processing innovation" (September 27, 2022).
• Rob attended the Brimstone Sulfur Symposium in Vail, Colorado and delivered a talk titled "How easily do modern sulfur products meet 1970’s specifications and what other handling practices might be useful in avoiding extraneous dust?" (September 12-16, 2022).
• Ruohong travelled to the SolGel 2022 conference in Lyon, France and presented the talk "Sol‒gel synthesis of TiO₂ with a large pore size and high surface area" (July 24-29, 2022).
• Rohen attended the 29th International Symposium on the Organic Chemistry of Sulfur in Guelph, Ontario, and gave the presentation "Sulfur Recovery and CS₂ Destruction in a Proof-of-Concept Liquid Phase Process on Commercial Alumina and Titania" (July 17-22, 2022).
• Rob presented a talk titled "MMA versus MEA based triazine scavengers: where do the products go?" at the ASRL June 2022 Chalk Talks (June 30, 2022).
• Francis and Melerin co-presented "Investigating trace sulfur sampling techniques for surface gas applications" at the ASRL June 2022 Chalk Talks (June 30, 2022).
• The Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (CCCE 2022) was held in Calgary and our students delivered presentations. Safeer presented "Solubility in supercritical CO₂ in near critical conditions for commercial processing", Shihab gave a talk on "Determination of dissociation enthalpies at high-pressures and structural transition for propane-carbon dioxide hydrate compounds at different compositions" and John presented "Degradation of desiccants in temperature swing adsorption processes". (June 14-17, 2022).
• Rob attended the Middle East Sulfur Conference (MESCon) in Abu Dhabi and presented a talk titled "What do sulfur specifications have to do with dust?" (May 24, 2022).
• At MESCon, Rob also co-presented in the roundtable discussion "Sulphur as a strategic commodity and ADNOC as a Centre of Excellence." (May 24-27, 2022).
• Rob presented a talk titled "Hydrogen from sour gas: are there any new opportunites?" at the ASRL Jaunary 2022 Chalk Talks (January 27, 2022).
• John presented a talk titled "Degradation of desiccants in temperature swing adsorption processes: the deactivation of zeolites 4A, 13X and silica gels" at the ASRL Jaunary 2022 Chalk Talks (January 27, 2022).
• Connor presented a talk titled "The flash point for elemental sulfur and why some previous measurements may have been low" at the ASRL Jaunary 2022 Chalk Talks (January 27, 2022).
• John presented a talk titled "Degradation of desiccants in temperature swing adsorption processes: the deactivation of zeolites 4A, 13X and silica gels" at the ASRL Jaunary 2022 Chalk Talks (January 27, 2022).

• Congratulations to Rohen Prinsloo, who successfully defended his PhD thesis titled: "Exploring Sulfur Recovery in a Eutectic Mixture of Biphenyl and Diphenyl Ether." (December 21, 2021)
• Congratulations to Safeer Nanji, who passed his candidacy exam. (December 9, 2021)
• Rob was invited to present a talk in Saudi Aramco's Technical Webinar Series titled "Sour gas or acid gas as future sources of hydrogen." (November 10, 2021)
• Rob presented a talk titled "CS₂ destruction at 150°C on commercial alumina or titania in a proof-of-concept liquid phase sulfur recovery process" at the CRU Sulphur virtual conference. (Nov 2-5, 2021)
• Rob was invited to present a talk at the Brimstone Sulfur Recovery Symposium (virtual), titled: "Ammonium salt vapour pressures: What conditions lead to ammonium salt deposition?" (Sept 14-16, 2021)
• Congratulations to Jerry Commodore, who successfully defended his PhD thesis titled: "Volumetric Investigations of High-Pressure Propane and Acid Gas Fluids ". (August 5, 2021)
• Rob presented a talk titled "The high-temperature sulfidation of carbon steel at Claus waste heat boiler conditions and exchanger conditions within molecular sieve regeneration" at the ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk (June 2021).
• Connor presented a talk titled "Elemental sulfur saturation in hydrocarbon rich gas mixtures for aid in gathering and compression systems" at the ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk (June 2021).
• Rob presented a talk titled "Ammonium salt formation conditions based on recently measured vapour pressures" at the ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk (January 2021).
• Rohen presented a talk titled "Solvent based tail-gas cleanup with the benefit of
  low-temperature CS₂ destruction" at the ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk (January 2021).
• Congratulations to Tommy Lee, who successfully defended his PhD thesis titled: "Heterogeneous catalytic H₂S oxidation within supercritical CO₂ for a new sulfur recovery process". (January 13, 2021)

• Congratulations to Kayode Adeniyi, who successfully defended his PhD thesis titled: "Water content of liquid acid gas and liquid propane in the presence of a hydrate phase". (December 2, 2020)
• Congratulations to Rohen Prinsloo for receiving the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES) (September).
• Rob presented a talk titled “Updating the ASRL sulfur solubility model to include natural gas liquids.” at the June ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk, held online via Zoom.
• Kayode travelled to the Gordon Research Seminar on Natural Gas Hydrate Systems at Galveston, Texas in February 2020 where he presented a talk titled "Water content of acid gas hydrage under high pressure conditions".
• Kayode presented a talk titled “The water content of type I sour gas hydrates: new experimental insight and reference quality modelling” at the January ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk in Calgary.
• Tommy presented a talk titled “Sulfur recovery in dense phase CO2 for post cryogenic separation” at the January ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk in Calgary.
• Rob presented a talk titled “The vapour pressure expression for ammonium sulfates: how much ammonia is too much?” at the January ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk in Calgary.
• Rohen presented a talk titled “The Claus reaction within the biphenyl and diphenyl ether eutectic liquid: a potential tail gas clean-up process” at the January ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk in Calgary.

• Congratulations to Mitchell Stashick who successfully defended his MSc. thesis titled: "Rheometric properties of liquid elemental sulfur and the modifying effects of hydrogen sulfide" (November 22, 2019)

• Rob attended the Middle East Sour Plant Operations Network (MESPON) in Abu Dhabi, where he co-presented a talk on BTX destruction in the thermal oxidizer and sat on a panel discussing the handling of elemental sulfur (October 2019).

• Rob attended the annual meeting of the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAWPS) in Banff, where he presented a talk on the ‘Water Content of Acid Gas’ (October 2019).

• Congratulations to Mitchell Stashick. He received the Best Student Paper Award at AGIS VIII, which was held in Calgary on September 25-27, 2019. The title of his presentation was “Modifying effects of H₂S on the rheometric properties of molten sulfur”.

• Rob presented the keynote lecture at the International Acid Gas Injection Symposium (AGIS VIII) titled ‘Water Content of Acid Gas: From the Lab to the Field’ (September 2019).

• Rob and Mitch attended the Brimstone Sulfur Symposium in Vail, Colorado (September 2019). Mitch presented on the viscosity of elemental sulfur and Rob presented an update of fundamental projects being conducted by the research group.

• Welcome to Fisher Hall, an undergraduate researcher who is investigating the properties of formed elemental sulfur as it pertains to transportation and handling (September 2019).

• Congratulations to Dr. Juan Marrugo, who successfully defended his PhD titled “Reactions involving fracturing chemical additives with implication in delayed H₂S production” (August 27, 2019).

• Kyle presented a talk titled “Closed-cycle adsorption simulations of high-pressure sour gas conditioning beds” at the June ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk in Calgary, AB (June 2019).

• Juan presented a talk titled “Should you expect H₂S and mercaptans with shale gas production?” at the June ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk in Calgary, AB (June 2019).

• Rob presented a talk titled “NH₃ formation through the degradation of alkanolamine in sour service” at the June ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk in Calgary, AB (June 2019). 

• Mitch presented a talk titled “Modifying effects of H₂S on the rheometric properties of molten sulfur" at the June ASRL semi-annual Chalk Talk in Calgary, AB (June 2019). 

• Rohen, John and Kayode attended the Sulphur Experts course on sulfur recovery in Kemah, Texas (May 2019).

• Congratulations to Dr. Kyle Wynnyk, who successfully defended his PhD. titled “High-pressure adsorption equilibria aimed at optimizing sour gas conditioning” (April 18, 2019).

• Rob, Connor and Juan attended the 2019 GPA Midstream Convention, April 14-17, 2019, San Antonio, Texas.

• Rob attended Sulphur 2018, November 5-8, 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.
• Rob attended MESPON 2018, October 14-17, 2018, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
• Rob and Juan attended SRM2018, first EAGE/IFPEN conference on sulfur risk management in E&P, September 18-20, 2018, Rueil-Malmaison, France.
• Rob attended the Brimstone Sulfur Symposium, September 10-14, 2018, Vail, Colorado, USA.
• Paintball! Team bonding activity. We had a lot of fun (July 13, 2018).
• Kyle and Tommy attended the 101st Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, Edmonton, AB, May 27 - 31, 2018. Both gave talks at the conference.
• Rob, Jerry and Tommy attended the AGIS VII, May 22 - 25, 2018
• Congratulations to Tatiana and Juan for their new baby boy Samuel (May 15, 2018). 
• Welcome to Rohen Prinsloo who has joined the group as a Ph.D. Student and Romani Lalani as a Summer Research Student.
• Tommy and Mitch attended the Sulphur Recovery Technical Training Course on April 30 - May 4, 2018 in Kemah, Texas, USA.
• Rob and Connor attended the 2018 GPA Midstream Convention, Austin, TX, April 15 - 18.
• Kayode attended the Gordon Research Seminar and Conference: 2018 Natural Gas Hydrate Systems from February 24 to March 2. He presented a poster.

• Rob attended Sulphur CRU Atlanta conference from November 6-9, where he presented two talks titled "Understanding ammonia destruction in the Claus furnace" and "Keep that stuff hot and reheat with care". Rob also participated in a group presentation of "Sulfur, a historical account of the industrial and technology developments of ‘The Stone That Burns’".
• Rob attended MESPON Abu Dhabi conference in October, where he presented a talk titled "Flow assurance for sulfur in sour gas production".
• Congratulations to Fadi who has joined Waters Corporation in Boston as a Senior Research Scientist.
• Rob attended the first Canadian Sulphur Consulting course in Milan, Italy (October), where he presented two invited talks titled "Modern thermochemical modelling" and "Recent research on NH₃ destruction in the Claus thermal reactor".
• In September 2017, Rob attended the Brimstone Sulfur Symposium in Vail, where he presented a talk titled "The effect of methanol in the first catalytic converter".
• Kayode and Rob attended the Colorado School of Mines Hydrate Consortium Meeting in Golden, Colorado, where Kayode presented a talk titled "Experimental measurement and modelling of hydrate dissociation conditions of pure C₃H₈ and H₂S in the presence of liquid water".
• Jerry and Connor attended the Dehydration and Refrigeration Technical Training Course hosted by Dehydration Experts (a division of Sulphur Experts Inc.) on September 18 - 21, 2017 in Kananaskis, AB.
• Congratulations Radha and Bhushan for the new baby boy Aditya (September 8, 2018).
• Welcome to Mitch Stashick who has joined the group from Simon Fraser University. Mitch will be studying the rheology of elemental sulfur with dissolved H₂S.
• Congratulations to Jerry Commodore, who has successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis, titled "The volumetric properties for selected impurities in dense phase CO₂ destined for re-injection" on August 18th, 2017.
• Congratulations Gabriel Sofekun, who has successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis, titled " Rheometric Properties of Pure Liquid Elemental Sulfur" on July 21st, 2017.
• Paintball! Team bonding activity. We had a lot of fun (July 16, 2017).
• Juan and Fadi attended and presented posters at the 100th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition on May 28 - June 1, 2017 in Toronto. 
• Juan attended the Sulphur Recovery Technical Training Course on May 1 – 5, 2017 in Kemah, Texas, USA. Congratulations to Juan for obtaining the first place in the HYSYS-Sulsim optimization competition during  the course. 
• Kyle attended the Dehydration and Refrigeration Technical Training Course hosted by Dehydration Experts (a division of Sulphur Experts Inc.) on May 1 – 4, 2017 in Kemah, Texas, USA.
• Welcome to Nagabhushana (Bhushan) Gowdaiana Pallya Puttaiah (May 3, 2017). Bhushan will be working as a Postdoctoral Scholar.
• Welcome to Chelsea Rose and Saud Sunba. They joined Dr. Marriott's Research Group as Summer Research Students on May 1.
• In April of 2017, Rob, Francis and Connor attended the GPA Midstream Convention in San Antonio, TX. A presentation was given to a technical research committee about an ongoing research project (GPA Project 074: Effect of Gas Gravity, H₂S, and Salinity on the Water Content in Natural Gas) as well as a second presentation during the “Technical Data Development Forum” on the completed progress of the same project. The convention also provided a networking opportunity for attracting potential new members to ASRL.
• Congratulations to Summer and Fadi who welcomed a healthy Sophia (7 lb, 8 oz) to their family on January 11, 2017. 

• Rob presented his departmental tenure talk, titled “Applied Chemistry for Sustainable Production of Lean Shale Gas Fluids containing H₂S and CO₂” on December 9th, 2016.
• Rob attended the CRU Sulphur Conference in London.
• Rob, Tommy and Jerry attended AGIS VI (The 6th International Acid Gas Injection Symposium), all three gave talks.
• Congratulations Juan Marrugo on being awarded the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS).
• Congratulations Kayode Adeniyi who successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis, titled "Thermodynamic Formation Conditions for Propane Hydrates in Equilibrium with Liquid Water" on August 22nd, 2016.
• Rob, Kyle and Kayode all attended the 99th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (all three gave talks).
• Congratulations to Kyle Wynnyk, Tommy Lee and Juan Marrugo, who have all successfully defended their Ph.D. qualifying exams this year.
• Welcome to Chelsea Rose and Garrett Yu. They joined Dr. Marriott's Research Group as Summer Research Students on May 2nd.
• Welcome to Kai Feng, he will be working on rheometric properties of elemental sulfur.

• Welcome to Fadi Alkhateeb, he will be working on modifying our high-pressure DSC and measuring high-pressure acid gas heat capacities.
• Congratulations to Kyle Wynnyk who obtained the Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship.This scholarship commemorates the Queen's visit to Alberta in May of 2005, rewarding the high level of achievement of students pursuing graduate studies in Alberta.
• Rob and Juan attended the 5th International Acid Gas Injection Symposium (AGIS V) in Banff, Alberta, Canada on May 19-22, 2015.
• Rob gave a talk: "Kinetics, Stability and Ionic Strength Effect on Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Reactions and Delayed H₂S Production", R.A. Marriott, J.J. Marrugo, P. Pirzadeh, S. Raval. Zach gave a talk:"Phase Equilibria Investigations of Acid Gas Hydrates: Experiments and Modelling", Z. T. Ward, Z.M. Aman, P. Warrier, R.A. Marriott, C.A. Koh,
• Rob and Connor attended the Gas Processors Association Convention in San Antonio, TX, USA, April 12 to 15, 2015.
• Rob and Payman attended the 65th Laurance Reid Gas Conditioning Conference (LRGCC) on Feb 22-25, 2015 in Norman, Oklahoma, USA. Both presented the work: “On the fate of hydraulic fracturing fluid additives in dry hot shale reservoirs” by Robert A. Marriott, Payman Pirzadeh, and Shaunak Raval, on February 24, 2015.
• Congratulations to Connor Deering who successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis titled “Design, Construction, and Calibration of a Vibrating Tube Densimeter for Volumetric Measurements of Acid Gas Fluids” on February 11th, 2015.  Connor has joined ASRL as a Chemist Term Appointment.

November

• Payman presented a talk titled “On the post-fracture souring of shale gas production” at 1st CIC Industrial Chemistry Conference in Edmonton, Alberta.
• Payman presented a talk titled “On the delayed post-fracture souring of shale gas production” at 21st GPAC-PJVA Joint Annual Conference in Calgary, Alberta.
• Rob attended the Sulfur 2014 International Conference & Exhibition in Paris, France.

September

• Rob presented a talk titled “Sulfur deposition and why robust characterisation has a significant impact on downstream operations” at the SPE Workshop Complex Reservoir Fluids III in Dubai, UAE.
• Welcome to Juan Marrugo who will be studying the souring of shale gas and the decomposition of fracture fluid additives.
• Welcome to Jerry Commodore who will be studying the volumetric changes for high-density acid gas fluids destined for re-injection.
• Welcome to Gabriel Sofekun who will be studying the rheometric properties of elemental sulfur and viscosity modifying agents.
• Welcome to Tommy Lee who will be studying alternative H₂S recovery methods at high pressure.

July

• Rob and Connor attended the ICCT 20 SAIChe 14 Conference (International Conference on Chemical Thermodynamics and The South African Institution of Chemical Engineers), July 27 to August 1, 2014. Both gave a talk at the conference. Rob's talk was:"How Alberta Sulphur Research Ltd. Has Succeeded for 50 Years at the Industry/Academic Interface" and Connor's talk was: "Densities and Apparent Molar Volumes for Water Dissolved in Dense Phase Carbon Dioxide".

June

• Kyle Wynnyk attended the SETARAM Summer School of Calorimetry in Lyon, France, June 22-27th, 2014.
• Congratulations ASRL on your 50th Anniversary!
• Connor presented a talk titled "Towards Accurate Prediction of Chemical Equilibria in High-Pressure Acid Gases: Building a Densimeter for Wet Acid Gas Measurements" at the ASRL Semi-Annual Research Update, on June 18th, 2014.
• Rob presented a talk titled " New Insights into the Delayed Souring of Shale Gases" at the ASRL Semmi-Annual Research Update, on June 18th, 2014

May

• Welcome Kyle Wynnyk (Master Student), Shaunak Raval (Co-op Research Student) and Matt Saunders (Summer Research Student). They joined Dr. Marriott's Research Group on May 1st.

February

• Zach Ward has returned to Colorado School of Mines to pursue next phases of his Ph.D. studies.

January

• Dr. Behnaz Hojjati, Dr. Robert Marriott and Connor Deering presented posters at the ASRL Chalk Talk and Poster Session on January 29th, 2014 at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel.
• Congratulations to Dr. Soheil Mortazavi-Manesh for his successful Ph.D. defense.  
• Welcome Kayode Adeniyi, the new M.Sc. student to the group. He will expand on the work of Zach Ward regarding investigation on mixed hydrates containing H₂S.

• Rob attended the ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi in November.
• The entire group attended the 4th Annual International Acid Gas Injection Symposium in Calgary, AB in September.  Both Zach and Payman gave excellent presentations.
• In July, Payman Pirzadeh attended the Oilsands and Heavy Oil Technology Conference (OSHOT) in Calgary, AB.
• Zach Ward presented a talk titled ‘Understanding the Formation of Gas Hydrates with H₂S’ at the June ASRL Chalk Talks, Calgary, Alberta.
• Rob presented a talk titled ‘Benchmarking High-pressure Sour Gas Adsorption for Microporous Materials’ at the June ASRL Chalk Talks, Calgary, Alberta.
• Welcome, Dr. Payman Pirzadeh, who has joined the group to investigate some high-pressure chemistry believed to be associated with the formation of H₂S in Shale gas reservoirs.
• In May, Rob attended the first Brimstone Sulfur Symposium in Vienna, Austria, and visited BASF.
• Welcome to Erin Evoy (Western University), who has joined the group as a summer student.  She will be investigating the rheology of elemental sulfur as it goes through the lambda transition region.
  Rob attended the Gas Processors Association Conference in San Antonio, Texas in April.
• Rob presented a talk titled ‘Determination of Sulfur Vapour Pressure and Relevance to Industrial Process Applications’ at the January ASRL Chalk Talks, Calgary, Alberta.
• Congratulations to Soheil Mortazavi who has started a Process Engineering position with Shell Global (Soheil has moved across the street!)

November

• Zach Ward joined the group as a visiting graduate student from the Centre for Hydrate Research, Colorado School of Mines.  Zach is performing mixed hydrate research containing H₂S as one former.

October

• Soheil Mortazavi attended the 62nd Canadian Chemical Engineering conference in Vancouver BC and presented a talk titled ‘The Screening of Ionic Liquids and Early Process Design for Potential Gas Treatment or Bulk Separation Applications’.

September

• Rob visited the Centre for Hydrate Research, Colorado School of Mines, and presented a talk titled “Flow Assurance for Sour Gas Production in Lean Sour Gas”
• Rob attended the 2012 Vail Sulfur Symposium and presented a talk titled “Topics Related to Sulfur Vapour Pressure.”

July/August

• Hurray, the new lab is open (URC 1W-155) and already quite messy.

June

• Soheil (Ph.D. Candidate) presented a talk titled “The Screening of Ionic Liquids and Early Process Design for Potential Gas Treatment or Bulk Separation Applications” at the Semi-annual ASRL Chalk Talks.
• Rob presented a talk titled “New Research in Applied Sulfur Chemistry: Research and Capabilities being Pursued through the NSERC ASRL Industrial Research Chair Program”at the Semi-annual ASRL Chalk Talks.
• Rob was appointed as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary

May

• Welcome Connor Deering, who will be studying high-pressure densities of wet acid gas liquids.  Congratulations to Connor for receiving a Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship.
• Welcome Dr. Behnaz Hojjati, who is joining us to work on high-pressure multi-component adsorption onto micro- and meso-porous materials.
• Behnaz, Connor and Rob attended the 95th Canadian chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Calgary.
• Soheil, Connor and Rob attended the 3rd  International Acid Gas Injection Symposium in Banff, where Rob presented three papers.

April

• Rob attended the 91st Annual Gas Processor’s Association conference in New Orleans to present updated results to the technical committee.

February

• Rob visited Prof. Peter Tremaine’s group at the Guelph and presented a talk titled “Elemental Sulfur in Sour Gas Production.”
• Rob visited the University of Lethbridge and presented a talk titled “Flow Assurance for Sour Gas Production in Southern Alberta and Beyond.”

January

• Dr. Melerin Madekufamba presented a talk titled “Improved Simulator Reference Data by Re-examination of Vapour Pressure for Pure Elemental Sulfur Liquid” at the Semi-annual ASRL Chalk Talks.
• Dr. Binod Giri presented a talk titled “The High-Pressure Density and Viscosity of a 50:50 CH₄/CO₂ Mixture” at the Semi-annual ASRL Chalk Talks.