The University of Chicago

Nanochemical Oil Company

Gerard Caneba

Derrick C Mancini

Hsien-Hau Wang

Vijaya Raghavan Tirumala

The present invention provides method for recovering fossil-based materials from oil sources using multifunctional, multipolymeric continuous composition spectrum surfactant mixtures. The invention also provides methods for reducing the loss of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from oil storage containers using multifunctional, multipolymer surfactants. The multifunctional, multipolymer surfactants are characterized by a hydrophobic part and a hydrophilic part. The hydrophobic part of the polymer surfactants includes functionalities that impart a polarity of greater than 0 Debye to the hydrophobic part. The polymer surfactants are further characterized by molecular weights that are above their entanglement weights. The result is polymer surfactants and their continuous composition surfactant-thickener mixtures with demulsifying characteristics.

Multifunctional multipolymeric surfactants for oil and bitumen recovery and other applications

An in situ polymer microstructure formation method. The monomer mixture is polymerized in a solvent/precipitant through exposure to ionizing radiation in the absence any chemical mediators. If an exposure mask is employed to block out certain regions of the radiation cross section, then a patterned microstructure is formed. The polymerization mechanism is based on the so-called free-radical retrograde-precipitation polymerization process, in which polymerization occurs while the system is phase separating above the lower critical solution temperature. This method was extended to produce a crosslinked line grid-pattern of poly (N-isopropylacrylamide), which has been known to have thermoreversible properties.

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Houghton, MI, United States of America

Gerard Caneba