Donald Snowden, 1928-1984

... those who are old enough to remember how life was for the Inuit 30 years ago when they were caught by changing times in a spiral of unemployment, poverty, and slow starvation, will remember the big, laughing young man from the government who radiated joy and optimism and introduced them to the idea of cooperatives. And whether they remember him or not, every Inuit man, woman, and child who lives in the Northwest Territories, Labrador or Arctic Québec today leads a better life because of Don Snowden's vision and singular determination. Snowden first came to the North in 1964 as an information officer for the Canadian government's then Department of Northern Affairs. Two years later, as the department's Chief of the Industrial Division, he was given the job of tackling the twin problems of poverty and unemployment in the North by providing some sort of economic system that would help to make the Inuit self-sufficient. He had a vision for the future of the North of an independent native population of Canadian citizens governing themselves. ... The tool that Snowden and his dedicated staff put into the Inuit hands was the cooperative, because it seemed to fit into the Inuit way of living and sharing. He also saw the co-ops as a training ground where Inuit would learn to speak up and assume responsibility. ... Snowden organized fisheries, the production and marketing of Inuit art, and the N.W.T. Tourist Office. Twenty-five years later he could look back on a proliferation of 43 co-ops involved in a variety of business operations across the North. Many of today's Inuit leaders received early training and confidence in running their own affairs in their local cooperatives. ... He is credited with doing much to transform the lives of the rural populations of Newfoundland, bringing the University's education programs to the outports and to Labrador for the first time, and creating a fisheries cooperative program that attracted students from 25 countries. In Newfoundland he devised (in association with the National Film Board) a new, unique method of communication called the Fogo Film Method, first used on Fogo Island. ... [When facing relocation, the Fogo Islanders made a videotape to be sent to the government expressing their views. The government responded in a similar fashion,] thus setting up a dialogue that led to greater understanding between the two groups. The Fogo Islanders were able to stay where they were, and formed fishing and boat building cooperatives that gave them a fresh economic base. ... Snowden took the Fogo Method to many parts of the world .... One of the projects of which he was proudest was the making of 33 tapes bringing together government biologists, Inuit, and Indians in the Keewatin, all of whom were concerned about the welfare of the Kaminuriak caribou herd but who disagreed on management methods. The result was face-to-face management meetings and a greatly improved level of understanding. ... In April 1961, Snowden and two of his staff met with a small group of Inuit who had formed the first Inuit cooperative, at the George River, 12 miles from Ungava Bay. ... Snowden kept the meetings going night and day until plans for a settlement, a fish freezer, a store, a handicraft industry and myriad other details were understood by all. At the end of the final meeting, George Annanack, the senior Inuit leader, said unexpectedly to Snowden in Inuktitut, "We will remember you forever and ever." This was followed by a spontaneous shout of "Nakommiik! Nakommiik!" (Thank you) from all the Inuit participants. ..

Flammability behaviour of wood and a review of the methods for its reduction

Wood is one of the most sustainable, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally benign materials. Not only is wood often an integral part of structures, it is also the main source of furnishings found in homes, schools, and offices around the world. The often inevitable hazards of fire make wood a very desirable material for further investigation. As well as ignition resistance and a low heat release rate, timber products have long been required to resist burn-through and maintain structural integrity whilst continuing to provide protection when exposed to fire or heat. Various industry standard tests are thus required to ensure adequate protection from fire is provided. When heated, wood undergoes thermal degradation and combustion to produce gases, vapours, tars and char. In order to understand and alter the fire behaviour of wood, it is necessary to know in as much detail as possible about its processes of decomposition. Various thermal analysis and flammability assessment techniques are utilised for this purpose, including thermogravimetric analysis, cone calorimetry and the single burning item test. The results of such tests are often highly dependent on various parameters including changes to the gas composition, temperature, heating rate, and sample shape size. Potential approaches for fire retarding timber are reviewed, identifying two main approaches: char formation and isolating layers. Other potential approaches are recognised, including the use of inorganic minerals, such as sericrite, and metal foils in combination with intumescent products. Formulations containing silicon, nitrogen and phosphorus have been reported, and efforts to retain silicon in the wood have been successful using micro-layers of silicon dioxide. Nano-scale fire retardants, such as nanocomposite coatings, are considered to provide a new generation of fire retardants, and may have potential for wood. Expandable graphite is identified for use in polymers and has potential for wood provided coating applications are preferred

CO2 wettability of caprocks: Implications for structural storage capacity and containment security

© 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Structural trapping, the most important CO2 geostorage mechanism during the first decades of a sequestration project, hinges on the traditional assumption that the caprock is strongly water wet. However, this assumption has not yet been verified; and it is indeed not generally true as we demonstrate here. Instead, caprock can be weakly water wet or intermediate wet at typical storage conditions; and water wettability decreases with increasing pressure or temperature. Consequently, a lower storage capacity can be inferred for structural trapping in such cases

Molecular dynamics simulation of water/CO2-quartz interfacial properties: Application to Subsurface Gas Injection

Global warming due to Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel consumption remains an extremely difficult problem to mitigate. One of the many purposed methods to tackle rising emissions of CO2 is subsurface injection into geological formations known as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). A major challenge, that projects involving subsurface gas injection have, is predicting the amount of gas that will be trapped in the formation effectively and safely. A major contributing factor to this uncertainty is the lack of accurate experimental data on contact angles between the subsurface rocks, formation water and CO2. The two main difficulties with employing experimental work to estimate these parameters are the existence of partially contradicting results and the difficulty in accurately recreating the range of subsurface conditions in the laboratory. Molecular dynamics computer simulations provide a microscopic approach to recreate subsurface conditions and to explain experimental contradicting results. We report here molecular dynamics investigations on the influence of divalent salts on the CO2/water/quartz contact angle. We also investigate N2/water/quartz and H2S/water/quartz systems, in order to assess the impact that the gas has on the contact angles. The quartz surface used for these simulations was a fully coordinated quartz crystal. In addition, we present results for a hydroxylated quartz crystal model, which we have developed for this work. The dependence of the contact angles on the degree of hydroxylation is discussed

Analysis of individual molecular dynamics snapshots simulating wetting of surfaces using spheroidal geometric constructions

Accurate characterization of wettability of minerals is important for efficient oil recovery and carbon geosequestration. In studies where molecular dynamics simulations are used to compute the contact angle, emphasis is often placed on results or theoretical details of the simulations themselves, overlooking potentially applicable methodologies for determination of the contact angle. In this manuscript, a concept of a method utilizing spheroidal geometric constructions to estimate the contact angle of a water droplet on a silica surface in carbon dioxide atmosphere is outlined and applied to the final snapshots of two molecular dynamics simulation runs. Two carbon dioxide pressures and two wettability modes (hydrophilic and hydrophobic) are examined to assess the method’s performance. The most stable 6-membered ellipselike rings (001) pristine surface of alpha-quartz is reconstructed using molecular dynamics and its wettability is then investigated for the first time. The outcomes of the calculations are compared with results produced with the isodensity chart method, and good agreement with the latter approach is demonstrated. The proposed method can be used as an alternative, or in conjunction with other techniques, to increase the confidence in contact angle estimations via molecular mechanics calculations. Reliable contact angle estimations, on the other hand, can guarantee accurate storage capacity and security of carbon capture and storage projects

Application of the CLAYFF and the DREIDING force fields for modeling of alkylated quartz surfaces

To extend applicability and to overcome limitations of combining rules for nonbond potential parameters, in this study, CLAYFF and DREIDING force fields are coupled at the level of atomic site charges to model quartz surfaces with chemisorpt hydrocarbons. Density functional theory and Bader charge analysis are applied to calculate charges of atoms of the OC bond connecting a quartz crystal and an alkyl group. The study demonstrates that the hydrogen atom of the quartz surface hydroxyl group can be removed and its charge can be redistributed among the oxygen and carbon atoms of the OC bond in a manner consistent with the results calculated at the density functional level of theory. Augmented with modified charges of the OC bond, force fields can then be applied to a practical problem of evaluation of the contact angle of a water droplet on alkylated quartz surfaces in a carbon dioxide environment, which is relevant for carbon geo-sequestration and in a broader context of oil and gas recovery. Alkylated quartz surfaces have been shown to be extremely hydrophobic even when the surface density of hydroxyl groups is close to the highest naturally observed density of 6.2 OH groups per square nanometer

The scaling exponent of residual nonwetting phase cluster size distributions in porous media

During an imbibition process in two-phase subsurface flow the imbibing phase can displace the nonwetting phase up to an endpoint at which a residual saturation is reached (which cannot be reduced further by additional wetting phase flow due to the complex pore network of the rock and associated strong capillary forces which trap the nonwetting phase). The residual nonwetting phase is split into many disconnected clusters of different sizes. This size distribution is of key importance, for instance, in the context of hydrocarbon recovery, contaminant transport, or CO2 geostorage; and it is well established that this size distribution follows a power law. However, there is significant uncertainty associated with the exact value of the distribution exponent t, which mathematically describes the size distribution. To reduce this uncertainty and to better constrain t, we analyzed a representative experimental data set with mathematically rigorous methods, and we demonstrate that t is substantially smaller (˜1.1) than previously suggested. This raises increasing doubt that simple percolation models can accurately predict subsurface fluid flow behavior; and this has serious consequences for subsurface flow processes: hydrocarbon recovery is easier than predicted, but CO2 geostorage dissolution trapping capacities are significantly reduced and potential remobilization of residual CO2 is more likely than previously believed. © 2016 American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved

Carbon dioxide/brine wettability of porous sandstone versus solid quartz: An experimental and theoretical investigation

Hypothesis: Wettability plays an important role in underground geological storage of carbon dioxide because the fluid flow and distribution mechanism within porous media is controlled by this phenomenon. CO 2 pressure, temperature, brine composition, and mineral type have significant effects on wettability. Despite past research on this subject, the factors that control the wettability variation for CO 2 /water/minerals, particularly the effects of pores in the porous substrate on the contact angle at different pressures, temperatures, and salinities, as well as the physical processes involved are not fully understood. Experiments: We measured the contact angle of deionised water and brine/CO 2 /porous sandstone samples at different pressures, temperatures, and salinities. Then, we compared the results with those of pure quartz. Finally, we developed a physical model to explain the observed phenomena. Findings: The measured contact angle of sandstone was systematically greater than that of pure quartz because of the pores present in sandstone. Moreover, the effect of pressure and temperature on the contact angle of sandstone was similar to that of pure quartz. The results showed that the contact angle increases with increase in temperature and pressure and decreases with increase in salinity