Qi Liu, PhD, PEng

Professor, Faculty of Engineering - Chemical and Materials Engineering Dept

Personal Website: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57816810100

Contact Overview Courses Publications

Contact

Professor, Faculty of Engineering - Chemical and Materials Engineering Dept

Email: qliu@ualberta.ca
Phone: (780) 492-8628
Address: 12-285 Donadeo Innovation Centre For Engineering
9211 116 St

Edmonton AB

T6G 2H5

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

Mineral Processing Oil Sands Processing Critical Minerals Energy Minerals Surface and Interfacial Science

About

Qi Liu holds a BEng in mineral processing (China) and a MASc and PhD in the same field from UBC. He worked at Wuhan University of Technology and Process Research Associates Limited before joining the University of Alberta in 1998. He is a professor of materials engineering, Ron Nolan/Hatch Chair in Sustainable Energy and Mineral Processing Technologies (2009-2021), and Glencore Chair in Mining and Mineral Processing Engineering.

Research

Qi Liu's research areas are mineral separation, solid-liquid separation, and metal ion separation. His research covers critical minerals and energy minerals. Current research focuses on homo-aggregation flotation (HAF), a novel process for separation of fine and ultrafine mineral particles; bitumen extraction and enrichment from oil sands; oil sands tailings dewatering using coagulation, flocculation, and filtration; metal ion separation using magnetic sorbents and magnetic separation.

Courses

CME 472 - Extractive Metallurgy

Physical and chemical preparation of ore feed. Roasting, briquetting, sintering and pelletizing. Leaching processes and chemicals, kinetics of leaching, ion exchange, activated carbon adsorption, solvent extraction and McCabe-Thiele Diagram. Metal recovery from solutions, electrowinning and electrorefining. Furnaces and fuels, refractories, slags and mattes. Reduction of metal compounds, smelting and converting, pyrometallurgical metal refining. Credit may not be obtained in this course if previous credits have been obtained in MAT E 430 and MAT E 332. Prerequisites: CME 265, MAT E 341, or consent of the Department.

Winter Term 2026

MAT E 204 - Materials Engineering Thermodynamics

Fundamentals of thermodynamics in Materials Engineering. Review of thermodynamic functions. First, second and third laws. Reaction equilibria, stability diagrams. Solution thermodynamics applied to materials processes. Phase relations, free energy-composition diagrams, binary phase diagrams, and introduction to ternary phase diagrams. Electrochemistry. Experimental methods and estimation of thermodynamic data. Prerequisite: CH E 243. Credit may not be obtained in this course if previous credit has been obtained in MAT E 340 or 301.

Winter Term 2026

Browse more courses taught by Qi Liu

Featured Publications

Flotation separation of copper and nickel sulphides: Status and research needs

Negin Pourali Manjili, Curtis Deredin, Julie Coffin, Hongbo Zeng, Qi Liu

Minerals Engineering. 2025 November; 10.1016/j.mineng.2025.109668

Rapid tailings dewatering by flocculation-sedimentation-filtration-microwave sequential treatment

Daowei Wang, Filipe S. Araujo, Cate MacKenzie, Jashkumar Ukani, Abu Junaid, Givemore Sakuhuni, Xiaoli Tan, Qi Liu

Minerals Engineering. 2025 October; 10.1016/j.mineng.2025.109561

Examining the effect of conditioning sequence of polymer flocculants and coagulants on sedimentation and filtration of oil sands tailings

Dong Wang, Daowei Wang, Hanyu Zhang, Lahari Bollneni, Bolormaa Bayarsaikhan, Qi Liu

Minerals Engineering. 2025 August; 10.1016/j.mineng.2025.109324

Unveiling different pyrrhotite superstructures in copper-gold ore samples: Insights from advanced spectroscopic and microscopic characterization

Alireza Rezvani, Foad Raji, Qi Liu, Yongjun Peng

Minerals Engineering. 2024 January; 10.1016/j.mineng.2023.108536

Effects of agitation intensity and foam stability on the Floc-flotation of ultrafine minerals using a laboratory flotation column

Daowei Wang, Dong Wang, Kaipeng Wang, Qi Liu

Minerals Engineering. 2023 December; 10.1016/j.mineng.2023.108443

Interactions of NaCl with frother surfactants in producing microbubbles through modifying air/water interfacial energy and interfacial charge

Liang Cao, Yongjun Peng, Qi Liu

Journal of Molecular Liquids. 2023 November; 10.1016/j.molliq.2023.122889

Kaolinite surface charges developed in cyclohexane suspension with dissolved Span 80 or bitumen: Electrodeposition and adsorption/desorption studies

Hanyu Zhang, Kaipeng Wang, Dong Wang, Jingqiao Li, Bailin Xiang, Xiaoli Tan, Qi Liu

Chemical Engineering Journal. 2023 October; 10.1016/j.cej.2023.145406

Surface interaction mechanisms of air bubbles, asphaltenes and oil drops in aqueous solutions with implications for interfacial engineering processes

Diling Yang, Ziqian Zhao, Lu Gong, Yongxiang Sun, Xuwen Peng, Qiongyao Peng, Tao Wang, Qi Liu, Hao Zhang, Hongbo Zeng

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. 2023 October; 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.082

Poly(vinyl Alcohol) (PVA)-Based Hydrogel Scaffold with Isotropic Ultratoughness Enabled by Dynamic Amine–Catechol Interactions

Tao Shui, Mingfei Pan, An Li, Hongbing Fan, Jianping Wu, Qi Liu, Hongbo Zeng

Chemistry of Materials. 2022 October; 10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c01582

Water-mediated adhesion of oil sands on solid surfaces at low temperature

Qimeng Yang, Jae Bem You, Boran Tian, Shaofeng Sun, Dan Daniel, Qi Liu, Xuehua Zhang

Fuel. 2022 July; 10.1016/j.fuel.2022.123778

Probing Hydrophobic Interactions between Polymer Surfaces and Air Bubbles or Oil Droplets: Effects of Molecular Weight and Surfactants

Langmuir. 2022 May; 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02635

The filterability of different types of minerals and the role of swelling clays in the filtration of oil sands tailings

Fuel. 2022 May; 10.1016/j.fuel.2022.123395

Bench-scale oil fouling/antifouling tests under high temperature and high pressure conditions and the underlying interfacial interaction mechanisms

Fuel. 2022 April; 10.1016/j.fuel.2021.122720

High-efficiency and durable removal of water-in-heavy oil emulsions enabled by delignified and carboxylated basswood with zwitterionic nanohydrogel coatings

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. 2022 April; 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.12.146

Electrodeposition of bitumen-, asphaltene-, or maltene-coated kaolinite from cyclohexane suspensions

Fuel. 2022 March; 10.1016/j.fuel.2021.122582

Facile and scalable surface functionalization approach with small silane molecules for oil/water separation and demulsification of surfactant/asphaltenes-stabilized emulsions

Separation and Purification Technology. 2022 March; 10.1016/j.seppur.2021.120382

Selective aggregation of fine quartz by polyaluminum chloride to mitigate its entrainment during fine and ultrafine mineral flotation

Separation and Purification Technology. 2021 December; 10.1016/j.seppur.2021.119606

A lattice defect-inspired leaching strategy toward simultaneous recovery and separation of value metals from spent cathode materials

Waste Management. 2021 November; 10.1016/j.wasman.2021.08.032

Influence of aggregation/dispersion state of hydrophilic particles on their entrainment in fine mineral particle flotation

Minerals Engineering. 2021 June; 10.1016/j.mineng.2021.106835

Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Paraffinic Bitumen Froth Treatment: Asphaltene Precipitation from a Commercial Bitumen Froth Sample

ACS Omega. 2021 May; 10.1021/acsomega.1c00234

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