Soil contaminated with organic and inorganic contaminants represents the largest waste stream in Alberta’s landfills. Electro-Kinetic Solutions Inc. (EKS) has developed the Electrokinetic Soil Treatment (EKST) Process to cost-effectively decontaminate soils onsite, instead of disposing them in a landfill. This innovative technology, based on the proven physics of electrokinetics, is effective even for fine-grained soils which are difficult to decontaminate with other technologies.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are bio-based, biodegradable polymers that have the most potential to replace conventional polymers used in food packaging. To this end, PHAs must be designed to achieve low cost and better performance, such as tunable mechanical properties, crystallinity, surface features, amphiphilicity, and degradation rate.
The goal of this project is to use machine learning techniques for smart home energy management to reduce carbon
footprint of a house. The developed algorithms will monitor heating footprint of a residential building in near real time,
based on the data gathered from sensors and smart thermostat devices. The solution models the building thermophysical
characteristcs and heating system performance to optimize the HVAC efficiency.
Greenfield Global has been developing a process that aims to convert renewable materials to produce sustainable jet fuel (SAF). In addition to SAF, it is possible to produce other fuels such as diesel. Greenfield Global has been awarded a federal government grant which aims at developing a novel process for the production of renewable diesel from agricultural wastes. A key process step in this project is Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis and upgrading to drop-in fuels particularly renewable diesel.
Ammonia is crucial for life as a primary element for fertilizer production and it is also a foundational feedstock for pharmaceuticals, dyes, and chemical synthesis. Ammonia has also emerged as an energy carrier and transportation fuel. Plasma-based reactors are potentially operated by renewable electricity sources (wind and solar), offering lightweight, flexible, straightforward on/off switch, and safety operations, which highlight them as promising candidates decentralized ammonia and hydrocarbon production plants.
This proposed project will support our ongoing efforts in developing a novel two-stage fluidized bed gasifier for converting low-cost biomass residues to renewable natural gas in British Columbia to help the BC industry to meet the 2030 decarbonization target.
Within the production process of Meltblown filtration materials for facial mask manufacturing, there is a considerable generation of clean waste of Meltblown polypropylene (PP) fabric. The direct disposal of these clean PP wastes represents a significant economic loss and, moreover, poses serious environmental pollution since PP is a non-biodegradable polymer that may take hundreds of years to decompose when landfilled.
Current industrial practices use fluorinated coating methods to modify the surfaces of textiles. Although these coating methods produce robust hydrophobic/oleophobic surfaces, fluorinated precursors don’t degrade easily and tend to persist in the environment. Studies have shown that these fluorinated precursors have managed to leach into our water bodies and could be potential carcinogens. To avoid these problems, alternative coating methods need to be developed.
Carbon dioxide is produced from the combustion of fossil fuels and as a by-product of many chemical processes. The increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has now been decisively linked to global climate change. The use CO2 as a carbon-building block has attracted much attention due to its low cost, ease availability, and its potential to substitute fossil fuel-based feedstocks, in addition to the clear positive environmental effect of removing it from the atmosphere.
Silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) are semiconductor nanoparticles with sizes ranging from 1 to 10 nm that show great promise for photonics, microelectronics, and fluorescent bio-imaging considering their ability to fluoresce from blue to near infrared light. In comparison to conventional quantum dots (which can release toxic metals), Si quantum dots are expected to be safer and more stable for use in biomedical engineering applications.
This 24-months project aims at evaluating SiQDs for their toxicity both in vitro and in vivo.
