Structured lipids, specifically diacylglyceride (DAG) oils, have potential to replace trans fats and oils high in saturated fats such as palm and thus provide healthier oils with improved functionalities and sustainability. However, they are produced using costly and environmentally unfriendly “enzyme in solvent” systems, and have shortcomings when utilized in certain food applications. DAG oils are clinically claimed to help reduce fat accumulation and can have a major impact on obesity, which is currently identified as a global health risk by the United Nations World Health Organization.

EHC Global - our industry partner, is a worldwide industry leader in design and manufacture of escalator handrails and many other products for the lift industry. They mainly deal with thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs), which are versatile engineering polymers with a wide range of applications, however processing of TPUs is a complicated and challenging task. The complications arise from the relatively high melting temperature of crystalline hard blocks and the degradation and crosslinking that take place at temperatures slightly above melting temperatures.

"Building integrated photovoltaic–thermal array (BIPV/T) incorporated within a building structure is a system that combines the roof/facade, photovoltaic cells and thermal collector as an all-in-one product instead of installing each individually. BIPV/T effectively replaces conventional building materials and is more cost-effective than having several separate products, and installation of the BIPV/T system can be implemented during initial building construction.

ET-LBC technology (Evapotranspiration-Landfill Biocovers) is the capital intensive emerging modern landfill technology. The acceptance of this technology by landfill regulators and operators, and its possible future participation in carbon credit trading depends on its performance. In order asses the performance of the ET-LBC technology using mathematical models, the anaerobic degradation parameters such as the methane yield potential (L0), anaerobic decay rate (k) must be known. Anaerobic degradation parameters can be calculated using existing models.

Long-term monitoring and modeling energy consumption behaviors is a daunting task for decades. This project aims to achieve efficient energy consumption data collection and processing using wireless sensors and cloud platform together, focusing on large scale enterprises that consume large amount of energy, e.g., electricity, gas. By tackling the challenges through algorithm design and system integration, a prototype system will be delivered, which can effectively gather data from distributed sensors and efficiently analyze real time data on the cloud platform.

Heating and cooling in residential and commercial buildings account for 20% of total energy consumption in Canada. Conditioning indoor air using less energy is closely associated with minimizing production of greenhouse gases and making a sustainable global environment. In this study, we apply a nanocomposite fibrous membrane for an energy recovery ventilator (ERV). Heat and moisture from an exhaust contaminated indoor air are captured via ERV and recycled for conditioning entering outdoor air, ultimately resulting in energy savings and improving the indoor air quality of buildings.

Pesticide detection in water has become a high priority worldwide, from protecting the population from environmental contamination due to agricultural pesticides, and bio-threats from terrorist activities. An exhaustive characterization of water pollutants requires laboratory-based analyses which are inherently slow and expensive. Thus, regarding the above mentioned pesticide contaminations, developing a real-time and in-situ detection technique would be very valuable to rapidly protect the population and the environment, especially in remote places.