Projets novateurs réalisés

Raman spectroscopic study on the solubility of CO2 in water in a fused silica capillary reactor

With the development of social and economic structures, and an increase in energy consumption, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has increased rapidly. This increase is regarded as one of the greatest factors in global warming. Capturing CO2 from large stationary sources and inject it into deep saline aquifers is being considered as part of a possible mitigation strategy to reduce anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, in order to make this a reality, it is necessary to enhance the reliability of numerical simulations for CO2 storage capacity of specific saline aquifers. This project will use the experimental method to measure the solubility of CO2 in water from 293 to 363K and from 3MPa to 30MPa. The data collected should provide the CO2 solubility data needed to increase the numerical reliability. The end goal is to move a step closer to making the storage of CO2 in saline aquifers a safe and plausible way to reduce the emissions that are a leading factor in global warming.

Size dependant catalytic behaviour of supported Cu nanoparticles on CeO2 in ethanol synthesis from methyl acetate

Ethanol is a versatile feedstock that is extremely beneficial. A new route of EtOH synthesis from syngas via dimethyl ether carbonylation and methyl acetate hydrogenation has been proposed. This is environmentally friendly and efficient. Throughout this research, the relationship between the nature of MA activation and the size of the supported Cu nanoparticles will be analyzed, in order to illuminate the size effect of Cu/CeO2 catalysts on catalytic properties in ester hydrogenation reactions. In this lab CuCl and dimethyl sulfoxide are used to prepare different CuOx nanoparticles. The reactivity evaluations will be carried out on a continuous-flow heterogeneous reactor and analyzed on an online Agilent Micro GC 6820. The textual and catalytic properties of the catalysts are also analyzed. With this data there may be a proof of adsorption or activation of methoxy and acyl species on the surface of CeO2. Overall the goal is to find the induction period in the beginning of the reaction which could be dependent on the size of Cu nanoparticles.

Amplifying the Developmental Impact of the Ernest C. Manning Youth Innovation Awards: An Evidence-Based Design for the First Canadian Youth Innovator Mentorship Network

By studying the key features of these top achieving youth innovators, we will gather evidence via research to learn more about what drives them, what supports they need and how mentors (anywhere) can be engaged well to support them. The result of the project will be an organization and process design for the development of the first (online) Canadian youth mentorship network aimed at connecting youth to important people, expertise, knowledge and institutions. There is too little research and support for our high-achieving young Canadian innovators. This project answers that need by extending from a rewards program into a youth development network, with cognisance that there is a network of Adult Innovation Award winners that could, with careful design, be further developed by the Foundation to mentor youth innovators.

Modélisation de la compaction d’une boue rouge sous l’action d’un râteau

Les systèmes de raclage sont répandus dans les procédés de séparation solide-liquide des industries minières. Même si leurs effets sont connus depuis de nombreuses années, leurs mécanismes d’action restent encore mal connus. Le calcul du rendement de ces équipements est donc pour le mieux approximatif. De plus, les industries minières doivent constamment améliorer leurs procédés afin de rester compétitives. Une meilleure compréhension phénoménologique des équipements faciliterait leur amélioration et permettrait une évaluation plus juste de leur rendement.
L’objectif du projet consiste à concevoir un outil de calcul qui permet de simuler et de prévoir l’épaississement produit par un équipement de raclage à l’aide d’essais expérimentaux. Les propriétés de la boue et la configuration géométrique de l’équipement seront des paramètres d’entrée. La fraction solide de la boue sera la variable de sortie de l’outil.

Kinetic and Reactor Models for Sugar-to-Glycol Conversion

The sustainable use of forest- and agriculture-based resources to produce clean fuels and value-added chemicals is an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated by non-renewable fossil fuels. Glycol, a valuable industrial chemical, can be derived from sugars that originate from agricultural and forest waste and byproducts using a catalytic process. S2G Biochem, located in Vancouver, is working to develop and demonstrate technology to convert sugars and polyols to glycols. This study is intended to simulate an existing pilot plant unit facility in S2G Biochem using computational methods and then utilize the results to improve the design and performance of a commercial-scale unit.

Deconvolution of Whole Blood Transcriptome based on mRNA-Seq data

Gene expression in blood is highly affected by the type and proportion blood cells. Therefore, cell composition needs to be taken into account when looking for signatures specific to a condition. The issue is that cell composition needs to be assessed on fresh blood, i.e. at time of blood collection. If this has not been done, the only way one can assess is by predicting it using a methodology suggested in this proposal. Therefore, if blood cell count is not available, the cell composition can be inferred from existing next generation sequencing data sets. This would help researchers being able to use their existing datasets or publicly available data that do not have corresponding blood composition information.

Study on Alkylation of Benzene with Methanol over ZSM-5 Zeolite with controllable Internal and External Surface Acidity

The research project is studying the reaction of benzene to produce toluene and xylene is very useful as both of these products have great commercial value. The challenge that is being researched is to make this reaction more efficient by minimizing the sub-reactions that happen simultaneously, specifically the reaction of methanol to olefins. These sub-reactions tend to interfere with the main reaction and cause less of an output of the desired product. In order to minimize these reactions, Zeolites (which are porous minerals that can be taken from nature or synthesized artificially and act at a catalyst for certain reactions) will be manipulated to control the reaction. The varying aspect will be the acidity of the surface of the Zeolite that will inhibit the methanol from reacting into olefins.

Network Analysis of the Ontario Technology StartUp Innovation Ecosystem

The purpose of this research project is to explore, in more detail, the technology innovation ecosystem in Ontario with particular focus on mapping the network of existing relationships between start-ups, investors and supporting networks (i.e., incubators, innovation clusters and accelorators such as MaRs Innovation, MaRs Discovery District and various associations which include those servicing angel and venture capital investors locally and nationally). The focus of the research will be to deepen our understanding of the connections among the elements of the ecosystem and the strength (or absence of) network ties.

1. Who are the players in the innovation ecosystem?

2. What is their role?

3. How are they inter-related?

4. What factors influence these relationships? (e.g., geographic, business activity, reputation, concentrations of connections, etc?)

5. Where in the overall innovation network are there areas of relatively low connectivity (i.e., Structural Holes, Burt, 1995) where interventions could be designed and applied to increase venture capital access and productivity?

Sedimentation of petroleum coated particles in non-aqueous phase

Extraction of a solvent has been considered as one of the promising methods for heavy hydrocarbon recovery from oil and tar sands because of its low usage of water, as well as its high efficiency rates. Unfortunately, longer sedimentation times are caused by the mineral particles being suspended in a non-aqueous solution because of the heavy fractions on the particles surface (which is a result of the usage of coated petroleum components). To help better understand this property, the main focus of my study will be to investigate the particle sedimentation in the solvents through the testing and analysis of various parameters. Following my stay at china and the conclusion of the investigation on this project, we expect to obtain values for the aforementioned parameters and use this data to publish 1~2 academic papers. These variables in question include the settling rate, the size distribution, and the mineral composition of the petroleum coated particle sedimentation in non-aqueous solution.

Transition Metal Catalyzed Olefin Polymerization: A Combined Computational and Experimental Approaches

Chromium based catalysts such as Phillip’s catalyst are widely used in the production of polyethylene materials, specifically high density polyethylene. Despite their widespread and successful use, there is still much that is unknown about how exactly these catalysts work and interact with other catalysts. New research has been done that has indicated the chromium vanadium catalysts may be very effective. This is important as it could change the way much of the worlds plastic is produced. This research project seeks to determine whether a synergetic effect (positive relationship) exists between the two different active sites of the catalysts. This will be done by using the density functional theory, along with kinetic evaluation and mathematical modelling of the polymerization kinetics. The outcome of this project will hopefully yield a better understanding of how the two active sites of these catalysts work together. At some point in the future this may help the production of polyethylene become more efficient.

R&D of high-performance Fe-based Catalysts for direct synthesis of lower olefins from syngas

The synthesis of chemicals and fuels through processes that do not involve oil, but rather coal is of great importance to China. The research aims to develop a new method to produce lower olefins (short hydrocarbon chains) with the use of Iron-based catalysts and syngas derived from coal. The purpose of the Iron-based catalysts is to influence the process to produce products of interest.With the use of metal catalyst, the size of the hydrocarbons produced can be narrowed down. The expected outcome of the conducted research should be a new iron-based catalyst with high selectivity towards lower olefins and to construct a relationship between the structure and performance of the iron-based catalyst while combined with characterization techniques and operando/in situ spectroscopies.

Development of fabrication, microstructure and performance relationships in inkjet printed polymer electrolyte fuel cell electrodes for automotive applications

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) running on hydrogen are a preferred choice for on-board electricity generation in automobiles. A major challenge associated with this technology is its high cost due to the use of platinum as electrocatalyst. Implementation of inkjet printing as a fabrication tool has been investigated by the applicant and the academic supervisor to fabricate and test PEFC electrodes that are 5 times thinner and contain 15 times lower platinum than conventional electrodes resulting in an improved catalyst utilization. The present proposal aims at optimizing this fabrication process by analyzing the effect of the dispersion media, carbon type, binder, pore former and fabrication parameters on electrode microstructure and fuel cell performance. Since this type of fabrication process is also being actively used by AFCC (partner organization), resulting outcomes will translate into an economical advantage for our industrial partners by a new fabrication method that minimizes expensive catalyst usage.