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 […]

A current area of focus at SMT Americas is to develop injection-moulding methods for medical lab-on-chip (LOC) devices, particularly to transport and process blood and plasma while eliminating conduits clogging and reducing sample loss. This project will evaluate the effect of flow conditions on viscosity of samples, and the adequacy of conduit structures achieved with […]

This project aims to assist a company in developing Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and Human Factors modeling (HFM) capabilities. Simultaneously the project aims to explore the impact of alternative engineering designs with a Human Factors (HF) focus. These two aims will help understand factors that affect the uptake and application of the DES and HFM […]

The strength and stability of rock is strongly affected by the presence of embedded discontinuities, such as the bedding planes and/or pre-existing macro-fractures. In the latter case, given the scale of the problem the use of homogenization techniques is rather restricted as no direct experimental verification is feasible. Therefore, the issue needs to be addressed […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

La fatigue des matériaux est un phénomène d’endommagement. Ce dernier a donc un impact négatif sur les équipements qui sont sollicités de telle sorte dont les turbines hydrauliques servant à produire l’hydro-électricité. Il devient donc nécessaire d’enrichir les connaissances dans ce domaine pour diminuer l’importance de cette dégradation sur des composants aussi critiques que les […]