Bioinspired Unconventional Decontamination (BUD®)

Canada is the third largest exporter and the fourth largest producer of oil in the world. Thus, oil is a very important part of the Canadian economy. Oil is a cleaner fuel than coal, but it still has many disadvantages. For example, oil spills that occurs during transport and drilling can cause great environmental damage. Oil spills into oceans are harmful to marine mammals and birds as well as shellfish and fish. Methods for oil spill cleanup usually remove the oil layer from the surface of the water or break it up to make the oil spill less visible by pushing the effects of the spill underwater. Our response technology targets suspended or sunken oil before deep-sea currents drive the plume of oil far from the oil spill origin. Actually, our response technology is a problem-solving toolbox containing innovative devices/processes (e.g., enzyme mixture, jellyfish like tool) for oil spill cleanup. In this problem-solving toolbox, biological catalysts (enzymes) produced by oil-eating bacteria are used to detoxify toxic components catched by jellyfish tentacles.

Faculty Supervisor:

Satinder Kaur Brar

Student:

Seyyed Mohammadreza Davoodi

Partner:

Springboard Atlantic

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

York University