Making Stronger and Lighter Wallboard

The ultimate goal of this project is to produce stronger and lighter gypsum wallboards through more sustainable production procedure. The wallboard production plant is divided in three sections: upstream where the raw gypsum is received, midstream where the raw gypsum is processed to produce Calcium Sulfate Hemihydrate (stucco), and downstream where the final wallboard product is produced. The main focus of this internship will be on the downstream section. We will try to improve the wallboards through controlling their chemical composition and physical structure. Gypsum Lab at University of Alberta has been performing research on this topic in last three years and this internship will build up on out current knowledge. Both Continental Building Product Inc. and Gypsum Lab at University of Alberta will benefit from outcomes of this research.

Faculty Supervisor:

Qingxia (Chad) Liu

Student:

Mohammad Khalkhali

Partner:

Continental Building Products

Discipline:

Engineering - chemical / biological

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Alberta