The need for green technologies and depletion of crude oil has led to a search for renewable resources. Forest biomass certainly has the potential for the production of most of fossil based products. In the current project, one of the components of forest biomass, hemicellulose will be used to produce xylitol through fermentation process instead […]

The proposed research project aims at developing a novel nanofibrous membrane incorporating cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) for wastewater treatment. Sustainable nanomaterials such as CNCs possess many interesting properties like high specific surface area, good mechanical strength, biodegradability and large amount of primary hydroxyl groups for surface functionalization. Hence incorporation of these CNCs can have synergistic effects […]

The direct borohydride fuel cells (DBFCs) are a much simpler system compared to the hydrogen fuel cell, in terms of fuel infrastructure. The mystery behind the borohydride oxidation reaction mechanism hinders its commercial utilization. To effectively tackle the challenges with DBFCs, it is crucial to identify a highly active catalyst and understand the nature of […]

Global population growth, urbanization and changing climate patterns have increased the demand for potable water, wastewater reuse and value recovery from wastewater, and treatment of industrial process water. Population growth also results in increased demand for the shipping of goods by ocean freight, with the associated risk of the transport of unwanted marine life from […]

There is growing pressure from intergovernmental organizations, governments and consumers to reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. Investments in green technology such as renewable energy sources, battery technology and carbon capture and sequestration can often yield significant reductions in carbon emissions. However, the corresponding economic costs of these projects can […]

The main objective of this research project is to obtain an additive helps to increase the cetane number as well as reducing fuel consumption in diesel engines. In the proposed study, we will perform the characterization of available petroleum diesel and analyze their properties. The ethanol based additive later will be added in several different […]

Direct Contact Steam Generators (DCSGs) for use in Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage generate flue gas containing steam and C02 which can be injected into reservoirs to aid bitumen recovery with part of the C02 remaining underground. The objectives of this project are to understand mechanisms of C02-stearn bitumen rate enhancement and determine the amount of […]

Coatings are an essential part in the formulation of drug tablets/beads in the pharmaceutical industry. Most film coatings are applied as aqueous or organic-based polymer solution, which cause many issues such as toxicity, high environmental impact, and high operational cost. The goal of this project is to develop a novel coating technology using dry powder. […]

Powder coatings are more environmentally-friendly and cost-effective than liquid coatings. However, the use of coarse coating particles leads to high film thickness and inferior visual appearance, and these defects limit their use where high precision and highly aesthetic effects are required. To obtain a smooth coated surface, the use of fine powder is necessary. However, […]

Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage is the most commonly used in-situ thermal method for recovering bitumen from oil sands formations in western Canada. In this process, two parallel horizontal wells, about 5 m apart vertically, are drilled near the bottom of the formation. Before production, the bitumen between the two wells has to be heated, to become […]

The fuel-grade ethanol obtained from corn-based feedstocks, utilizes about 33% of the total carbon present in corn based feedstocks. The remaining fraction is converted into dry distillers’ grains (DDG) and carbon dioxide, which is then converted to syngas (CO+H2). In this research the syngas from ethanol plant will be converted to transportation fuel and derived […]

Accurately and rapidly detecting fraudulent transactions is primordial in the course of any corporation?s routine operations and essential to its commercial viability, especially a deposit-taking bank. We investigate the use of computer-based techniques to automatically detect fraudulent use of a real banking network. Our goal ultimate goal is to make electronic commerce safer, which will […]