For his research project titled “A New Perspective on the Stability of Liquid Films on Solid Surfaces”, Suraj Borkar (ChemE PhD student), under the guidance of Professor Arun Ramchandran, set out to better understand the cause of destabilization of films of hydrophobic liquids (for example oil) sandwiched between a liquid medium (like water) and a… Read more »
Professor Cathy Chin and her team from the Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Innovative Catalytic Science have several reasons to celebrate! On May 23, 2022, William Broomhead (ChemE PhD student) will deliver a lecture at the 27th North American Catalysis Society Meeting in New York City. Broomhead’s talk will discuss the green-catalytic processes and systems for the… Read more »
Short glass and carbon fibres are added to polymers, such as epoxy, to provide stiffness and strength. As the fibres are elastic, they behave like metal springs, but the polymers are viscoelastic, meaning that they undergo creep and stress relaxation. When elastic fibres are added to viscoelastic polymers, the fibres seem to strangely alter the… Read more »
Phosphorous (P) is a critical component of biological processes. Yet, its over-enrichment in water bodies, known as eutrophication, can have detrimental effects on aquatic ecosystems. As a non-renewable resource with no known alternatives, it is important to recover P from wastewater. Sara Abu-Obaid (PhD candidate), supervised by Professor Ramin Farnood and Adjunct Professor Shahram Tabe,… Read more »
Pulp and paper mills are often plagued with sodium salt scaling in their high solid evaporators. Research in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry is looking to improve the energy efficiency of mills, and in the best case, reduce the potential downtime associated with the removal of scales through more intensive means. A… Read more »
Maryam Mousavi (ChemE PhD student) supervised by Professor Niko DeMartini is working on the fate of phosphorus in the chemical recovery cycle of kraft pulp mills. As mills tighten water cycles and look to replace fossil fuel with biomass fuels, the buildup of non-process elements (NPEs), especially phosphorus, is a significant concern for the industry…. Read more »
Microplastics are common pollutants that can be found everywhere: in the food we eat, in the air we breath, in the Sahara Desert, and in deep oceans. A common way to study microplastics is to collect water/soil/sediment samples in the environment and analyze them in the lab, but this method comes with complications. To quantify… Read more »
Microplastic debris in major water systems has become a significant issue in recent years. Monitoring microplastic pollution and evaluating its health risks are largescale jobs. Bin Shi, a PhD student from the Department of Material Science & Engineering, strives to reduce these challenges through his project, Automatic quantification and classification of microplastics in scanning electron… Read more »
Four graduate students have received Student Discovery Awards. Established in 2013, this award is presented to students who have successfully defended their MASc or PhD thesis at a Departmental Oral Examination within 2 or 5 years of program start date respectively, and have authored/co-authored at least one first-authored paper per year in the program at… Read more »
Sheida Stephens (PhD Candidate) supervised by Professor Grant Allen is one of three recipients of the 2021 Engineers Canada Manulife Scholarship, which provides $12,500 to each recipient to further their study/research in an engineering field. Click here to explore the various ways this year’s recipients are strengthening their knowledge in the field.
