Congratulations to our Director Dr. Xiaotao Bi for being awarded the Strategic Partnership Grant for Projects by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). These grants support early-stage collaborative research projects in four target areas: advanced manufacturing, environment and agriculture, information and communications technologies, and natural resources and energy. Each collaboration must be between an academic researcher and a supporting organization that will be involved in all stages of the project.
Dr. Bi proposes to develop a new catalytic pyrolysis reactor system to convert biomass into high-quality bio-oil (upgradable to diesel and jet fuels) and biochar (usable as a high-value carbon-based fertilizer and reduction agent for iron ore processing). In addition to stimulating the Canadian bioeconomy, this technology will help the country meet its greenhouse emissions reduction target. The collaborators are Professor Weihsin Chen at National Cheng Kung University, EnWave Corp and G4 Insights Inc in Canada, and China Steel Corp in Taiwan.
By encouraging universities, industry, and governmental organizations to work together in tackling Canada’s greatest challenges, NSERC aims to not only foster innovations that will improve Canada’s economy, society, and environment, but also offer valuable training opportunities for the next generation of scientists and engineers.
News on UBC website: https://apsc.ubc.ca/news/2017/03/nserc-awards-strategic-partnership-grants-five-ubc-engineering-profs