Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

With ever-growing public awareness of environmental quality and Canada's drive for environmental stewardship, research into mitigating air pollution and developing alternative sources of fuels are critical. The proposed capillary-inlet mass spectrometer will be applied to several projects focusing on reducing gaseous emissions from current and new hybrid automobiles and designing and developing new catalysts for hydrogen production. Its acquisition demonstrates a commitment to the growing need for research and development of technologies that result in improved air quality and alternative fuel research. For example, future emissions reductions from automobiles, both gasoline and diesel, require advanced, catalytic aftertreatment technologies and engine controls that account for catalyst performance trends. In order to design and maximize the efficiency of the catalysts, fast analysis of transient concentration changes of many varied species within the catalyst itself is needed. Hydrogen production from most sources require catalysts and these catalyst beds contain severe gradients. In order to design and optimize the catalysts and their distribution in a reactor, concentration gradients and degradation modes need to be determined. The proposed instrument/technique can run at the necessary frequency of data accumulation, and acquire data within the catalyst bed and reactor systems resulting in more complete analysis, for these new catalyst and reactor emission-controlling technologies. The mass spectrometer was chosen over other instruments due to its high data acquisition speed, ability to measure hydrogen and flexibility in probe location. The success of these programs and the training of the HQP involved will stimulate economic development and result in improved air quality in Canada as well as diversification of fuels for growing transportation and power requirements.