Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Canada consumes 40 billion litres of diesel fuel per year with world consumption at 700 billion litres, mostly used in mining, transportation and farming industries. The Canadian transportation sector produces more than 40% green house gases (GHG). Biodiesel (composed of fatty acid alkyl esters) is renewable, biodegradable, has high flash point, high cetane number and high lubricity. Canada has implemented 2% biodiesel in diesel fuel and plans to use 5% by 2012. Price of the feedstock is 60-75% of the overall biodiesel production cost. Also, this process uses large volume of water for the removal of catalyst from the product. The proposed research aims at continuous production of biodiesel by using novel solid mesoporous catalysts and low-cost feed-stocks such as green seeds derived oils from canola, mustard and soya, and other non-edible oils such as fryer grease and micro-algae. Novel hetero polyacid catalysts will be developed for biodisel production. Processing efficiency will be enhanced by eliminating water use, and the down stream processing cost will be reduced by using crude glycerol byproduct via various catalytic routes for targeted biochemical productions. Also, it is proposed to develop technologies to maximize the production of biosyndiesel and higher alcohols from syngas obtained from waste biomass and urban solid wastes. The diesel thus produced is of superior quality with high cetane number and with no sulfur, nitrogen or aromatic pollutants. The proposed work involves the synthesis of nano particles using multifunctional active metals (Mo, Fe or Co) with promoters such as Ru and Rh and alkali (K) on carbon nanotubes and carbon nanohorns. These materials have high mechanical and thermal properties and can anchor these nanoparticles once defects are created on the supports by mild acid treatments. Attempts will be made to extensively characterize (before and after reactions) and produce robust and well dispersed particles with wetness impregnation techniques so as to have them less sensitive to feedstock variability and produced water. Also, the catalyst life, which is often reduced due to carbon and wax deposition, needs to be examined. Finally, the reaction mechanisms, kinetics and reactor design will be evaluated for these processes.