Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the need for decarbonized and healthy buildings and more high quality personnel (HQP) working in the building sector. Buildings account for nearly 40% of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions because people in Canada and other developed countries spend over 90% of their time indoors. Thus, buildings that provide Canadians with a comfortable and healthy place to work and live are essential for a healthy, prosperous and sustainable nation. Many technical advances have reduced heat losses/gains in buildings and even led to net-zero energy/carbon/emission buildings. However, comparatively little work has been done on moisture transfer in buildings, although research shows that the global energy required to control moisture in buildings is, in fact, slightly larger than the global energy required to control temperature. In the past decades, the moisture transfer efficiency of heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment has changed little even though removing moisture from a hot humid air stream during a cooling process may require 2 to 3 times more energy than simply cooling the air with no moisture transfer. Furthermore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that the demand for cooling in buildings will increase 30 times over this century meaning that moisture transfer efficiency will become even more important. Nevertheless, in cold climates such as Canada, heating accounts for about _ of residential, commercial and industrial energy consumption. The proposed research program includes research aimed at improving heating systems by eliminating frosting in heat pumps for buildings and vehicles, improving cooling and dehumidification systems by reducing fouling in membrane energy exchangers and improving ventilation systems by reducing contaminant transfer in energy exchangers. In the proposed research program, HQP will be trained in the area of energy-efficient and low-carbon buildings, with special emphasis on heat and mass transfer in HVAC energy exchangers. Experimental and numerical studies are proposed to better understand (1) frosting, (2) fouling and (3) contaminant transfer and to apply this knowledge to develop energy exchangers and HVAC systems with lower frosting, fouling and contaminant transfer rates, which will improve the indoor air quality, energy-efficiency and decarbonization of buildings. Thus, this Discovery Grant research will address the growing need for energy-efficient HVAC systems that control moisture and contaminants in buildings, while providing data that will improve the fundamental understanding of heat and moisture transfer processes and phase change at surfaces.