Grant: Alliance Grants

Bio-stimulant sunscreens are widely and successfully utilized by tree fruit and tree nut farmers in the USA. Presently, there are no sales or marketing of this sunscreen product in Canada. This places Canadian growers at an increasing disadvantage to growers across the border, who are benefitting from the application of this product. Imasco Minerals Inc. is planning to build a new plant in British Columbia for the production of 800,000 gallons/year of this bio-stimulant sunscreen, which will lead to $16,000,000/year sales. The sunscreen consists of 62% ultrafine calcium carbonate, 31% water and 7 other minor ingredients. There are difficulties in achieving consistent, high quality mixing during the formulation of this highly concentrated slurry of ultrafine particles which exhibits non-Newtonian behavior. Some of the problems are unstable colloids, incomplete dispersion, particle aggregation, excessive sedimentation, segregation, and aeration. Thus, Imasco is seeking to collaborate with Ryerson University to investigate mixing and deaeration of the sunscreen formulation that protects plants and fruits from the damage caused by excessive UV exposure and heat stress. The main objective of the proposed project is to determine the optimal design parameters for an efficient mixer and deaerator for the production of the sunscreen via the use of tomography, endoscopy, rheometery, and advanced computational fluid dynamics techniques. Imasco will utilize the findings of this research project in its new sunscreen production plant. This will enable Imasco to lead the North American bio-stimulant sunscreen industry by establishing a uniquely combined program of its proprietary calcium carbonate milling operation and a state-of-the-art slurry mixing and deaeration operations. Canada will be Imasco's home market and show case to its potential international market. The operation of this new production plant will lead to the creation of many job positions in Canada. This will also result in ample export sales, increased tax base for Revenue Canada, Province of BC, and Municipality of Surrey. This project will also contribute to the training of one postdoctoral fellow and two Ph.D. students, who will gain invaluable industrial experience.