Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 3

Ethanol is a vital substance used across many industries. The world's ethanol consumption is growingdramatically due to the drive for biofuels and green plastic production. Ethanol production consumes water andenergy. Whitefox Technologies Inc.'s (Whitefox) has greened this process with a patented technology thatminimizes waste while increasing water and energy efficiencies. Their single step modular membrane process for various grades of ethanol (fuel and industrial) have a strong tolerance for high water content removing the need for a distillation stage. The outcome is a novel, fully integrated process that maximizes water and energy efficiencies.For 20 years, Whitefox has worked with engineering companies and ethanol producers to apply membranetechnology to ethanol dehydration producing a high grade ethanol. Whitefox has developed andcommercialized process solutions based on membrane-assisted dehydration of organic solvents They have a new a promising technology with Polybenzimidazole (PBI) fibers. They are seeking to work with SAIT toachieve a consistent novel hollow fibre membrane technology platform for a variety of technical separations under mechanical, thermal (above 500° C) and chemical exposure. This novel efficient process significantly reduces energy consumption, water usage and greenhouse gas emission during the use of ethanol in theproduction of pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, organic specialties and biofuel commodities. Whitefox is providing solutions to customers in Europe, Brazil and North America, with a modular system catering to alarge range of capacities from 6,000 to 1 million liters per day.