Catalytic, Interfacial, and Transport Engineering
The research done by the Catalytic, Interfacial, and Transport Engineering Group spans fluid mechanics, interfacial phenomena, transport phenomena, and chemical reactions. Fluid mechanics is concerned with understanding the motion of fluids when subject to external forces; interfacial and transport phenomena research focuses on the transfer, by the fluids in motion, of chemical species and energy across fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interfaces. Research on catalysis focuses on the importance of interactions among chemical species, especially at interfaces, in regulating the speed of chemical reactions. These phenomena play an important role in many industrial processes. As a result, application areas are diverse, ranging from bitumen and heavy oil recovery to drug delivery systems to pollution control.
The scope of work done by this inter-related research group from the Faculties of Engineering and Science varies from the very fundamental (e.g., measurements of interaction forces, direct numerical simulation of multiphase flows) to the very applied (e.g., improvement of bitumen extraction and upgrading processes, drug delivery to the lungs).
On average, a total of 70 papers per year are published by the group in highly respected, peer-reviewed journals. Members have also received numerous awards from provincial, national, and international agencies.