Saturday, January 26, 2008 • The London Free Press
KEN WIGHTMAN Sun Media
Waste into oil: Franco Berruti, a professor in the department of chemical and biochemical engineering at
UWO, holds the corn material leftover from ethanol production on the left and the oil that can be made
from such plant material on the right. Associate professor Ken Yeung, right, holds tobacco which is another
plant material suitable for oil production using a process developed by their department.
It’s not science fiction,
it’s Western research
BY JOE MATYAS
Sun Media
Imagine a machine that can
be trucked on to a farm where
it can turn corn stalks, tobacco
leaves, chopped wood, unharvested grains and grasses into
solids, liquids and gases that
can be used for fuels, fertilizers,
food additives and pharmaceuticals.
Although it sounds like science fiction, such a machine
exists and could soon be on the
market.
Developed at the University
of Western Ontario in partnership with Agri-Therm and
Agriculture Canada, the technology has attracted funding
for a startup company from
Ontario Centres of Excellence.
The work of chemical
engineering professors Franco
Berruti and Cedric Briens, and
associate professor Ken Yeung,
was recognized yesterday at the
London Convention Centre.
Their research in pyrolysis
-- the chemical decomposition
of organic materials -- has
produced a technology that can
turn agricultural waste into
useful products.
The biomass converters
were just one of the research
teams from Western who came
off campus and downtown
yesterday to show their stuff at
the convention centre.
About 120 projects that
have attracted millions of
dollars in government and
industry
funding
were
represented at the engineering
and science research showcase.
For one day, some of the
university's most innovative
projects became subjects of
public discussion and interest.
Project leaders, research
assistants and graduate students
were on hand to answer
questions about 60 science and
60 engineering initiatives displayed in comprehensible poster
form.
Topics of research ranged
from super small semiconductors to advanced waste treatment
technologies, natural disaster
mitigation and renewable energy
from biomass.
The event provided an occasion for the university to recognize four researchers who have
been granted patents for their
work and five projects that have
received funding for startup
companies.
In addition to funding the
pyrolysis project, Ontario Centres of Excellence announ-ced
commercial startup funding for:
!A biogenerator that uses a
fast-reproducing strain of bacteria to generate electricity from
hydrogen production. The process can reduce dependence on
fossil fuels and cut greenhouse
gas emissions. It was developed
under the leadership of Dimitre
Karamanev, professor of biochemical engineering.
!Air pulse therapy for patients
with dysphagia -- swallowing
problems that affect 16 million
North Americans. Lead researcher: Ruth Martin, professor of
communications disorders.
!A coating with a superior
ability to repel water that could
be a boon to the automotive,
marine and aerospace industries,
arising from the research of
biochemical and materials professors Hui Zhang and Jesse
Zhu.
!Web-based technology
for online services that
minimizes the need for
technical knowledge; Hamada Ghenniwa, profes-sor
of electrical and compu-ter
engineering, lead researcher.
Also acknowledged publicly were four researchers
who recently received patents for their work:
!Science professor Chil
Young Kang, lead researcher in the development of
an HIV-AIDS vaccine that
is in its clinical trial stage
and has been licensed to a
Korean company, Curocom.
!Science professors Duncan Hunter and Xizhen Zhu
for the invention of a radiopharmaceutical that can be
used to diagnose and treat
neuro-endrocrine cancer.
!Engineering professors
George Nakhla, Yubo Cui
and Jesse Zhu for a
biological reactor that uses
microbes to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from
wastewater.
!Hui Zhang and Jesse Zhu
for a powder gun coating
that evenly distributes paint.
“These projects show that
research matures and becomes viable,” said Alex
Navarre, Western's industry
liaison and director of technology transfer.
jmatyas@lfpress.com