A research project that may significantly boost clean biofuel production in Canada is among three Waterloo Engineering initiatives to receive funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
NSERC
is
awarding $486,000
to
Perry
Chou
and
Murray
Moo-Young,
both
of
chemical
engineering, to
help
develop
new
strains
of
bacteria
and
bioprocessing
techniques
to
convert
cheap
feedstock
into a
clean,
renewable
and
sustainable
biofuel.
Norman
Zhou
of mechanical
and
mechatronics
engineering
and Mark
Servos
of
Waterloo's
biology
department
will
receive
almost
$492,000
to
investigate
the removal
of
drinking
water
contaminants
with
innovative nanowire
membranes.
And Weihua
Zhuang
of
electrical
and
computer
engineering
will
receive
$558,000
to
develop lower
power
consumption
in
existing
wireless
communication
networks
by
improving
their
efficiency.
NSERC
Strategic
Project
Grants
support
early-stage
projects
and
aim
to
encourage
collaboration
among
academic
researchers,
industry
and
government
partners.
The
goal
of
these
grants
is
to
increase
research
and
training
in
areas
that
could
strongly
influence
Canada’s
economy,
society
or
environment
in
the
next
10
years.
[news
release]