Two Waterloo Engineering research projects have received over $212,000 in funding from Carbon Management Canada. John Wen and Robert Varin, both of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, will use the money to characterize and evaluate the on-site adsorption and carbonation of flue gas CO2 in ball-milling activated mine waste. The purpose of their project is to modify the microstructures of mine waste and limestone for minimizing energy consumption and increasing the capacity of CO2 sequestration.
Carolyn Ren, who is also a mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor, will use the funding to investigate the transport phenomena of supercritical CO2 bubbles in micro-fractures, which is essential to assess the leakage mechanism of CO2 in the cement, casing and rock from its storage site.