Capstone Group Airsero wins $5k in Norman Esch Pitch competition with eco-friendly oil spill tech
From left to right: Professor Milad Kamkar, Aliasgar Bawangaonwala, Anthony Keen and Hamzah Curtay
Nanotechnology Engineering (NE) Group 26, Airsero, won several awards for their Capstone Design Project. Airsero won the $5K in an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award at the Norman Esch Pitch Competition.
They also secured the UN Sustainable Development Goals Award within the Nanotechnology Engineering Department. At the inception of their project in 2024, the team received a MITACS Accelerate Award that helped with financing the project.
Group members Anthony Keen, Aliasgar Bawangaonwala, and Hamzah Curtay knew they wanted to focus on working with aerogel materials and were eager to do a project that could lead to a start-up.
"Capstone allowed us to go beyond theory —it pushed us into actual engineering problem-solving. Our supervisor, Professor Milad Kamkar, was incredibly supportive and encouraged us to explore various facets of aerogel and materials science," said Keen.
Kamkar from the Department of Chemical Engineering, has expertise in surface chemistry and geometry on the nanoscale as well as designing multifunctional aerogels.
The group reached out to potential industry partner Western Canadian Spill Services (WCSS), a company that focuses on oil spill preparedness and support services within Alberta. The connection with WCSS motivated the group to focus on using aerogel as a material to clean up oil spills.
Aerogels are extremely porous materials that are well-suited for absorption. Airsero utilized sustainable cellulose nanofibers, which they treated for oil selectivity in their prototype. For WCSS, the biodegradability of the absorbent material was the key factor.
The group created a prototype, focusing on absorbing oil spills from water. The result was an aerogel capable of absorbing 30 to 40 grams of non-polar solvents like diesel and gasoline per gram of material.
After the Capstone Symposium, pitching their idea at the Norman Esch Pitch competition was an amazing growth experience for the group.
“The whole startup ecosystem and Capstone were the perfect opportunity for us. We received guidance from faculty and the chance to talk to other companies, present our ideas and show off what we had made,” said Curtay.
The next step to further develop their project is to scale up the prototype, ensuring it is eco-friendly and cost-effective. They’re exploring expanding into more industries to market their absorbent pads for spills on land.
The group reflected on highlights of their undergraduate experience in the NE Program.
“The co-op program was the big highlight. I was able to apply what I was learning in the program to my co-op. From my recent co-op I learned how to use an SEM for analysis in the aerospace industry to analyze cracks and fatigue within aircraft forensics in aircraft failures. It was pretty interesting. Having the experience of what I was learning in my degree being applied in the real world was the highlight of my engineering experience,” says Bawangaonwala.
Keen and Curtay are pursuing graduate studies at the University of Waterloo and Bawangaonwala will be attending the University of Toronto for his postgraduate studies in Materials Engineering.