Materials engineering professor Ken Cadien is leading a team that is working to develop a methanol-powered battery.

Edmonton—A materials engineering professor has been awarded $559,500 for unique research into the development of a nano-catalytic energy cell—in short, a long-lasting battery that runs on methanol.

Led by Ken Cadien in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, the idea behind the research is to develop small batteries that can be used in cold climates and last a long time. Cadien and his team, mechanical engineering professors Sushanta Mitra and Subir Bhattacharjee and chemical and materials engineering professor Thomas Thundat, propose to develop the device by converting energy in methanol to heat then converting the heat to electrical energy.

It’s a tricky feat of engineering. Methanol is a powerful source of energy—it burns at over 1,800 C. But Cadien and his team feel confident they can burn the methanol at low temperature in a device that meters the fuel source out slowly, through microfluidic channels.

The group would burn the fuel with a chemical reaction, exposing it to nano-sized particles of metal that will act as a catalyst. In previous research, team member Thomas Thundat, who holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Oil Sands Molecular Engineering, has accomplished this, burning methanol at temperatures below 200 C.

“We’re trying to take advantage of the high energy content of methanol,” said Cadien. “In the presence of a catalyst it generates heat, which we convert into electrical energy.

“It’s very challenging but we have a strong team,” he added. “And we don’t know of anyone else who is doing this.”

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada funding announcement awarded a total of seven U of A researchers with close to $3 million in Strategic Project Grants funding

Cadien and Hani Heinen in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering and Venkata  Dinavahai, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, were awarded a combined total of $1.2 million. The goal of the grants is to increase research and training in areas that could influence Canada’s economy, society or environment in the next 10 years.