Thomas Thundat, who holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Oil Sands Molecular Engineering, has been awarded $800,000 for research into the development of tools and techniques to understand oilsands at the nanoscale.

Edmonton—Three Faculty of Engineering professors have received a financial boost for their research projects from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Thomas Thundat of the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering professors Yaman Boluk and Alireza Bayat are among seven University of Alberta researchers to receive CFI Leaders Opportunity Fund grants. The awards are part of a national announcement adding $33 million in funding to researchers across the country, including $2.7 million to the U of A.

In the Faculty of Engineering, the funding will support research into cleaner technologies for oilsands extraction, new transportation engineering advances that could improve the safety of our roads and research into soft metals for use in areas such as new lubricants.

Boluk was awarded $100,000 to help establish a research facility for nanocellulose processing and application and Bayat received more than $250,000 to help support his research into the use of non-traditional materials, such as recycled tires and Styrofoam, to improve the performance of pavement in cold regions.

Thundat was awarded $800,000 for research into the development of tools and techniques to understand oilsands at the nanoscale.

“Oilsands operations are immense and the scale is huge, but discoveries at the nano-scale will make a difference,” said Thundat, who holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Oil Sands Molecular Engineering.

The federal funding, he added, will help develop “the next generation of tools and techniques for improved oilsands processing” and could ultimately lead to technology that reduces or eliminates tailings—a toxic byproduct of the oilsands separation process.

The funding announcement was made by member of Parliament and Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear at Thundat’s lab in the National Institute for Nanotechnology, based at the U of A.

Dean of Engineering David Lynch pointed out that the lab the announcement was made in “wouldn’t be here without funding from the CFI.”

“CFI funds were partially responsible for building this floor and outfitting this lab,” Lynch said, calling the funding program “transformative.”

Lynch added that funding programs such as the CFI do more than allow researchers to purchase equipment, they help universities attract the best and brightest graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and researchers in the world.

“Thomas is an example of how having cutting-edge facilities helps in attracting the best researchers from around the world,” Lynch said.