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Lakehead University receives CFI grant for green mining project

Lakehead University researchers will soon be able to take waste from the forest industry to create environmentally friendly biobased chemicals used for mine rehabilitation.
Dr.-Pedram-Fatehi_Cropped
Dr. Pedram Fatehi, Lakehead University assistant professor, Chemical Engineering.

Lakehead University researchers will soon be able to take waste from the forest industry to create environmentally friendly biobased chemicals used for mine rehabilitation.

A $132,161 grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) allows Lakehead University to purchase equipment that will be used to characterize lignin-based products that will be applied in the mining industry.

“Currently, oil-based chemicals are used as flocculants and dispersants in mining during the rehabilitation process. We will try to make similar chemicals that are bio-based,” said Dr. Pedram Fatehi, assistant professor of Chemical Engineering.

“Bio-based chemicals will be better for the environment and more efficient. They will replace the oil- based chemicals that are more toxic and expensive,” said Fatehi,

Working with Fathehi are Lakehead University researchers Dr. Baoqiang Liao, a chemical engineer, Dr. Mat Leitch of the Faculty of Natural Resources Management, and a dozen students.

The CFI’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund grant will help Lakehead University purchase instruments to perform gel permeation chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, dynamic light scattering and photometric dispersion analysis.

Researchers will utilize these instruments to create bio- based chemicals to improve mine rehabilitation.