U of S selects two new Petro-Canada Young Innovators

Posted September 10, 1998


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 10, 1998
98-09-03-OTHER

Dr. Ram Balachandar and Dr. Yuanming Pan were each awarded a $20,000
Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award at a special campus event today.

?These outstanding young researchers are excellent examples of what the
Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award Program was designed to encourage,? said
Dr. Michael Corcoran, U of S Vice-President (Research). ?Their work will
not only enrich student learning but have the potential to be of
significance to the business community and society at large.?

Balachandar, an associate professor of civil engineering, will do basic
research that could lead to more environmentally friendly vapor sprays --
such as more efficient fuel injection devices in car engines, more effective
clean-up of toxic chemical sprays from the rupture of pressurized canisters
in rail and truck accidents, and more environmentally safe spray cans for
insecticides, deodorants and paint.

Pan, an associate professor of geological sciences, will study the origin of
ancient fossilized organic matter responsible for the formation of oil and
gas resources, work of immense interest to the petroleum industry. The
research could also provide new insights into the early evolution of the
Earth?s atmosphere.

In 1996, Petro-Canada contributed $100,000 to the U of S?s First and Best
National Campaign to create five new awards under the Petro-Canada Young
Innovator Awards Program. The program, intended to assist young researchers
launch their scholarly careers, was created in 1995 in response to concerns
by universities that some of Canada?s most promising young minds were
leaving the country to conduct their research elsewhere.

The program recognizes, promotes and supports outstanding young faculty
researchers whose academic work is particularly innovative, enhances the
learning environment in the department in which they study, and has the
potential to be significant to society at large.

Ken Cummings, Petro-Canada terminal manager for Saskatchewan and Manitoba,
said the purpose of the program is to ?keep Canada strong and competitive
economically by helping ensure that our most promising young researchers can
continue their careers here at home.?

The research undertaken by Dr. Balachandar and Dr. Pan ?is contributing to
the knowledge base of our industry and we are pleased to be able to help
support their work,? he added.

Candidates for the award are nominated by their department and selected by a
committee chaired by the Vice-President (Research). Selection criteria
include the researcher?s overall research promise, the degree of innovation
of the work, the quality of the proposal, and relevance to the interests of
Petro-Canada. Recipients must be full-time, tenure-track faculty. The
first award was in 1996.

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For more information, please contact:

Kathryn Warden
Research Communications Officer
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca

Ken Cummings
Petro-Canada Terminal Manager
Saskatchewan/Manitoba Region
(306) 668-5353


More Environmentally Friendly Sprays

Balachandar and four graduate students will study both ?flashing? -- the
formation of vapor sprays when chemical liquids under pressure are released
-- and the dispersal of vapor droplets from these sprays into the air.
They?ll use laser beams emitted by a sophisticated instrument called a
Laser-Doppler anemometer to measure the size and speed of vapor droplets as
a vapor jet disperses.

This research will help engineers design automotive fuel-injection devices
that result in both better engine performance and less energy use, he says.
Engines run more efficiently if the gasoline sprayed onto the cylinders
forms vapor droplets small enough to burn fully.

Balachandar, who is also an associate member of the mechanical engineering
department, hopes to develop a model for predicting precisely how the
gasoline in these fuel injection systems will form vapor sprays. He notes
even a tiny percentage increase in engine efficiency would mean a big energy
saving in world-wide vehicle use.

His work could also reduce the exposure of workers in petrochemical
manufacturing plants to very fine chemical sprays released when
pin-hole-sized cracks develop in pipes. While larger droplets settle to the
floor by gravity, tiny ones float through the air, sometimes putting workers
throughout a building at risk. ?We hope to be able to tell people what
droplet sizes would be formed by a hole of a given size such as one
millimetre. They can then determine how extensive the clean-up operations
should be,? he said.

In separate but related research, Balachandar and colleague Dr. Dvoralai
Wulfsohn, an associate professor of agricultural and bioresource
engineering, are studying the drift of chemical sprays when farmers spray
their crops under various wind conditions. They hope their findings will
mean less wastage of chemicals and less danger to people who might inhale
the toxins in the spraying area.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Ram Balachandar
Associate Professor of Civil Engineering
Phone: (306) 966-5360
Fax: (306) 966-5427


Earth?s Diary -- Ancient Hard Black Goo

Pan will study solid, fossilized organic matter derived from plant and
animal remains up to 2.5 billion years ago.

Buried deep within the Earth, some of this black, carbon-rich material
evolved over time into hydrocarbon compounds which formed oil and gas
deposits. But precisely how this happened -- what the intermediate steps
were -- is a mystery Pan and his post-doctoral fellow hope to solve.

Since little is known about the structural nature of these ancient organic
materials, Pan plans to use a sophisticated nuclear magnetic resonance
instrument, located at the Plant Biotechnology Institute, to probe the
molecular structure of samples from Alberta?s Athabasca oil sands. This
will boost understanding of how hydrocarbons evolved, information which
could eventually benefit petrochemical exploration.

Pan is also interested in the role these ancient organic compounds may have
played in the formation of gold and uranium deposits. He plans to probe the
molecular structure of carbon-rich rock samples from South Africa?s
Witwatersrand uranium-gold deposits (2.5 billion years old) and
Saskatchewan?s Athabasca uranium deposits (1.7 billion years old). Then, by
immersing these samples in gold and uranium solutions and observing whether
the minerals attach themselves to the organic compounds, he hopes to find
clues about how gold and uranium were formed.

Because it?s insoluble, the solid, carbon-rich material does not move around
beneath the Earth?s surface so it?s most likely the same age as the rocks in
which it is found. It thus provides a record of the origin of life and of
changes in the Earth?s atmosphere, information which could be useful in
understanding atmospheric changes today such as global warming.

?This is likely a long-term project,? he says. ?But without the
Petro-Canada award, it would be difficult to get money at this developmental
stage. This is seed money that will allow me to make a start.?

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Yuanming Pan
Associate Professor of Geological Sciences
University of Saskatchewan
Phone: (306) 966-5699
Fax: (306) 966-8593