Overview

The Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources, ICFAR (pron. “I See Far”), is a research institute within the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Western Ontario. ICFAR was established in January 2008. In March of 2008, Ontario invested $5 million to support the design, construction and initial start-up operation of ICFAR’s new 20,000-square-foot research centre, located just a few minutes north of the City of London which officially opened on October 16, 2009. As its name suggests, the aim of ICFAR is to be a leader in the development of technologies and processes for the production of chemicals and fuels from alternative resources, with an emphasis on green engineering and environmental sustainability, an identified “signature area” of research in Western’s Strategic Research Plan. The goal is to quickly move research from the laboratory to large demonstration projects at ICFAR, paving the way for Canada’s fuel and chemical innovations to get to the global marketplace – fast. ICFAR researchers are working closely with many industry partners on project that include the development and testing of the next generation bio-fuel technologies, the investigation and optimization of fluid coking technologies for the primary upgrading of heavy oils, the development processes for the transformation of low value residual materials into higher value chemical products, and the development of innovative multiphase reactor technologies and ancillary equipments for performing such processes.