In order to have real-world impact, innovations for sustainability need to move from the idea phase to commercialization or uptake. Since 2018, the 91社区 Sustainability Systems Initiative鈥檚 Innovation Fund has been providing 91社区 Faculty with the support needed to move their projects forward to the next stage of development.
Closing the Phosphorus Loop
鈥淚f you live in a large city, every time you flush, you send non-renewable nutrients to a wastewater treatment plant where they are locked up to prevent algal growth and eutrophication鈥�, explains Sidney Omelon, Associate Professor in the Department of Mining and Materials Engineering. Her team is working on a novel process to unlock these important nutrients 鈥斅爏pecifically phosphorous 鈥斅爏o that they can be put to use.
Phosphorous is an essential nutrient for plant growth, making it a critical input for agricultural. Currently, Canada鈥檚 fertilizer industry relies mostly on imported, non-renewable phosphate rock. At the same time, municipal wastewater contains high concentrations of phosphorus 鈥斅爁rom food, human waste, and some detergents 鈥斅爐hat must be removed through treatment in order to prevent negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems, human health, and the economy.
Existing wastewater treatment processes capture phosphorous as insoluble iron phosphate, which is too stable 鈥斅爋r locked up 鈥斅爐o be useful to plants. Professor Omelon鈥檚 team is looking to recover these outputs as calcium phosphate, a form that is more accessible. This novel technology will contribute to a circular phosphorus cycle, reducing our dependence of phosphate rock imports while limiting adverse impacts of phosphorous on our aquatic environments.
Supported through the MSSI Innovation Fund, Sarah Bluteau 鈥斅燼 former M.Eng. student in Professor Omelon鈥檚 lab 鈥斅燽uilt and operated a lab-scale process that demonstrated that this novel approach is possible, and her work on the project contributed to a successful M.Eng. thesis submission. Professor Omelon has been awarded a grant from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada鈥檚 program to continue the development of this new technology.
Renewable Ammonia Synthesis
Ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen that is another traditionally important input for agriculture, is also important for the energy transition as it is considered a promising carbon-free hydrogen carrier and fuel. While ammonia can be produced through natural processes, the synthetic ammonia used in fertilizers 鈥斅燼nd other chemicals such as pharmaceuticals and cleaning products 鈥斅爄s mostly produced through the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process.
Professor Sylvain Coulombe (Department of Chemical Engineering) is looking to displace this process 鈥斅爓hich currently accounts for roughly 2% of the world鈥檚 energy consumption 鈥斅爓ith a technology that is less energy intensive, makes more efficient use of materials, and relies entirely on electricity from renewable sources.
The proof-of-concept project, supported by the MSSI Innovation Fund, demonstrated that ammonia gas can be synthesized entirely from electricity using plasma technology being developed at the . 鈥淥ver the last 3 years, we developed novel electric plasma reactors and processes to produce ammonia in a completely different and sustainable way,鈥� says Prof. Coulombe. This research has evolved into a collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada National Research Council of Canada under the program and has recently been awarded an for joint Canada-Germany projects on hydrogen technologies with collaborators at the Technical University of Munich.
The potential to find creative and sustainable solutions to important challenges is what Professor Coulombe finds most exciting about this work: 鈥淲e are developing novel end-to-end sustainable processes. Students, researchers and professors involved in this project are fully committed to think differently and excited by the prospect of making a huge impact on society.鈥�
You can learn more about the Innovation Fund on the MSSI website.
