Cape Breton Post

Thirst for knowledge

Feds earmark $1.1M for CBU wastewater project

- BYCHRISSHA­NNON

The Verschuren Centre at Cape Breton University received $1.1 million in federal funding Thursday to explore ways to develop clean technology for commercial and industrial wastewater systems.

The money was made available through the Atlantic Canada Opportunit­ies Agency’s Atlantic innovation fund.

Cape Breton-Canso MP Rodger Cuzner announced the funding on behalf of ACOA Minister Navdeep Bains.

A byproduct of food processing, organic material routinely ends up in a company’s wastewater system and a new technology will attempt to degrade the organics and clean the water.

Releasing the organic wastewater material into the environmen­t can deprive marine life of oxygen that’s required to survive.

Once developed by a team of scientists and engineers at the Verschuren Centre, the technology will clean the wastewater before it’s discharged into the environmen­t.

“The end water will be the exact or better than what you would have at a water treatment plant,” Verschuren Centre CEO Andrew Swanson said following the announceme­nt.

Working with large commercial and industrial companies, Swanson said the idea of cleaning wastewater and brainstorm­ing ways to do it were brought forward to a number of the Verschuren Centre’s business partners. He declined to name the companies assisting in the developmen­t of the new wastewater cleaning technology because their participat­ion in the research may indicate there are problems with their internal systems.

See STRUGGLED,

Although he said they are “largely in the fisheries, in the food and beverage manufactur­ing” industries, as well as the oil-and-gas sector.

“Their interests are just as strong as ours in terms of environmen­tal stewardshi­p,” Swanson said.

“Bottom line to them is essentiall­y every drop of water recycled is a buck saved and sometimes it’s multimilli­on-dollar bucks on a monthly basis for them.”

CBU will spend $500,000 as its stake in the $1.6-million project.

Five full-time equivalent jobs will be created — scientists, water engineers, a business developer and a marketer will all work on the project as it unfolds over the next three years.

Xu Zhang, the research chair in applied nanotechno­logy at the Verschuren Centre, will lead the project and student researcher­s in masters and PhD level programs will also play a part, Swanson said.

Most of the work will happen in laboratori­es at the Verschuren Centre.

Besides salaries, the funding will go toward ensuring the prototypes developed in the second year of the project will function properly with the systems already in place at the participat­ing companies.

The university has struggled with a declining enrolment and has yet to pass a budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year, which may still include faculty layoffs.

The university is currently saddled with a $1.3-million deficit.

CBU president David Wheeler told the crowd at Thursday’s announceme­nt that universiti­es — even undergradu­ate institutio­ns such as CBU — will need to invest more money on research and developmen­t initiative­s in the future to become key economic players at the provincial and national levels.

“This is what universiti­es have to do. It’s not an alternativ­e,” he said.

“I think this university can be considered an exemplar of this vision, which is provincial and national, for universiti­es to pull their weight.”

Swanson said the university would likely be able to recoup its investment through licensing agreements and the potential sale of the technology.

“Our role is to get (the technology) to a point where a company would continue to invest into it and see it as a viable option.”

 ?? CHRIS SHANNON/CAPE BRETON POST ?? Cape Breton University student researcher Kori Andrea holds a test tube of soluble nanopartic­les in water in a lab at the Verschuren Centre, while Xu Zhang, the research chair in applied nanotechno­logy, looks on. Nanotechno­logy is currently an area of...
CHRIS SHANNON/CAPE BRETON POST Cape Breton University student researcher Kori Andrea holds a test tube of soluble nanopartic­les in water in a lab at the Verschuren Centre, while Xu Zhang, the research chair in applied nanotechno­logy, looks on. Nanotechno­logy is currently an area of...

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