Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Energy industry contributes over 25% to the prairie provinces gross industrial outputs. Development of energy industry is currently associated with a number of environmental concerns, such as hazardous waste generation, soil contamination, and water pollution. A large amount of heavy metals have been released during the exploration, processing, transportation and consumption of energetic fuels. After being discharged, heavy metal pollutants can migrate through atmosphere, soil and water and contaminate surrounding environment, resulting in impacts and risks on human and wildlife. Pollutant behaviors in the environment are governed by a number of interactive factors. These complexities can be intensified due to the heterogeneity of energy activities and environmental factors in cold regions. The existing knowledge gained without considering these complexities is inadequate and often incapable for supporting assessment and management of these issues in Western Canada. To address such challenge, an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) instrument is required to quantify the trace-level heavy metals in the surrounding environment. The objectives of this research include: (a) to develop an ICP-MS method to determine the content of trace level metals in the environment influenced by energy industry; (b) to explore the transport and accumulation of heavy metals in the surrounding environment; (c) to promote application of the developed methodologies to related environmental problems in energy industry of western Canada. The requested equipment will facilitate the research about system optimization, emission mitigation, risk management, socio-economic analysis and decision support within a general framework. The outcomes will significantly improve our understanding of the environmental challenges faced in Western Canada, and provide a scientific basis for developing regional clean energy initiatives. It is anticipated that the results will be transferred to western Canadian industry to generate more extensive impacts. Local governments and other end users can also use the developed technologies to generate effective clean energy management strategies. With NSERCs support, it is expected that Western Canada would have opportunities to be both a leader in Canadian clean energy and a driver for Canada to continue its path as a key player in the worlds transition to a green future. Energy and environmental research is a key component of the University of Reginas institutional strategic plan. The equipment supported by NSERC will be combined with other experimental devices at the University of Regina to form an integrated energy and environmental research system. The proposed equipment enables a number of research topics for MASc and PhD studies. Many graduate students and PDFs will be trained through involvement in the use of proposed equipment.