Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Considering contemporary needs, the Program will be redirected toward three Themes: recovery of new water resources, new energy generation, and increase of food productivity. The research program objectives are development of technologies which can assure the access of vulnerable communities to water, food and energy generated on-site to suppress effects of climate change and overcome economical limitations. Short-term objective is development of technologies based on electrokinetic phenomena which will be using emissions and wasted products for production of pristine water, fertilizers, and alternative energy considering circular economy. The novelty of research relies on studying unconventional combination of physicochemical and biological processes with electrochemical phenomena applied to environmental problems. This grant will support mostly labs scale study, while the generated results will be applied at a larger scale using other financial sources from industry, municipalities, and governmental programs. Development of new techniques will consider: protecting Canadian ecosystem, minimisation of primary resources use, revalorisation of materials, recycling of energy, while respecting the requirements of small municipalities, remotely located (e.g. Northern region) populations and native groups. A direct benefit to Canada relies on: a) developing a system capable to generate fuel from wasted material in-situ; b) depletion of GHG emission; c) generating of domestic and irrigation water from wastewater while nutrients and micropollutants are removed, d) producing fertilizers from wasted materials; e) protecting Canadian ecosystem; f) provide sanitation solutions for northern region settlements, native groups and dispersed farms. Research tasks are aligned with Canadian cutting GHG emission plan and UN Goals. The program permits on training at least 13 HQP, which will be recruited based on EDI. Their multidisciplinary knowledge will present an asset in the job market. Northern young population will actively participate in the projects relate to water generation and Arctic soil remediation. Contribution to knowledge is expected in discoveries related to interactions of biological and physicochemical processes within a low DC electrical field. A number of publications in top journals is expected to be published including a book on various EK application to environment. Scope of services in Canadian companies will be upgraded, important for competitive world market when circular economy counts in any important project.