A non-descript, tin-clad structure on the grounds of the Guelph waste water treatment facility looks more like a maintenance building than the home of leading-edge technology.
The innovation happening at the federally-backed Southern Ontario Waste Consortium (SOWC) demonstration site is expected to change the way waste water management is done in Guelph and Ontario. It's the blue steel container in back with the GE logo on the side that holds the high tech.
Officials from all three levels of government, along with private sector and post-secondary partners gathered inside the building Friday morning to trumpet the merits of a project intended to reduce the carbon footprint of waste water management while producing reusable by-products from the process.
The “energy neutral” project uses advanced biological hydrolysis technology to produce renewable energy, turn waste water into drinking water, and produce green fertilizers from the waste water management process. Several jurisdictions in Europe use similar waste water tech.
Backed by federal funding, City of Guelph facilities and processes, U of G brain power, and GE’s Water and Process Technologies division, details of the $1.5 million project were unveiled Friday morning.
The announcement was made by Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield on behalf of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. Guelph MPP Liz Sandals was on hand to announce a $500,000 provincial contribution to SOWC projects in Ontario. And GE’s Glenn Vicevic, project management executive, articulated the many potential benefits of the project.
Vicevic told the gathering that the project represents a change in the way we think about waste water management – a mentality shift from accepting the process as a costly one that consumes a lot of energy and creates a lot of waste, to one that generates energy and reuses waste as pathogen-free fertilizer.
GE put up $900,000 for a project using U of G innovations and knowledge, while $600,000 comes from the AWT fund.
“We need to think of it not as waste water management, but as a resource recovery system,” Vicevic said, adding that the new process can transform the economic and environmental sustainability of waste water management.
He said that while the technology involves an advanced system of valves, pumps and computers that have practical outcomes, one of its central purposes is “challenging ourselves to think differently.”
Vicevic passionately put out a challenge for Ontario to “join the revolution" in the way we think about and treat waste water.
SOWC involves 10 post-secondary institutions working with industry partners, and backed by a total of $12 million in federal funding.
The Guelph project is the first large one under SOWC’s Advancing Water Technologies program, said SOWC executive director Brenda Lucas, a program that connects the needs of industry with Ontario’s academic expertise, with the goal of bringing innovations to market.
Longfield called the project a “net-zero opportunity for waste water management,” and said it was new to North American.
Sandals said the subject of water is an important one in Guelph. And while the water discussion often focuses on groundwater resources, it is also crucial to think about waste water management. Our treated waste water becomes drinking water downstream, she indicated.
She added that the green tech sector is substantial in Ontario, and clean tech related to water has “huge growth opportunities.”
Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie said the city is honoured to be an integral part of SOWC, and its involvement is a source of pride for the community. The innovation is exciting, he added, and he thanked Longfield and Sandals for consistently championing the city.
