Grants and Contributions

Perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyls, better known by their acronym “PFAS”, have always been used and released into the environment, mainly through the use of fire-fighting foams. Worldwide, the potential effects of PFAS on humans and the environment, and their ability to migrate, have given rise to considerable concern. Studies have already shown their potential harmful effects on humans. Some PFAS (PFOA and PFOS) are now regulated in several countries around the world. More standards are to come, as governments work on tighter criteria that will affect more compounds.
At present, there is no economically viable technology with minimal environmental impact to address this issue.
An electro-oxidation process has been developed by E2Metrix to degrade persistent refractory contaminants (known as “emerging contaminants”), including PFAS. Electro-oxidation with ECOTHOR-AOP uses highly conductive, chemically inert electrodes to effectively destroy these contaminants. The system is powered by solar energy. The system is controlled remotely and parameters are adjusted automatically using the integrated E2net platform (IOT).
E2metrix offers a new, efficient turnkey approach that will cut costs by 90-95%.

L'objectif du projet est de commercialiser de nouveaux biocapteurs spécifiques aux souches capables de distinguer de faibles concentrations de bactéries pathogènes en temps quasi réel, de mettre en œuvre une méthodologie de fabrication évolutive pour les capteurs de détection rapide des pathogènes et de piloter les systèmes complets de détection des pathogènes avec 4 à 5 premiers adeptes.  La technologie des capteurs sera développée parallèlement à une plate-forme automatisée d'échantillonnage et de traitement capable de fonctionner de manière indépendante dans une usine de transformation alimentaire et de traitement des eaux. À l'issue du projet, le système automatisé Kraken sera capable de prélever, d'analyser, de stocker, de transmettre des données et de détecter des bactéries pathogènes à de faibles concentrations, le tout en temps réel et avec une intervention humaine minime, voire inexistante. La technologie d'Ecoli Sense permettra d'éviter les rappels d'aliments liés à des pathogènes tout au long de la chaîne d'approvisionnement en identifiant la contamination par des pathogènes au cours de la transformation des aliments et en disposant d'informations sur la qualité des aliments en temps réel. Ecoli Sense prévoit de commercialiser sa technologie dans le secteur de la transformation des protéines et des légumes au Canada et dans le monde à partir de 2022. Les avantages environnementaux cumulatifs, au Canada seulement, sur une période de 10 ans, sont estimés à une réduction des émissions de GES de plus de 22 mégatonnes de CO2e, à des économies d'eau de plus de 6 milliards de m3, à un évitement de la mise en décharge de plus de 330 kilotonnes et à une réduction de l'utilisation des terres agricoles de plus de 10 millions d'hectares.

Ecopia leverages AI to convert high resolution images of the earth into HD vector maps. This digital representation of the real world offers unique insight for decision-making at-scale.

Enedym is a Canadian company at the cutting edge of electric motors and controls. Its proprietary technology will revolutionize the deployment of electric motors in clean energy production, transportation and industrial drives. The company’s patented Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) technology offers robust, highly reliable and low-cost solutions to many sectors from clean energy production, to transportation, to industrial applications. SRMs do not use permanent magnets, which are sensitive to operating temperature and require rare earth materials with their associated challenges in global supply chains.
The technology will be demonstrated first in wind energy applications, through a partnership with windmill operators, manufacturers and installers. It will validate its robustness and reliability in the control of the wind pitch turbine blades, considered a harsh environment and where operational reliability is critical. The increased reliability of wind turbines significantly cuts GHG emissions by displacing fossil fuel generated electricity with clean energy from existing and future installations. The potential use of these motors in other sectors is enormous offering substantial climate change benefits.

RECIRCUIT has developed and patented an innovative, efficient and economically viable process for recycling critical and strategic materials (CSMs) from printed circuit boards (PCBs). Thanks to pilot plant development, this process will be refined and optimized. By tapping into the urban mine, the construction here in Montreal of the first 5000 Tm/year commercial plant will aim to recover the PCI discarded and reclaimed by existing networks to revalue the SCMs using a low-GHG hydrometallurgical process.

Thanks to SDTC, RECIRCUIT will eventually commercialize its process to show that, with its vision, it is possible to bring as much of the SCM recovered from PCI into the circular economy as possible, so that it can be reintroduced into the production chain worldwide.

Thanks to a very high extraction efficiency rate (95%), RECIRCUIT is pioneering the use of hydrometallurgy to recycle low- and medium-grade PCI in order to extract SCMs. This innovative process counteracts the landfilling or export to certain developing countries of this electronic waste, while preserving the environment and the health of workers and citizens alike.

With its innovative insect-derived solution, Entosystem puts nature at nature's service to reduce the carbon footprint of conventional agriculture. In response to a broken food system, Entosystem will demonstrate its process in an efficient and rapid circular economy within its commercial plant, gradually increasing the transformation of imposing quantities of organic matter into a high-quality protein source and organic fertilizer.

EMS’s Crop Sense technology enables crop producers to track water, fertilizer and carbon across the broad acres of farmland that make up the world’s breadbaskets. The Crop Sense is a revolutionary soil sensor that agronomists and farmers can use where they wish, and for as long as they wish to answer the questions that keep them up at night. EMS’s decision support system links seamless with today’s farm management systems enabling producers to optimize food production while minimizing greenhouse gas emission and fertilizer runoff. In partnership with SDTC, EMS is building tomorrows soil sensors that will form a key component of the sustainable agriculture technology stack needed to reduce greenhouse gasses from production, while maintaining farm profitability and production capacity.

Cobric proprietary High Temperature Metal Recovery technology (HTMR) is designed to recycle of Electric Arc Furnace Dust (EAFD) generated by Steel Mill Industry. The process is based on thermo-separation of zinc from other metal components present in the feedstock. Typical application for HTMR is Zinc recovery from raw materials such as Electric Arc Furnace Dust, Zinc dross, Zinc ash and other secondary Zn sources. The technology is in tune with Canadian green industry initiatives to develop and demonstrate of new sustainable recycling technologies to deal with climate change, clean air, clean water and clean soil challenges.
The technology has the potential to demonstrate significant and quantifiable environmental and economic benefits for Steel Mills who generate zinc bearing EAF Dust. The technology will provide Steel Mills with a new alternative to reuse/recycle the EAF Dust on site or in close vicinity of the Steel Mill Production which is currently not available.
The technology has very high potential to be an attractive opportunity for its end users ( steel mills and recycling service companies). Successful demonstration and completion of the HTMR prototype technology will provide a blueprint to replicate the process elsewhere in the ready world market.

Their technology opens the door to reducing the weight of vehicles and aircraft – which leads to enhanced fuel economies and reduced GHG emissions.

Every year Canada produces an estimated 725,000 tonnes of E-Waste. Excir Works from Calgary has a proven, efficient, environmentally-friendly process to recycle the gold and metals from electronic waste. Their technology can recover +99% of gold as well as other precious, and base metals, from E-waste and similar waste streams, such as catalytic converters.

In this project, Excir Works will engineer, design, and manufacture a commercial pilot unit (a.k.a. plant) for the Excir hydrometallurgy technology. The plant will be capable of delivering high throughput processing of E-Waste and validating the technology at commercial scale.

Excir will also complete crucial pre-commercial and commercial scale R&D to ensure the technology works at higher scales and with various types of E-Waste, to lower the risks of scaling up and deploying the Excir commercial prototype.