Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

The company partner in this Engage Grant, RHST Industries, has developed a novel technology described asx000D
polymer beads under the trade name of Water Pearls aimed at increasing the efficient use of energy andx000D
lowering the environmental footprints in order to obtain sustainable food production (soil agricultural andx000D
hydroponic applications). The success of the novel material is related to sustainability. The possible leaching ofx000D
chemicals from polymer materials (e.g. unreacted polymer and plasticizers) is a concern, as they could bex000D
harmful to the plants or accumulate in it. To date though, no standards have been clearly defined to assessx000D
chemical migration for materials used for hydroponics. In the absence of such a standard, RHST Industriesx000D
decided to take a proactive step with researchers to assess chemical leaching from its innovative product. Thisx000D
Engage Grant application seeks to establish a collaboration between RHST Industries and the applicant, Drx000D
Bayen at McGill University. The objectives are: (i) the development of a migration test to simulate chemicalx000D
migration under hydroponics conditions and identify the leaching organic migrants using HPLC-HRMS, (ii) thex000D
quantification of the mass transfer for target chemicals under different controlled conditions, and (iii) thex000D
review the available information in the literature on the toxicity of the major organic migrants on mammals andx000D
plants. Dr Bayen's laboratory is equipped with high resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF-MS/MS), thex000D
state-of-the-art technology for the identification of such "unknown" chemicals and the investigation of thex000D
stability of polymer material. Successful completion of the project described in this application will lay thex000D
foundation for further collaboration between the applicant and RHST Industries on analytical methodologyx000D
development in support of commercial exploitation of the company s technology for hydroponics.