Grants and Contributions:

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

The Canadian pulp and paper industry generates about 1.5 million tons of primary and secondary sludge everyx000D
year, which requires disposal and presents a major environmental challenge. On average, 60% of the totalx000D
wastewater treatment costs of pulp and paper mills account for sludge disposal. For this reason, Domtar Inc., ax000D
global pulp and paper company, is interested in minimizing their waste sludge and converting it into ax000D
value-added stream that can reduce the carbon footprint, diversify their product range, create additionalx000D
revenues, and enhance their competitiveness on the international market. For example, the Domtar Windsorx000D
mill, with annual pulp and paper production capacity of 447,000 and 642,000 tons, respectively, generates 75x000D
tons of sludge per day. The mill disposes of their waste sludge by landfilling, a process that is neitherx000D
economically attractive nor environmentally friendly. This is a follow-up Engage Plus proposal that aims tox000D
further advance the positive outcomes from the original Engage project. The Engage Plus proposal will furtherx000D
investigate opportunities to valorize the mill sludge from Domtar through a novel recycling process that couldx000D
increase the efficiency of the proposed enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation process, and reduce the overallx000D
production costs. Domtar mills will directly benefit from the outcomes of this project by upgrading a wastex000D
sludge stream to value-added products such as sugars and lactic acid. The Engage Plus project will addressx000D
important milestones such as optimization of enzyme and surfactant dose, enzyme and substrate recycling,x000D
fermentation of primary sludge-derived sugars utilizing low nitrogen sources such as secondary sludge, processx000D
integration and optimization. The following steps are essential to accomplish the project goals: 1)x000D
Compositional analysis of sludge; 2) Analysis of enzyme activity/loss conversion yields; 3) Optimization ofx000D
enzyme dose for maximal release of fermentable sugars; 4) Protein solubilization from secondary sludge andx000D
protein characterization; 5) Bioconversion of primary sludge-derived fermentable sugars using solubilizedx000D
protein from secondary sludge as nitrogen source.