Federal funding supports U of R research making water treatment more sustainable

Water treatment plants are essential to public health and our economy. But water treatment processes generate large amounts of waste and can be harmful for the environment if not managed properly.

New funding of over $118,000 from the federal government through Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) is helping a University of Regina researcher in environmental systems engineering find sustainable solutions for these by-products.

“Working with the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corporation – where both Regina and Moose Jaw get their water – my team is creating useful products out of the sludge waste, saving money and helping the planet at the same time,” says associate professor Dr. Jinkai Xue, director of the U of R’s Cold-Region Water Resource Recovery Laboratory (CRWRRL).

Xue says it’s a lengthy purification process that gets water from a lake into your glass at home. It also produces a large amount of sludge waste that is difficult to dispose of.

“It costs about $1 million dollars a year to haul that sludge from the water treatment plant to the landfill, where it sits in an unsustainable manner,” says Xue. “My team is finding sustainable ways to deal with the sludge while also contributing to a circular economy.”

The U of R engineer has discovered a way to turn the sludge into a ceramics-like material called ceramsite.

“Because the ceramsite made from the sludge is a lightweight, porous material, it offers a high absorptive capability,” says Xue. “This means the ceramsite material can be used to remove pollutants from water. For example, when we put a small amount of this material into water with high phosphorous concentrations, it can successfully remove 90 per cent of the phosphorus from that water within 30 minutes.”

But that’s not the end of the road for the ceramsite.

“Once it’s been used for pollutant removal, we can sell it to consumers as landscape mulch. At this stage, it is now saturated with phosphorous, which is a fertilizer that can slowly release into the soil – which is beneficial for the plants. The entire process fits the circular economy strategy very well,” says Xue.

In addition to the project with the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corporation, the funding from Prairies Economic Development Canada is facilitating several other projects. Xue says the government’s support will help to purchase equipment, develop and deploy new technologies, gather and disseminate data, and commercialize products deemed viable in the local sales market.

“Our government is pleased to invest in innovation at the U of R’s CRWRRL, where they are investigating ways to transform by-products from water treatment into value-added new products and sustainability to the economy,” says the Honourable Dan Vandal, Minister for PrairiesCan. “The recently introduced Framework to Build a Green Prairie Economy demonstrates the Government of Canada’s commitment to build an inclusive, sustainable economic future through stronger coordination across federal departments on Prairie investments, and by collaborating more closely with Prairie partners on opportunities like this one that lead to a prosperous and sustainable Prairie economy and the kind of innovation the world needs.”  

Dr. Christopher Yost, Vice-President (Research) at the University of Regina, says that thanks to the Prairies Economic Development Canada support, Xue and his team are able to be leaders in innovations to improve the quality and management of water treatment in the cold-regions of the Prairie Provinces.

“The technologies and products are being developed to help to counter the adverse effects of water scarcity and pollution in Western Canada,” says Yost. “These water sustainability innovations will have a tremendous impact in improving water treatment processes while also demonstrating the value of exploring economic opportunities within a circular economy context.”

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