Lake Erie is a vital source of drinking water, recreation, and habitat for wildlife; however, it also suffers annually from harmful algal blooms due to high nutrient loadings, particularly from phosphorus. To reduce the impact, Across Canada Consulting is proposing the construction of a treatment wetland to target non-point source agricultural runoff. The treatment wetland is to incorporate sustainable techniques, such as recycling the phosphorus trapped in the wetland for future use, in addition to reducing the nutrient loadings and improving water quality.

Faculty Advisor: Nandita Basu

To mitigate the waste generated from Wastewater Treatment Plants via the generation of sludge, one must minimize the impacts to landfills by maximizing sludge reuse. As there are various sludge reuse techniques, it becomes essential to utilize Engineering Analysis to determine the ones that are well suited for practical applications, in order for implementation to be seamless. As such, innovation presented itself when the team analyzed and optimized the beneficial reuse of sludge, rendering a cost effective solution that benefits the environment and generates revenue.

Faculty Advisor: Hyung-Sool Lee

Several rural communities in the developing world still lack access to clean and reliable sources of energy generation. There is a need for thermal energy generation in these communities in order for them to satisfy their basic hot water requirements to cook, bathe and heat their homes. Alt-e aims to address this problem by developing an efficient, eco-friendly and cheap thermal energy generation system for the Kopalpally Village in South India.

Faculty Advisor: James Craig

When food waste is sent to a landfill, it can decompose into methane, a greenhouse gas. A circular economy treats waste as a resource, by finding alternative uses for waste or recycling it. AYA Inc. aims to implement an innovative solution involving dark fermentation, a biological process where microorganisms convert the organic food waste into hydrogen, a renewable fuel. Additionally, interest in the hydrogen fuel market is growing, and by investing in this technology, it will help secure a more sustainable future for Peel Region.

Faculty Advisors: Hyung-Sool Lee, Rashmi Chandra

Much of Canada’s electricity is produced from non-emitting sources; yet, over 70% of Indigenous communities rely on diesel generators for energy. CASE Energy aims to reduce this diesel reliance by increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and integrating renewable power into the grid in the community of Ulukhaktok, NWT. CASE Energy will be performing an energy efficiency analysis for the building envelopes in the community in addition to renewable power resource and economic analyses to deliver a preliminary hybrid power system design for the community.

Faculty Advisor: Nadine Ibrahim