University of British Columbia researcher Don Mavinic and industry partners have been recognized with a prestigious award from Canada’s leading science and engineering funding agency for developing a technology that turns wastewater nutrients into valuable fertilizer.
Civil Engineering Prof. Don Mavinic has received a 2010 Synergy Award for Innovation of $200,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) as a result of his collaboration with Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc., Stantec Consulting Ltd., Metro Vancouver, EPCOR Water Service Inc. and Clean Water Services Ltd.
The award will be formally presented to Mavinic tomorrow evening at a free public seminar entitled “A Green & Sustainable Solution to Global Phosphorus Depletion,” at UBC Robson Square. For details, please visit: http://bit.ly/aKQ6Pj
“I am both honoured and pleased to receive the Synergy Award from NSERC, not only for myself, but also for my UBC-based research team and our talented industry partners,” says Mavinic, an expert in wastewater treatment. “The perseverance and patience shown by our partners have been rewarded, and for this, we are all very grateful.”
“This award is a major accomplishment for any Canadian researcher in the natural and applied sciences, and Prof. Mavinic certainly deserves recognition for his hard work and ingenuity,” says John Hepburn, UBC Vice President Research and International. “UBC has strongly supported his efforts to make this exciting technology available and we believe it will have significant environmental and economic benefits.”
Mavinic is a co-inventor of the nutrient recovery technology commercialized by UBC spin-off company Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies. Ostara’s Pearl® Nutrient Recovery Technology recovers otherwise polluting nutrients such as phosphorus and ammonia from wastewater and transforms them into an environmentally friendly fertilizer called Crystal Green®.
“The strategic investments that NSERC has made over the years have led to numerous successful collaborations such as the one we are recognizing today,” says NSERC President Suzanne Fortier. “The Synergy Awards highlight partnerships that bring together the best researchers from Canadian universities and the leading innovators from the private sector, resulting in the transfer of tangible research results to those who can translate them into economic and social benefits for Canadians.”
Ostara’s technology provides a sustainable, non-leaching alternative to dwindling supplies of phosphorus being mined in the U.S., Morocco, Russia and China, while also preventing damage caused by its overabundance in waterways.
A single Pearl® reactor can produce more than 500 kilograms of high quality fertilizer, known as Crystal Green® per day, while saving wastewater treatment plants hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in cleanup costs to get mineral buildup out of pipes and equipment.
Ostara is currently operating three U.S. commercial Nutrient Recovery Facilities in Tigard, near Portland, Oregon, Suffolk, Virginia and York, Pennsylvania, and is also constructing facilities in Madison, Wisconsin and London, U.K. Earlier this year, Ostara was named a 2011 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and a Top 100 Global CleanTech Companies by The Guardian, a London-based media group.
The NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation recognize partnerships between universities and industry that foster economic growth and improve the lives of Canadians. In addition to research funding for the honorees, the industry partners receive support to hire an NSERC Industrial R&D Fellow for a two-year term.
The NSERC award follows another national honour for Mavinic who received the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation’s Dave Mitchell Award of Distinction in September.
Mavinic’s discovery and technology transfer is one of three featured stories in UBC’s national brand campaign, which can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ubcaplaceofmind#p/a/u/0/qfCNmvtEg2U
NSERC is a federal agency that helps make Canada a country of discoverers and innovators for the benefit of all Canadians. The agency supports some 29,500 university students and postdoctoral fellows in their advanced studies. NSERC promotes discovery by funding more than 11,800 university professors every year and fosters innovation by encouraging more than 1,500 Canadian companies to participate and invest in post-secondary research projects.
For more information, visit: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Media-Media/NewsRelease-CommuniqueDePresse_eng.asp?ID=224
