A trio of new green-focused projects at Sudbury's Cambrian College are among the school’s most visible symbols of its renewed drive towards applied research.
With $200,000 in hand from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and assistance from industry, officials have already kicked off work on three products designed for eventual commercialization.
“We’re pretty excited, as I think we’re right on the cusp of transformation in applied research certainly, not just provincially, but nationally, and Cambrian College plans to be part of that,” says Sherrill McCall, Cambrian’s director of planning and research.
Eight faculty are involved with such efforts, including a project to design techniques for phytoremediation, where plants can remove some of the heavy metals in residential and industrial soils affected by mining and smelting.
Assistance is being provided from outside researchers at Kingston’s Royal Military College as well as Sudbury nickel miner Vale.
Another project well underway at Cambrian is a wind turbine designed to produce electricity and heat through hydrogen, led by teacher and researcher Kameal Mina.
The two-year project is in its first phase, where students, staff and two research interns work together to design and manufacture of the turbine blades.
The specifications have been delivered to the Oakville-based Lakeside Creative Composites, which will produce the blades. Once the remaining components are selected and manufactured over the next year, the entire assembly will be set up on a property owned by Rainbow Concrete along Sudbury’s Falconbridge Road.
The height has yet to be determined, though it may reach as high as 20 metres. The following year will be spent analyzing the data and determining its overall efficiency.
Electricity will be converted into hydrogen, which will then be stored in metal-hydride canisters, later to be used in a fuel cell to produce more efficient electricity and heat as needed.
The project will begin at a small scale, targeting just 100 watts, though the intensity of the wind may produce as much 1,500 watts, says Mina.
“The main objective is to prove this is a stand-alone unit that can be used in rural communities like First Nations, for example, so you could convert wind to hydrogen, then store it for later use as an energy carrier,” says Mina.
The third project, also led by Mina, involves the development of a heat battery, though this is still in the early stages.
When complete, the battery will be able to absorb and store solar energy to provide heat and power to certain structures in Northern Ontario climates. Mike Witherell Mechanical in Sudbury is helping to implement Mina’s preliminary designs.
These three projects are just the beginning, as five others are already in the conceptual stages or funding pipeline.
This increasingly stronger push for Cambrian to pursue applied research is being made more viable thanks to some crucial shifts in the way post-secondary research projects are funded, according to McCall.
Other government funding agencies like NSERC have set aside money specifically for colleges, which traditionally had to compete against universities for research dollars.
In early August, the federal government also invested $32.5 million in the Canada Foundation for Innovation to create a new college-specific fund, for which competitions will be launched in December.
“It’s been one of our agendas for a while, but it is suddenly taking flight in terms of recognition by both federal and provincial governments that applied research certainly has a place in the college system,” says McCall.
This newly strengthened focus for Cambrian will feed directly into the school’s use of the Xstrata Nickel Sustainable Energy Centre, which began construction in early August and will be completed in May 2011.
The $5-million facility being built on school grounds will provide opportunities not only for practical learning spaces for students of the growing energy system technology program, but also for research.
Some 4,500 square feet of the 16,400-square-foot building will be dedicated to applied research space, and will be highly adaptable to accommodate different types of projects. These include sustainable greenhouse design and construction specific for Northern Ontario climates, as an example.
While there will be some separation between the learning and product development, it will generally allow for students to have hands-on experiences while also offering industry and staff the chance to research and test “green technologies” for Northern climates.
“Typically, these products are tested in northern United States or Ohio, which is a little different than testing them in Northern Ontario,” says McCall with a chuckle.
Student participation in such projects through programs like energy system technology as well as environmental monitoring and impact assessment will help to foster innovative spirits and develop future entrepreneurs, she adds.
