Chairholders
Profile
Cigdem Eskicioglu
School of Engineering
The University of British Columbia
Chair title
NSERC/Metro Vancouver Industrial Research Chair in Advanced Resource Recovery from Wastewater
Chair program
Chairs in Design Engineering Program
Role
Senior Chairholder since 2020
Summary
A number of Canadian communities are declaring climate emergencies, and leading water and wastewater utilities are in pursuit of innovations that ensure the highest water quality while minimizing the use of resources, eliminating emission of pollutants and transforming existing waste streams into value-added products. Creating new circular economies for wastewater necessitates advanced research into value-cycling down to the elemental scale to find effective solutions. The work of this Industrial Research Chair (IRC) program focuses on advanced resource recovery from wastewater, in which a good deal of embedded energy and resources remain unexploited.
With goals of reducing operational risks and intensifying resource recovery, Metro Vancouver is taking a proactive approach to integrate research and development of novel wastewater biomass conversion to renewable resources through potentially patentable processes considered “world firsts.” In a partnership among Metro Vancouver, NSERC and the University of British Columbia’s Bioreactor Technology Group led by Dr. Eskicioglu, the IRC program centres on key research topics focused on advancing wastewater solids treatment processes for more efficient energy conservation/production, resource recovery and consideration of emerging contaminants of concern.
Dr. Eskicioglu is internationally recognized for her research in developing new bioreactor technologies for maximizing energy (i.e., biomethane and biohydrogen) and resource recovery from organic waste, particularly wastewater sludge. More recently, her research group took the lead in Canada, establishing a research program to investigate the effects of novel sludge pretreatment technologies and advanced sludge digestion on the fate of emerging contaminants of concern (i.e., pharmaceuticals and personal care products, hormones, antimicrobials). The group operates three state-of-the-art laboratory facilities (Advanced Anaerobic Digestion, Particle Sizing/Imaging and Micropollutant Detection) at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. In the last 11 years, Dr. Eskicioglu’s research has triggered high academic, economic and societal benefits for the wastewater industry in British Columbia. The IRC program builds on a long-term and successful collaboration between Dr. Eskicioglu and Metro Vancouver.
Although wastewater treatment has made some significant advances over the past 100 years, waste sludge processing remains one of the final major challenges facing wastewater treatment plants. In the Chair program, two novel sludge conversion themes are researched in parallel: thermochemical sludge conversion through hydrothermal liquefaction, and biochemical sludge conversion through bioaugmented anaerobic digestion. As the global trend toward creating a circular economy increases, particular attention is paid to resource recovery from the product streams of the hydrothermal sludge liquefaction process (i.e., phosphorous, ammonia, biomethane and biohydrogen production) and integration of the novel sludge processes to wastewater treatment plants safely. In the program, laboratory and pilot-scale assessment enable the evaluation of novel sludge conversion processes "offline" without risking ongoing operations at Metro Vancouver's wastewater treatment plants. Timing is key as Metro Vancouver’s Liquid Waste Services department develops new wastewater treatment plants and considers upgrades to existing plants. This will approach $4 billion of capital infrastructure over the next 15 years, and key decisions can be informed by the findings through this IRC program. Metro Vancouver’s existing and future wastewater treatment plants serve as the test model; however, the proposed approaches are applicable to similar municipalities in Canada and in the world.
The proposed research program aims to generate new technical knowledge, intellectual property, revenue and expertise essential for Metro Vancouver and for Canadian water utilities in general. The technologies evaluated help to build treatment facilities that are net zero energy, better integrated with the community and more sustainable. Furthermore, the program will help to develop the next generation of scientists, engineers and decision-makers in these research areas, providing them the opportunity for hands-on, industry-based work, preparing them to succeed in securing job placements in the industry.
Partner
- Metro Vancouver
Contact information
School of Engineering
The University of British Columbia
Email: cigdem.eskiciolgu@ubc.ca
Website:
https://engineering.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/cigdem-eskicioglu/
http://bioreactortechgroup.ok.ubc.ca/
