Development of Innovative Treatment Approaches & Strategies for Industrial Waters

Although there are active studies by the research community on urban stormwater quality and management, there is a paucity of published literature on stormwater runoff characterization and treatment for industrial sites.

This proposed research program aims to provide new information on water quality characteristics and the development innovative treatment strategies focused on industrial runoff generated by the thermal power generation sector. In addition to conventional coal, oil and gas generating stations, the interest in renewable energy conversion processes that are closely related to the energy-water and energy-water-environment nexus have resulted in increased applications of biomass fired combined heat and power (CHP) plants in recent years. More knowledge in these areas are critical for source control and treatment strategies that would be of interest to the power generation industry, engineering designers, decision makers and regulators in Canada and abroad. The overall objective of this research program will be to develop an improved understanding and approach to the treatment of stormwater runoff from industrial operations. The research program will involve field work to provide increased knowledge on water quality characteristics of runoff generated at thermal power plants, and bench-scale studies to evaluate conventional treatment approaches to novel treatments using commercially available and waste-to-resource by-products in conventional and hybrid physiochemical processes.