Awareness of clean air, soil and water, mitigation of climate change and demand for quality of life have been rising for decades, making environmental technologies one of the world’s fastest-growing industries. In 2004, this sector generated nearly 13,000 jobs in Montreal, and well over 100,000 across the country. Canada’s global market share is less than 3%, but its potential is enormous.
The international market for remediation, clean energy, waste management and building a sustainable future is increasing constantly. Montreal has a promising knowledge base and many of the skill sets to succeed.
Addressing complex environmental problems requires a multidisciplinary approach, nimble and responsive to emerging factors. Concordia’s institutional and academic culture is ideally suited to this set of circumstances.
Whether the concern is commercial liability or the viability of the planet, the wake-up call of environmental awareness is spreading rapidly. When Concordia’s Dr. Catherine Mulligan, of the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, found that no textbook linked the biological decontamination of air, water and soil, she decided to write one. She and her colleagues in Environmental Engineering constantly break new ground: seeking to understand contaminants throughout our environment; how they interact and how they can be remedied; auditing environmental performance; evaluating risk and modelling substance behaviour.
They seek to advance both theoretical and practical knowledge while nurturing the multidisciplinary specialists of the future, with concrete results and global impact. One of Mulligan’s students in a special individualized program (SIP) is earning a Masters under her joint supervision with two other academics in Biology and Chemistry/Biochemistry.
Mulligan, the only two-time winner of Petro-Canada’s Young Innovator Award, is an excellent example. She is adapting a sophisticated Japanese technology (developed by Prof. M. Fukue of Tokai University, Shizuoka, Japan) to treat suspended solids in water, beginning with the Port of Montreal. Her partnerships include one with a local firm for environmental applications of industrial cleaning products, and strong links in India initiated through a conference funded by the Shastri Institute.
“Montreal is on a beautiful island surrounded by water,” she says, “but our Port is contaminated with toxic sediments and our beaches are of limited use...we need to find cost-effective ways to make our water, air and soil clean and safe. That’s something that motivates us every day.”
The upcoming more stringent discharge criteria and the fact that many wastewater treatment plants are facing space limitation for expansion and upgrade, creates
an immediate need for better treatment options. Concordia University could offer a great environment for research on advanced wastewater treatment to address this problem both nationally and internationally.
Dr. Ladan Holakoo
Process Engineer,
Black and Veatch Corporation, USA
The global market for environmental goods and services was more than $1 trillion in 2004. Of this, waste management services comprised 21% of activities; water equipment and services 40%. The remaining nearly 40% was made up of resource recovery (8%), waste management materials (7%); air pollution mitigation (6%), engineering services (5%), industrial services (5%) and hazardous waste management (3%). Montreal is home to approximately 100 engineering consulting firms, several of them multinationals. These firms hold great promise as potential vectors for environmental technologies.
Page Title: Technology Cluster- Envirotechnology - Dr. Catherine Mulligan - Concordia University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Page URL:http://www.concordia.ca/clusters/envirotech/index.php
Date Printed: Sun March 21, 2010
