Eco-Engineering our Bioresource Management

Bioresource engineering is about enhancing the value and sustainability of our natural and renewable resources. As Canada Research Chair in Bioresource Engineering, Dr. Pascale Champagne is looking for eco-engineering bioresource management approaches that will ensure a sustainable future.

Demand for biomass feedstocks has increased in recent years, but take-up is limited by advances in conversion technologies and biomass supply. To establish a future supply of green and sustainable bio-based products, we need to integrate lower-impact environmental technologies and green chemistry into their development.

Scientific and technical progress in this field increasingly depends on discovering innovative ways to extract and synthesize bio-based products; to develop and apply greener, more environmentally friendly processes; and to recover, reuse, and valorize process solvents, by-products, and waste streams.

Champagne and her research team are focusing on optimizing eco-engineered systems for nutrient recovery, wastewater treatment, and effluent polishing. They are also developing processes for recovering bio-energy and biofuels from algal and residual biomass integrating sustainable wastewater treatment approaches.

The knowledge gained from their research could lead to higher-performance eco-engineered systems for the recovery of biofuels and bioproducts. It could also result in improved bioresource management approaches and contribute to a new generation of technologies for treating wastewater, residuals, and biomass feedstocks.

Ultimately, Champagne’s research may yield products that are ideal for downstream processing to biofuels, as well as higher-value products in the short term and better positioning for the biofuels and bioproducts industries in the longer term.