Interest in water technology could be on the rise in Sarnia-Lambton, and the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership is rolling out the welcome mat.
The agency dedicated to boosting the area’s economic fortunes has been targeting water and wastewater start-ups since 2010 when the provincial government said Ontario could be a world-class leader in the sector, said Mike Ireland, senior development consultant at SLEP.
“We have a lot of existing companies here that have a lot of expertise in wastewater treatment and management practices,” he said.
“We’re trying to work with them to develop the sector.”
To that end, the agency has partnered with Lambton College for its inaugural Sarnia-Lambton Water Symposium on March 26.
Hopes are to forge connections there with other municipalities outside of Sarnia-Lambton to increase the area’s profile and to create opportunities, he said.
It’s also an opportunity to show off the Lambton Water Centre, said Mehdi Sheikhzadeh, dean of applied research and innovation at Lambton College.
Started in 2013 with $2.3 million from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the centre has labs at the college and Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park where it’s collaborating with companies, municipalities and different organizations to develop a half dozen water and wastewater-related projects, he said.
Among them, the college is working on automating and optimizing a membrane-based technology for wastewater treatment by KmX Membrane Technologies Corp., he said. The Oakville-based company has a pilot plant in Sarnia.
The technology could potentially be used in the oil and gas sector, Sheikhzadeh said.
Meanwhile, the centre is also working on a flow monitoring project with the City of Sarnia, he said, to remotely monitor water plants.
“We do have a strong capacity here to do projects in the water and wastewater sector,” he said, adding Lambton College’s applied research proficiency can help start-ups that don’t necessarily have the know-how to refine and commercialize on their own.
“Our hope is to fill that gap,” he said.
Funding for the water centre lasts to 2018, he said, noting the college hopes to get new funding to continue it past that point.
Hopes are also to develop water and wastewater-related training courses for operators and engineers, he said.
“That’s something that we are developing right now. We are working on a couple of different courses.”
Meanwhile, the invite-only Sarnia-Lambton Water Symposium at the Lambton College Event Centre is scheduled to include presentations on water technologies, and tours of the water centre labs, Sheikhzadeh said, noting the guest list stands at about 200.
Hopes are to make it an annual event, he said.
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