E-Bulletin
IN Partnership
Issue 3 - June 2010
Partnerships Reduce Emissions, Increase Profits
As concern grows over the impact of emissions on the environment, Canadian companies often find themselves struggling to continue operations in a way that meets stricter emissions standards. Many of these companies are learning that university researchers have effective ideas about how to improve current technology in a way that makes it more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
A partnership between Calgary-based Enersul Inc. and researchers at the University of Calgary has taken the company's industry-leading sulphur forming technology to a new level, making it more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
In 2005, Enersul needed a solution that would allow its sulphur formation business to continue meeting current and future regulations. Enersul engineers sought advice from Chao Tan, associate professor of mechanical and manufacturing engineering at the University of Calgary. When Dr. Tan suggested that his team would be able to cut Enersul's particulate emission control costs in half, a new partnership was formed with support from an NSERC Collaborative R&D Grant.
The two-year project produced new technology that exceeded Dr. Tan's estimate and reduced the cost of particulate removal technology by nearly two thirds, representing huge savings for the company's operations. This technology has since been incorporated into the company's latest sulphur forming unit and strengthened Enersul's reputation as a leading edge company in sulphur formation.
"We have also been able to scale down the size of our granulator technology to better suit the needs of the customer," said David McInnis, Enersul's Vice-President of Operations. "Our latest model is truck-mountable, which represents significant savings for our customers in terms of assembly and construction."
McInnis also points out that the benefits of his company's partnership with Dr. Tan go far beyond cost-effectiveness.
"We really benefit from the enthusiasm of the students and the rigour of the program," he said. "If we were to do this all ourselves, we would need to have it verified and validated at many different levels before we could take it to market. Working with the master's and PhD students is also an advantage in terms of potential company employees, and we ended up hiring one of the graduate students who worked on this project."
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Have an NSERC R&D Partnership success story to share? Please send a brief summary to editor@NSERCPartnerships.ca.
Contact Us
For more information about NSERC’s partnerships programs and how your business can become involved and benefit, please call toll free at 1-877-767-1767. You will be connected to a representative in one of our five regional offices who can assist you.
