Wednesday, October 9th, 2019
Speaker: Dr. Ted Mao, Chief Technology Officer, Trojan Technologies
Title: "Removing Roadblocks between Scientific Discoveries and Commercial Implementation in Wastewater Innovation"
Time: 2:30 – 3:30 PM
Location: Rm. 217, Dupuis Hall, Queen’s University
Refreshments provided!
Bio
Ted has been with Trojan Technologies (Trojan) since 1998, and is currently the Chief Technology Officer. He has led the formation of a world-class research team, helped develop innovative UV and water treatment technologies, and successfully built a global network of external collaboration partners. Prior to joining Trojan, Ted held leadership and technical positions at ABB and RWDI Inc. Ted is a highly sought after international speaker and an active organizer of international conferences and workshops. Recently he was Chair of IWA ecoSTP2018 Conference on “Ecotechnogies for Wastewater Treatment”. He is currently a board member of International UV Association, and a member of WEF and IWA. He served on Research Review Panels of US EPA, Canadian NSERC and Ontario MRI. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Beijing Institute of Chemical Technologies, and Master and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto. He is a Professional Engineer and an adjunct professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto.
Abstract
Municipalities are facing significant challenges related to wastewater treatment, including aging infrastructure, increasingly more stringent discharge requirements, climate change and extreme weather events, constrained plant space, municipal budget stress, etc. Paradigm shifts in changing wastewater treatment plants into resource, energy and value recovery facilities are needed to turn these challenges to opportunities. Game-changing technologies are being developed to realize this vision with low energy, small footprint and cost effectiveness. However, significant barriers to development and commercialization of these technologies still exist. Some key challenges include: multi-disciplinary nature of the subject matter, scale-up from lab to pilot to full-scale, validation, risk/reward, technology adoption, regulation, etc. Case studies will be presented to explore solutions in overcoming these barriers, particularly in removing roadblocks between scientific discoveries and commercial implementation, essentially bridging the "valley-of-death" in the innovation cycle. Effective academic and industry collaborations on piloting new technologies in real wastewater under real plant dynamics can play an important role in accelerating technology development and commercialization.