Environmental Microbiology - Partnership Opportunities

The Environmental Microbiology group collaborates with scientists from the private sector in North America and Europe, other government departments in Canada, and the university world in North/South America and Europe. These collaborations involve studies of the biodegradation of contaminants, as well as the development and application of molecular techniques and tools for isolating, enumerating and monitoring pollutant degrading/transforming microorganisms, and for monitoring microbial diversity and responses to environmental stress. Collaboration can lead to technology transfer. In collaboration with National Defence (Defence Research Establishment Valcartier), the Environmental Microbiology group developed a biotreatment process to remediate soils contaminated by energetic (explosive) compounds. This treatment process resulted in the complete degradation of RDX and HMX in soils in approximately one month at the pilot scale. Subsequent scale-up gave comparable results, but the time required for degradation was somewhat longer. This technology has been transferred to Biogénie, a Quebec-based company that is very active in the development and commercialization of environmental bioremediation processes.