Ontario Minister of Research, Innovation and Science Reza Moridi had a busy day on Wednesday, July 19.
He visited SNOLAB, the the two-kilometre-deep underground neutrino and dark matter physics laboratory at Creighton Mine, then headed to Science North to announce $28.8 million in operational funding for the facility.
After that, he headed to Cambrian College to visit with the college's applied research team and to check out an innovative clean technology project.
The project, led by Dean Millar, CEO and president of Electrale Innovation Ltd., aims to bring a low-cost, low-carbon gas compression system to market that relies on a hydraulic air compressor (HAC).
A fully-operational model of the system, called the Baby HAC, was demonstrated to the minister.
The Baby HAC stands five metres tall and provides researchers with a working model to pilot test programs. A pre-commercial demonstrator system, which is 10 times larger, has been constructed at Dynamic Earth to showcase the technology.
Cambrian’s applied research division, Cambrian Innovates, is a partner in this project. Cambrian Innovates fabricated the HAC’s innovative air-water mixing head and is providing facilities for researchers to continue their work on the Baby HAC.
Millar is the Mining Innovation Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO) Research Chair of Energy and Mining at Laurentian University’s Bharti School of Engineering and the Director of the Energy and Renewables and Carbon Management group within MIRARCO.
Cambrian College is a hub of applied research activity in northern Ontario, said a press release from the college.
It is ranked third in Canada among mid-sized colleges for the number of students employed in research activity, and sixth in Canada overall.
It is the only college in Northern Ontario to be among Canada’s Top 50 Research Colleges, as determined by Research Infosource. Cambrian’s applied research activities are concentrated within Cambrian Innovates.