Media Release - For Immediate Release

March 1 2010

Green Chemistry gets GreenCentre Support

Chemistry Professor Dr. Robert Singer has received $25,000 from GreenCentre Canada to further his research into eliminating harmful metals from industrial wastewater.

Existing remediation methods often require large amounts of energy and chemicals that are themselves toxic. Dr. Singer’s work removes metal ions from wastewater using what are known as “ionic liquids”. These specialized compounds effectively remove a wide variety of metals from wastewater using less energy and without the risk of releasing toxic chemicals in the process.

Dr. Singer is developing the next-generation if ionic liquids specifically for large-scale water purification.

“This funding from GreenCentre Canada is critical and welcome assistance in our quest for a more sustainable future through our research efforts in Green Chemistry,” Dr. Singer said in a recent GreenCentre Canada release. “Such funding will hopefully enable us to develop our research to the point where it is viable enough to warrant further development through collaboration with potential industrial partners.”

GreenCentre brings together leading Green Chemistry researchers and commercialization experts in a common goal of identifying and developing clean, less energy-intensive alternatives to traditional chemical products and manufacturing processes.

Its collaborative commercialization approach includes everything from technology assessment, scale-up and testing to intellectual property protection, business management and financial resources.

Formed less than a year ago, GreenCentre has already received about 90 technology disclosures from Canadian universities and is now negotiating a number of licence agreements to bring technologies into the centre for further development.

“It is extremely gratifying to have reached the point in our operations where we are now able to begin putting real support behind some of the highly promising green technologies that have come to us from Canada’s universities,” says Dr. Rui Resendes, GreenCentre’s Executive Director.

Funding for GreenCentre Canada comes from Ontario’s Ministry of Research and Innovation and by the Government of Canada as a national Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research.

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For More Information:

Steve Proctor
External Affairs
Saint Mary's University
(902) 420.5513
E-mail: steve.proctor@smu.ca
www.smu.ca

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