NAIT and Ledcor Create First Ever Research Chair at NAIT

By Lauren Jarman

NAIT and the Ledcor Group have teamed up to create the Ledcor Group Research Chair in Oil Sands Environmental Sustainability.  It’s the first Chair of its kind at a Canadian college or technical institute and the first ever research chair for NAIT.  Each group contributed 1.5 million dollars to the project.

The Chair will research practical solutions to environmental problems in the oil sands.

Media Relations Coordinator Rayne Kuntz says the “practical applications” of the research are what are so important.  “It’s being done and decided on with what the industry wants,” she says.  “This is coming from industry saying we’ve got a problem, we want it solved, what can academia, what can NAIT do about it.”

The scientist who’s chosen to be the Chair will decide on the actual research based on his or her specialty.  “They have their areas of expertise, when you talk about green chemistry and environmental sustainability in the oil sands that’s really broad, there’s many different areas that you could focus on for research,” Kuntz says.  A board of NAIT and Ledcor panelists are reviewing the applicants and hope to have one chosen by July first with research starting after that in the summer.

One area that may be focused on is water.  “One of the big criticisms in the oil sands is the amount of water that’s used…tailings ponds, reducing wastes in the tailings ponds maybe extracting some of the stuff that goes into the tailings ponds.”

Students taking green chemistry courses such as environmental sciences as well as those in the Bachelor of Technology program will be able to touch on the research that will be done.

Most of the research will be done at NAIT’s South Campus research centre.

The Ledcor Group Research Chair in Oil Sands Environmental Sustainabilty is a NovaNAIT initiative.