John Scott

Research

Active Research Projects

The research targets are looking at existing resources and how they can be developed and/or repurposed to address societal needs to maximize sustainable outcomes. Every research area listed below has direct involvement and support by industry and/or regional agency (e.g., municipal government) through significant technical and financial support. I also make use of contacts established through participation in lectures, site tours and expert advice for engineering design project teams. 

Capture and repurposing of waste industrial energy:

Enhanced energy security and reduced fossil fuel dependence for large and small industry through new on-site concepts to recover and reuse on-site otherwise waste thermal energy – in line with at taking a “fresh look”, a lot of the focus is on low-grade heat repurposing, much of which is currently dismissed as not worthy of capture.

Bioprospecting for natural disease fighting agents (antioxidants, anticancer, antibiotic and antivirals):

The rapid rise in antibiotic resistance and catastrophic consequences of the current pandemic emphasize the urgency for finding new sources of natural bioactive compounds. To address this demand, we are uniquely bioprospecting microalgae found in stressed water bodies across Canada. This is the first time that has been done and we have found exceptional levels of health beneficial compounds, and to compliment also looking at mass-production designs that can be utilized locally to generate new business opportunities. 

Capture of CO₂ from small volume sources:

As part of my philosophy of looking for local (or indeed overlooked) opportunity, I have collaborative research and development exploring environmental and economic, benefits from capturing and repurposing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from relatively small volume sources – such as biogas combustion (e.g., from landfill) and diesel electricity generators, as well SMEs, such as micro and small breweries – not just to mitigate emissions but to generate new local income sources. 

Green energy:

In the push towards creating economies that encourage investment and growth in renewable energy, concepts to allow year-round production in Canada of biodiesel from microalgae and waste food products to satisfy regional energy demands has been a study of several years.

Advanced photo-catalytic destruction of anthropogenic compounds to protect drinking water:

The novel design for simultaneous disinfection and degradation of waterborne contaminants such as POPs and endocrine disruptors to provide economic safe water for individual households up to small communities – the design philosophy is simplicity of manufacture, installation and maintenance. 

Automated mining:

Working with the mining industry to investigate productivity and safety impacts from introducing automated and electric mining equipment into mine operations – the goal is to identify and quantify beneficial modifications to implementation and operating practices (including operator awareness training) to optimize the best outcomes.

Life cycle assessment as a tool to assess the sustainability of new technologies:

World-wide industry in general is rapidly introducing significantly more automation to enhance productivity and safety - our work is to demonstrate that an LCA approach can be adapted to add a third dimension, assessing resulting improved environmental impacts to aid not just economic decisions, but also governmental and societal approval. 

Sustainability performance benchmarking:

There is opportunity for a “universal” means to quantify impacts on a relative scale from introduction of sustainable design and operational practices – to meet that we are developing a sustainability performance index that measures and quantifies improvements by using performance benchmarks metrics. 

For more details, please click on: http://www.ongen.ca

Awards

• 2019	Voyageurs’ Innovation Challenge	Winner
  2019	30 in 30 years Best Paper Award (Resource, Conservation & Recycle)	Winner
  2017	Global Sustainability Project of the Year (Institution of Chemical Engineers)	Runner up
  2016	Global Research Team of the Year (Institution of Chemical Engineers)	Runner up
  2015	Global Research Project of the Year (Institution of Chemical Engineers)	Winner

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Teaching

Undergraduate courses taught:

Engineering capstone design project

Mass and energy balances

Engineering, technology and society

Water and wastewater treatment

Environmental impacts of industry

Pollution control

Graduate courses taught:

Concepts of sustainable design

Sustainability and opportunity with the developing bioeconomy

Bioprocess engineering 

Publications

Recent refereed journals (2020 - to date)

• Fawcett, C.A., Senhorinho, G.N.A, Laamanen, C.A. and Scott. J.A. (2022) Microalgae as an alternative to oil crops for edible oils and animal feed. Algal Research, 64, 102663
• Laamanen, C.A., Moreau, K., Desjardins, S.M., McLean, S.H. and Scott, J.A. (2021) The use of microalgal sourced biodiesel to help underground mines transition to battery electric vehicles. Journal of Sustainable Mining. 31:6 1159-1167
• Chan-Yam, K., Meyer, T., Scott, J.A. and Basiliko N. (2021) Methane production potential of pulp mill sludges: microbial community and substrate constraints. FEMS Microbiology Letters. 368:21-24
• Moreau, K., Laamanen, C.A., Bose, R., Shang, H. and Scott, J.A. (2021) Environmental impact improvements due to introducing automation into underground copper mines. International Journal of Mining Science and Technology. 31:6 1159-1167
• Jiao, Y., Shang, H. and Scott, J.A. (2021) A UVC based advanced photooxidation reactor design for remote households and communities not connected to a municipal drinking water system. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering. 9:3, 105162
• Laamanen, C.A., Desjardins, S.M., Senhorinho, G.N.A. and Scott, J.A. (2021) Harvesting microalgae for health beneficial dietary supplements. Algal Research. 54, 102189
• Desjardins. S.M., Laamanen, C.A., Basiliko, N. and Scott, J.A. (2021) Selection and re-acclimation of bioprospected acid-tolerant green microalgae suitable for growth at low pH. Extremophiles. 25:2, 129-141
• Little, S.M., Gerusa N. A. Senhorinho, G.N.A., Saleh, M., Basiliko, N. and Scott, J.A. (2021) Antibacterial compounds in green microalgae from extreme environments. Algae. 36:1, 61-72
• Gauthier, M.R., Senhorinho, G.N.A. and Scott, J.A. (2020) Microalgae under environmental stress as a source of antioxidants. Algal Research. 52, 102104
• Moreau, K., Laamanen, C.A., Bose, R., Shang, H. and Scott, J.A. (2020) Life cycle assessment to demonstrate how automation improves the sustainability performance of an underground mining operation. Journal of Sustainable Mining. 19, 182-194
• Senhorinho, G.N.A., Lanner, C. and Scott, J.A. (2020) The importance of harvesting time on the screening of Chlamydomonas spp. extracts for antibacterial activity. International Journal on Algae. 22:3, 269-278
• McLean, S.H., Chenier, J., Muinonen, S., Laamanen, C.A. and Scott, J.A. (2020) Recovery and repurposing of thermal resources in the mining and mineral processing industry. Journal of Sustainable Mining. 19:115-125
• Desjardins, S.M., Laamanen, C.A., Basiliko, N. and Scott, J.A. (2020) Utilization of lipid-extracted biomass (LEB) to improve the economic feasibility of biodiesel production from green microalgae. Environmental Reviews. 28:3, 325-338
• McLean, S.H., Chenier, J., Muinonen, S., Laamanen, C.A. and Scott, J.A. (2020) Low-grade waste heat recovery and repurposing to reduce the load on cooling towers. Advances in Energy Research. 7:2 147-166
• Laamanen C.A. and Scott J.A. (2020) Microalgae biofuel bioreactors for mitigation of industrial CO2 emissions. In Bioreactors. Eds. Singh, L., Yousuf, Y. and Mahapatra, M. Elsevier Pub. 1-16
• Jiao, Y., Basiliko, N., Kovala, A.T., Shepherd, J., Shang, H. and Scott, J.A. (2020) TiO2 based nanopowder coatings over stainless steel plates for UV-C photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue. Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering. 98, 728-729

For a full list of publications, please click on my CV page: www.ongen.ca/jascott.html