Research summary
Fifteen per cent of all Canadian households—and 36 per cent of First Nations homes—currently depend on decentralized water treatment: onsite treatment of water in small facilities without water distribution or wastewater collection. But these facilities face many issues.
Dr. Dominique Claveau-Mallet, Canada Research Chair in Decentralized and Small-Scale Water Treatment, is developing solutions to these problems. He and his research team are characterizing and modelling the physical, chemical and biological phenomena that occur in decentralized water and wastewater treatment processes. Ultimately, their aim is to come up with design criteria to improve the performance of decentralized water treatment facilities so these facilities will waste less water, do a better job of removing contaminants, and emit fewer greenhouse gases.