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CAWT partnering with Noble Purification on new euglena biofiltration prototype

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The Centre for Alternative Wastewater Treatment (CAWT) will partner with Peterborough-based Noble Purification to complete a large-scale biofiltration prototype to treat wastewater using euglena, an algae-like organism.

The CAWT is a water research facility located at Fleming College’s Frost Campus. It offers research and commercialization services to the water and wastewater industry. Created through investments from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario government in 2002, the CAWT now supports more than 300 companies of all sizes in the region, helping them with commercialization, process innovation and product development.

The partnership was announced at an event hosted by the Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster late last month.

Here is some additional information from Noble Purification Inc.:

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Aug. 26, 2014
Noble Purification hosted an event this morning to share some big announcements and company updates with the community.

Noble Purification was founded upon research Adam Noble conducted for the Canada Wide Science Fair while he was in high school. Adam’s initial research focused on extracting silver nanoparticles from wastewater using an algae-like organism called Euglena. This has been a year of breakthrough in the Noble Purification. Noble discovered that Euglena can uptake many different pollutants from water, from phosphates to lead. The Euglena BioFiltration System, creates a controlled algae bloom within the waste water; Euglena can be tricked into absorbing minerals, heavy metals, nutrients, and pollutants from the environment. Noble Purification plan to convert the Euglena biomass produced from the system into biofuel, food and fertilizer. The Euglena BioFiltration System will revolutionize the way we think of treating water.

This year, Noble Purification will complete the first large-scale Euglena BioFiltration prototype with its partners: The City of Peterborough, The Centre for Alternative Wastewater Treatment (CAWT), and Drain Brother’s Excavating. This prototype will treat approximate 100,000L of wastewater per day at the Peterborough Waste Water Treatment Plant and will sequester approximately 32 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Noble Purification also announced the launch of the Euglena Research Program (ERP) at Trent University. This program is a collaborative research initiative that will bring together the collective abilities of researchers and students at Trent to better understand the untapped potential of Euglena and increase the efficiency of our technology and how we use the organism, as well as an opportunity to sequence its genome.

Since the company incorporated last year, Noble Purification has grown tremendously because of the team of people who support it, including its Research Advisory Committee, Business Advisory Board, and Office Support Team.
Noble Purification owes much of its success to date to the Peterborough community. They feel the support they have received from local individuals, organizations, and businesses have been integral to the realization of the organization and to its continued growth. As such, Noble Purification has said they cannot envision the company being located anywhere but Peterborough. It hopes to bring opportunity and jobs to the community and to strengthen its relationships with existing partners as well as establish new ones.