Tuesday, October 21 ♦
10:00
Registration for all Plant Tours will occur on
Sunday, October 19 during the Student Competitions
R.O. Pickard Environmental
Center With a design average flows of 545,000
m³/day (6,300 L/s) the R.O. Pickard Environmental Centre is ranked amongst the largest
secondary wastewater treatment facilities in Canada. Located on a 60-hectare site in the east end of
the City of Ottawa, the Pickard Centre treats domestic, commercial and industrial wastewater before returning
the treated water to the Ottawa River. The tour will start at the headworks of the plant where up to
six 900 hP pumps are used to elevate sewage from a depth of 20 metres below grade to an
elevation which allows the sewage to flow through the water treatment processes unassisted.
Participants will visit the Screenings and Grit Removal facility to gain an appreciation for the
non-treatable debris that must be removed from wastewater. The next step in the treatment process to be
visited will be the primary sedimentation tanks where settleable and floatable material is separated
from the water. This is followed by secondary treatment which uses a biological process for
removal of soluble and colloidal solids. If weather permits an aeration tank and secondary clarifier
will be out of service making the normally submerged components available for viewing by the
participants. The previous process stages generate sludge streams as part of the water purification
process. These sludge streams are processed in anaerobic digesters wherein the solids are stabilized
(pathogenic and solids mass reduction) and methane is produced. Participants will tour the
Cogeneration facility where up to 27,000 m³ of digester gas is converted to 2,400 kW of electrical
energy and 2,700 kW of thermal energy all of which is used to offset the treatment facility's energy
requirements. The tour will conclude with a visit to the sludge thickening and dewatering facility
where participants will see the centrifuge operation which processes 35 tonnes/day of waste activated sludge
and 35 tonnes/day of anaerobically digested sludge.
Invista A large, privately owned, chemicals company, INVISTA is owned by KOCH
Industries with headquarters in Wichita, Kansas and has sites in many countries. Some of INVISTA's brands are
LYCRA, STAINMASTER, COOLMAX, and ANTRON among others. Maitland Site is located in the St. Laurence
River 90km south of Ottawa. It has approximatly 400 employees and produces a number of Nylon Intermidiate
products. The INVISTA businesses on site are Adipic Acid and Amines with a Powerhouse and Bio Treatment Plant
to support operations. The site's Cogen Unit generates electricity for site consumption as well as for sale
to the Ontario Hydro grid. This tour will permit you to witness first hand the production and
manufacturing Nylon Intermediates which go on to produce fabrics used in everyday life. It will expose
you to several unit operations (Reactors, pumps and compressors, distillation, co-generation) in an actual
industrial setting and give you an appreciation of the Chemical Engineering industry. The tour will also
include a free pizza lunch. Maximum of 50 participants.
Papier Masson
Ltée An integrated one paper machine producer
of newsprint located in Masson-Angers, a 30-minute drive from Ottawa. Paper production began in 1930 on the
mill’s current 130-acre site. At that time, two Dominion Fourdrinier paper machines were fed a mix of
mechanical pulp and sulphite pulp. Over the years, the mill underwent many transformations in order to stay
competitive. In December 1998, Industries James Maclaren sold the mill to a group of investors who created
Papier Masson Ltée (PML). Almost immediately, the group undertook the engineering and construction of a
new thermo-mechanical pulping (TMP) plant. As a result, Papier Masson Ltée is capable of delivering a
superior quality newsprint product to its American and Canadian customers.
Plasco Energy
Group A private Canadian waste conversion and
energy generation company based in Ottawa. Plasco Energy builds, owns and operates Plasco Conversion System
facilities that use our proprietary world-leading Plasma technology to convert municipal household,
commercial or industrial waste into green power and other valuable products. Processing around 85 tonne of
Municipal Solid Waste each day, each ton of waste is converted to 1.4 MWh. The company has more than
100 employees from engineering to plant delivery and is growing fast.
The Royal Canadian
Mint Headquarters occupy an historic building in
central Ottawa, the same premises on which the Mint was founded in 1908. Today, the Ottawa facility produces
hand-crafted collector and commemorative coins, gold bullion coins, medals and medallions. It is here that
all the master tooling is done to create the dies that strike coin designs for both circulation and
commemorative issues. The Mint's gold refining and advanced engineering operations are also located here in
Ottawa. On this tour, you will get to view the engineering practices of metallurgy; the refining,
processing and recovery of the metals as well as all the unit operations such as blast furnaces, sintering
chambers and hot and cold works.
Note:
- The plant tours offered in the Graduate student program are also
available to undergraduate students. Please consult the graduate student program schedule and tours for
more information.
- CSA Approved Safety Boots will be mandatory for Plant Tours in order to ensure a much more engaging
experience.
