Applied Research Province: Manitoba

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Settle down, now: Red River College helps develop an environmentally friendly dust suppressant

There are millions of kilometers of unpaved roads around the world, and the dust kicked up by the vehicles that drive on them is a major contributor to air pollution and levels of dust particles that can cause health and environmental issues. In one effort to combat that, Winnipeg-based Cypher Environmental Ltd. collaborated with faculty and students at Red River College to develop a dust suppressant.

The result was Dust Stop Municipal Blend, a non-corrosive and environmentally friendly alternative to road salts, such as magnesium chloride and calcium chloride. It also offers superior dust control. Municipal Blend incorporates sugars, which compete for water, making it less available to bind with soil molecules while providing some structural support and added road stability. Using the blend allows municipalities and other clients to reduce their overall environmental footprint while controlling dust.

Several students were engaged in the project, acquiring research skills while working alongside faculty and Cypher Environmental researchers.

“In terms of the innovation that we are doing, Cypher has a really great link with Red River College,” said the company’s president, Todd Burns. “We sort of have a deal on a handshake… It’s been phenomenal in terms of our ability to utilize resources that we don’t have in our small facility… It’s a great way to build on our capacity to do research and innovation and grow the business.”

Cypher commercialized Dust Stop immediately, opening a new production line and creating jobs in research, manufacturing and product application — including one filled by a Red River graduate who had worked on the project while at the college.

Industry: Environmental
Funded by: NSERC

About Red River College Polytechnic

Red River College (RRC) is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning. The institution is renowned for providing accessible, innovative, applied learning and research in an... Learn more
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Waste not, want not: Red River College and local microbreweries take an innovative approach to leftovers

Who knew there’s more to beer leftovers than what lingers in the bottom of a stubby at the end of a party?

Red River College and two local microbreweries in Winnipeg teamed up make use of the spent grain that’s left at the end of the brewing process, in an experiment that shows how far a little imagination and innovation can go. Together, they made a new kind of miso — the thick paste that’s normally made from fermented soy beans and is a staple of Japanese cooking.

Spent grain is a by-product of the brewing industry and generally used as animal feed. Finding innovative uses for it could help create more valuable commercial opportunities with a chance to bring new products to market — an important consideration as Canada’s microbrewery industry continues to thrive.

Red River College has been ramping up its culinary research since 2014 through new partnerships with industry and support from federal and provincial governments; the shift has led to many innovations with local producers — in this case, Farmery Estate Brewery and Torque Brewing Company. The college research chefs made soup, popcorn and pastries seasoned with pale malt miso from Farmery and dark malt miso from Torque.

“It was a good fit for us to partner with Red River College and utilize their culinary expertise to explore what could be done with our spent grains,” said Farmery owner Lawrence Warwaruk. “We’re all about adding value to the ingredients we grow and use in our beer, and that includes what happens to the by-products.”

Industry: Agriculture | Food
Funded by: Innovation Enhancement (IE) Grant

About Red River College Polytechnic

Red River College (RRC) is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning. The institution is renowned for providing accessible, innovative, applied learning and research in an... Learn more
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Parisian Pastries from Prairie Pulses

The rich food value of dried peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas has been known for centuries — their collective name, “pulses”, comes from puls, a Latin word that means both “seeds” and “porridge”. Pulses are widely consumed both as animal feed and in savoury dishes for humans around the world, and research continues to expand their uses.

Some of those new uses are remarkable — the crowning achievement of this project was to create a nut-free, egg-free French macaron using navy bean flour as a butter substitute.

Best Cooking Pulses is a family-owned Canadian processor of pulse crops grown in Manitoba. Established in 1936, it keeps a close eye on developments in new ways to use pulses. Thanks to funding from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Best Cooking Pulses partnered with Red River College’s culinary research program to investigate the possibility of using pulse flour in baking to replace eggs.

One student, Alyssa Houston, was brought in to work on the project as part of her culinary work experience placement — the first time a culinary student has gained work experience through research rather than in food service. She even had the chance to demonstrate the research in public, at table-top discussions with industry. After the project, she went on to a job in food manufacturing, helping the company with production as well as recipe creation using the skill from this project.

Best Cooking Pulses is using research from this project to showcase the advantages and versatility of navy bean flour at conferences (such as the Research Chef Association), and to prepare papers demonstrating this new application for bean flour to clients and potential clients.

Industry: Agriculture | Food
Funded by: Engage Grant, NSERC

About Red River College Polytechnic

Red River College (RRC) is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning. The institution is renowned for providing accessible, innovative, applied learning and research in an... Learn more
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Needle in a Circuit Board Haystack

Red River College is home to the Technology Access Centre for Aerospace and Manufacturing. Through the Centre, aerospace and manufacturing organizations can get access to equipment, assets and expertise to tackle problems in designing and manufacturing the advanced parts essential for their work.

In this project, the Centre worked with Parker Hannifin, which manufactures motion-and-control automation systems used in industry and aerospace. The company uses surface-mount technology to assemble circuit boards, but many of its boards were defective, with missing or misaligned parts being found during final quality inspection and testing.

Parker Hannifin turned to the Technology Access Centre for help. In this case, the problem was revealed using the College’s expertise in high-speed imaging, which can gather real-time data on robotic assembly, and allow experts to analyze the root causes of the defects.

To create circuit boards through surface-mount technology, hundreds of parts are picked and placed in a matter of seconds. High-speed imaging captured and distilled that process, and when the data and imagery were studied, the problem was shown to be parts being flipped and mis-oriented by faulty part feeders. Once this problem was identified, these feeders were isolated for repair or replacement.

“Collaboration with Red River College was instrumental in finding the true root cause of our ‘pick’ issue,” said Bob Dann, Technical Services Manager at Parker Hannifin. “Finding and correcting the root cause gave us a significant step improvement in quality and productivity.”

Industry: Manufacturing
Partner(s): Parker Hannifin

About Red River College Polytechnic

Red River College (RRC) is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning. The institution is renowned for providing accessible, innovative, applied learning and research in an... Learn more
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Working with UNEP on Sustainability and Consumption

In a globalized and networked society, sometimes it is necessary first to invest in people, relationships and ideas. Such efforts may produce results far out of proportion to the investment.

After several years of support from a number of sources, including an Innovation Enhancement grant, Dr. Peter Denton participated in civil society consultations through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This enabled him, as well as students and faculty at Red River College, to gain access to global environmental networks and UNEP-related activities.

Denton, who teaches ethics and sustainability at the college, is one of two Major Groups and Stakeholders Regional Representatives for North America to UNEP and is involved in continental and global initiatives on sustainable consumption and production. He was the only official Canadian representative of civil society at the first United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi in June 2014. He was subsequently elected Rapporteur for the Global Intergovernmental and Multi-Stakeholder Consultations on GEO 6, UNEP’s planetary survey, in Berlin in October 2014.

UNEP participation requires a partnership with an organization that can meet UNEP accreditation requirements, especially sustained international work on environmental projects. Since educational institutions do not qualify, Denton’s involvement was made possible by the United Church of Canada, which received full accreditation in May 2014.

Dr. Denton shares information and resources gained from his UNEP work with students and supervises applied research projects in civil engineering technology.

About Red River College Polytechnic

Red River College (RRC) is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning. The institution is renowned for providing accessible, innovative, applied learning and research in an... Learn more
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Large Building Air Leakage Testing

Air leakage is now widely recognized as one of the most critical parameters affecting a building’s energy use, indoor air quality, comfort and durability. This is particularly true in Manitoba’s extreme climate, where there have been several notable and expensive large building envelope failures.

Red River College (RRC) and its research partner, Manitoba Hydro, have recently completed a project investigating the air leakage characteristics of 26 buildings. A CCI Applied Research Tools and Instruments grant provided funding to purchase equipment to conduct these tests.

This research project has helped to establish baseline air leakage rates and to develop a practical air leakage testing protocol for current building standards. The project findings have also influenced at least two building retrofit projects by identifying critical air leakage pathways.

“The whole idea of commercial building air leakage was not very well understood. The results from this project have provided significantly more data than we’ve ever had in the past,” said Harry Schroeder, Building Systems Engineer with Manitoba Hydro. “An advantage of working with the college has been that they have the resources and staff, but they also have the facilities, and there really aren’t a lot of facilities in Manitoba to do buildings-related research.”

Four RRC students were part of the research team. Continued work in this area will significantly expand knowledge about air leakage characteristics and testing techniques for commercial buildings at both a provincial and national level.

Learn more in this video.

Industry: Building
Partner(s): Manitoba Hydro
Funded by: Applied Research Tools and Instruments (ARTI) Grant

About Red River College Polytechnic

Red River College (RRC) is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning. The institution is renowned for providing accessible, innovative, applied learning and research in an... Learn more
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Gluten-free Turkeys from Freezer to Oven

Two new turkey products have been introduced to retail stores in the Prairies thanks to testing and tasting at Red River College’s School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts.

The College’s School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts conducted its first College and Community Innovation research project in 2014 in partnership with Granny’s Poultry Co-operative Ltd. Researchers developed and tested four new poultry products for the consumer and food service markets.

Granny’s Poultry Director of Product Development, Jason Wortzman, worked with college chefs and a culinary student to finalize the recipes and test how the products held up in large commercial ovens and steam tables. Each product also underwent pre-market consumer tasting before the products were launched. Trials were conducted at the RRC’s Paterson GlobalFoods Institute, which provided access to 400 study participants across all demographics.

Granny’s Poultry was able to launch two new products by the end of the year. The Cornbread Stuffed Turkey and an Unstuffed Slow Cooker Turkey Roast are now sold through a major retailer in over 100 stores across the Prairies. The products are the first on the market to be naturally gluten-free and cooked straight from the freezer without thawing.

“By working closely with chefs and students at the college on the final phase of development we were able to fine tune our unique corn bread stuffing formula and validate cooking methods,” said Wortzman. “After testing our finished product on a broad demographic we were able to confidently partner with a national retailer on an ambitious new product launch plan.”

Industry: Food

About Red River College Polytechnic

Red River College (RRC) is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning. The institution is renowned for providing accessible, innovative, applied learning and research in an... Learn more
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Zero Emissions Public Transit

Electric vehicles hold great promise for reducing reliance on fossil fuels for public transportation around the world. But batteries and recharging facilities need to be more efficient to make the technology economically viable.

In 2014, Red River College (RRC), working with partners Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Manitoba Hydro, made a major step towards making electric public transit possible. They developed and tested a prototype of an all-electric zero-emissions transit bus and rapid charger system in Winnipeg’s harsh winter conditions. The project has since moved to full production and field demonstration, bringing four more buses into service with Winnipeg Transit.

RRC’s research staff, students and instructors – through the College’s Electric Vehicle Technology & Education Centre – modified and integrated 24 Mitsubishi Heavy Industry battery packs to meet space constraints for two prototype New Flyer buses for the demonstration phase with Winnipeg Transit.

“This electric bus project is a key element in Manitoba’s Clean Energy Strategy and supports our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the use of effective, cost efficient, renewable energy,” said Eric Robinson, Minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro. “Our innovative advancements in clean energy technologies have contributed to our placement as the first in Canada to employ the new, unique on-route rapid charging system, promoting affordable public transportation and electric vehicle knowledge which will create jobs.”

Red River College is a partner in an international consortium with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, New Flyer Industries, Manitoba Hydro and the Province of Manitoba to develop an all-electric transit bus and rapid charger. The project has been supported by Sustainable Development Technology Canada, the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Vehicle Technology Centre and a CCI Applied Research and Development grant.

See video here.

About Red River College Polytechnic

Red River College (RRC) is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning. The institution is renowned for providing accessible, innovative, applied learning and research in an... Learn more