By Shawn Lawrence
AGRi-FOOD
AGRI-FOOD DISCOVERY PLACE:
Going beyond the bench to scale-up great ideas
T
he University of Alberta (U of A) has some of the most progressive and innovative talent and laboratory facilities in Canada. On its south campus in Edmonton, AB, you’ll find a world-class technology transfer facility that provides a critical step in the commercialization process. A 5,000 square-metre pilot plant, AgriFood Discovery Place (AFDP) offers the
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opportunity to conduct direct bench scale process development focused on health, food, energy, and a host of bio-products including biofuels and biodiesel. “We are predominantly an applied research pilot plant facility with scale-up equipment that can link industry with academic researchers. The strength of this University of Alberta team and the credibility of our academics can readily assist industry in
validating their bench scale opportunities, in particular, they can support industry in bioresource process development, meat safety and processing,” explains Bob Rimes, executive director of AFDP. According to Rimes, bench top process development is most often not transferable to large scale commercial plants. Essentially, the goal of AFDP is to provide an avenue for great ideas that have proof of concept established at the bench and provide the first scale up of the projects on a journey to new industry commercialization.
