National Center for Electrochemistry and Environmental Technologies (CNETE)

Cégep de Shawinigan, Shawinigan, Québec
What the facility does

Industrial bioprocesses, fermentation, anaerobic digestion, environmental technologies, characterization and functionalization of nanoparticles, gas and air filtration, separation and purification, electrochemistry, membrane technologies

Areas of expertise

CNETE at Cégep de Shawinigan is part of Trans-tech’s network of technology transfer centres. CNETE is known for its applied environmental research, especially in the areas of industrial bioprocesses, membrane separation technologies and electrochemistry. The fields of application of its projects are as follows:

  • Agrifood (beers, juice, kefir, yogurt and cheeses)
  • Biofuels (biogas, bioethanol, biobutanol and biodiesel)
  • Green chemistry (environmentally friendly cleaners, printing, antifreeze and insulation materials)
  • Pharmaceuticals (antiviruses, vaccines, antibiotics and probiotics)
  • Mines and gases (process water filtration, ore purification, gas purification, volatile organic contaminant filtration
Research services

Industrial bioprocesses: Genetic engineering, strain bank maintenance and conservation, strain selection and modification, aerobic and anaerobic fermentation, isolation technologies, concentration and purification, membrane technologies (ultrafiltration, microfiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis and electrodialysis). Upscaling: Laboratory steps up to pilot scale.

Environmental technologies: Closed loops, treatment and recycling of effluents and industrial solvents, gas treatment and filtration.

Sectors of application
  • Agriculture, animal science and food
  • Chemical industries
  • Clean technology
  • Energy
  • Environmental technologies and related services
  • Forestry and forest-based industries
  • Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
  • Manufacturing and processing
  • Mining, minerals and metals
  • Professional and technical services (including legal services, architecture, engineering)
Specialized lab Equipment
Genetic engineering and microbiology lab Real-time and gradient polymerase chain reaction (PCR) equipment, Nanodrop, electroporators, anaerobic chamber, incubators, gel densitometer, centrifuges, etc.
Industrial bioprocess lab 1 L, 2 L, 10 L, 40 L and 700 L fermenters, incubators, homogenizer, sonicator.
Anaerobic digestion lab Lab- to pilot-sized anaerobic digesters (250 ml, 7 L, 300 L and 3,000 L), pretreatment tanks, anaerobic chamber, systems for determining biomethane potential (BMP).
Membrane liquid filtration and separation lab Ultrafiltration, microfiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis units. Spiral, hollow fibre and ceramic configurations. Ability to treat volumes from 1 to 2,000 L. Filtration surfaces up to 7 sq. m for ceramic membranes and 14 sq. m for spiral membranes.
Electrochemistry lab Lab-scale (≈10 sq. cm), pre-pilot-scale (≈100 sq. cm) and pilot-scale (≈1,000 sq. cm) electrolytic and electrodialysis cells.
Gas filtration lab Gas filtration membrane test bench, thermogravimetric analyser, gas chromatography mass spectrometry analyser (GC-MS), gas chromatography thermal conductivity detector (GC-TCD) and Fourier transform infrared analysers (FTIRs).
Formulation lab Laminar flow continuous centrifuge (20 to 50 L/h capacity), rotary evaporator, vacuum furnace, lab and pilot freeze dryers, semi-pilot spray dryer (3 kg/h).
Chemical analysis lab Scanning electron microscope, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) unit, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur (CHNS) elemental analyser, ion chromatograph, FTIR analyser with a specific gas analysis cell, total organic carbon analyser, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) unit, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and gas chromatography (GC) units, Kjeldahl analyser.
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
  • Fonds de recherche du Québec-Nature et technologies
  • Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche et de la Science
  • Ministère de l'Économie, de l'Innovation et des Exportations
Title URL
Collège Shawinigan Research website http://www.collegeshawinigan.qc.ca/la-recherche-au-college-shawinigan