Canada’s Polar Shelf: A delicate balance

Eco Waste Solutions cleantech waste management

Waste challenge: Canada’s Polar Shelf isn’t just an extreme-cold environment – it’s a particularly sensitive environment due to the local wildlife and the delicate balance the local organisms have been able to achieve.

With increased military, scientific and tourism traffic, waste management solutions that have minimal environmental impact are increasingly important. Landfills are not an option, both because of the extreme cold and because of the risks of leachate polluting the water, methane gas polluting the air, and additional hazards for the local ecosystem.

 

Location:  The Polar Continental Shelf Program Resolute (PCSP) Facility. The PCSP’s logistics hub is located in Resolute on southern Cornwallis Island, Nunavut.

Polar Shelf waste management Eco Waste

The Polar Continental Shelf Program’s mission is to provide safe, efficient and cost-effective logistics in support of scientific and government priorities. It provides logistics throughout the Canadian Arctic for field research conducted by Canadian government, university, independent and international research organizations. It also provides specific field logistics support for the Canadian Armed Forces Arctic Training Centre hosted at the PCSP facility in Resolute.

 

Our solution: We provided our ECO M2TN, a fully-automated, permanently-containerized dual chamber incinerator system with a processing capacity minimum of 2000kg/10 cubic meters of waste per day. A waste hopper (storage unit) was added, for temporary storage of up to 4000kg of waste for up to 48 hours in a fully protected environment. A Continuous Emission Monitoring System was also provided, to meet Nunavut’s stack opacity standards.

Eco Waste Solutions waste management arctic military

Special features: The customized Waste Oil Burner (WOB) not only provides PSCP with an environmentally-responsible way to dispose of waste fuels and waste oils, it also decreases the amount of diesel fuel required for daily operation of the system, which means reduced costs.

The permanently-containerized system is designed to be transported and operated in harsh environments. Protective measures have been applied for extremes of rain, wind, temperature and shock/vibration.

Eco Waste Solutions containerized waste

Results: Our solution can process solid waste for up to 500 people, which means it easily accommodates the Resolute Bay community and PSCP Facility staff. Our robust construction and training means it can be maintained by existing personnel on a day-to-day basis.

The incinerator system installation has been completed. Final commissioning is scheduled for March 2018.