Publications

Our team members are continually pushing the boundaries of knowledge in Savant’s fields of expertise. Below is a small sample of relevant publications  and presentations produced by our team.

Life Cycle Assessment and Biofuels

1. “Impact of Coproducts on GHG Emissions of Lignocellulosic Ethanol”
   Presentation delivered at the Functionalized Fibre and Biochemicals Network AGM, May 2013 about the use of LCA techniques to quantify the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the production of 2nd generation bioethanol by various methods (Saville, B.A. , MacLean, H.L., Pourbafrani, M., Shen, T. and McKechnie, J.). Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), advanced biofuels,  greenhouse gas emissions, cost scenario evaluation
2. “Electricity Production from Anaerobic Digestion of Household Organic Waste in Ontario: Techno-Economic and GHG Emission Analyses”
   Article published in Environmental Science & Technology, December 2012. LCA techniques were used to evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions and economic implications of Ontario’s Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program for anaerobic digestion (AD) of household source-separated organic waste. The LCA evaluation determined the scale of AD facilities required to make the technology cost-competitive with landfilling (Sancartier, D., MacLean, H.L., Saville, B.A.). Keywords: LCA, anaerobic digestion, sustainable energy production, greenhouse gas emissions, scale economics
3. “Impact of Cellulase Production on Environmental and Financial Metrics for Lignocellulosic Ethanol”
   Article published in Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, April 2013. LCA techniques were applied to the production of enzymes required for lignocellulosic (2nd generation) bioethanol, enabling determination of cost and greenhouse gas emissions impacts of various production methods (Hong, Y., Nizami, A., Pour Bafrani, M., Saville, B.A., MacLean, H.L.). Keywords: LCA, advanced biofuels, enzyme production, greenhouse gas emissions, cost scenario evaluation

Regulatory Approvals and Bioremediation

1. “Harnessing Microbial Activities for Environmental Cleanup”
   Article published in Current Opinions in Biotechnology, May 2006, reviewing the current state of knowledge regarding remediation of contaminated sites using anaerobic bacteria (Edwards, E.A., Loeffler, F.E.). Keywords: Bioremediation, anaerobic dechlorination, contaminated sites.
2. “Anaerobic Conversion of Chlorobenzene and Benzene to CH₄ and CO₂ in Bioaugmented Microcosms”
   Article published in Environmental Science & Technology, June 2013. A custom, mixed bacterial bioremediation culture was specifically designed to degrade chlorobenzene, a common chlorinated contaminant, without stalling degradation at benzene, a human carcinogen (Liang, X., Devine, C.E., Nelson, J., Sherwood Lollar, B., Zinder, S., and Edwards, E.A.). Keywords: Bioremediation, mixed bioculture design, chlorobenzene remediation