Professor Mir Mostafavi and his research team at Université Laval have developed a digital twin to help local authorities optimize the management of organic waste. Discover the summary of their work
Summary
Quebec produces around 6 million tonnes of residual waste a year, 60% of which is organic matter, mainly food and green waste, paper, wood and municipal biosolids. This accumulation generates serious environmental problems, such as water contamination, degradation of agricultural land and greenhouse gas emissions. In response, Quebec has implemented a waste management policy aimed at eliminating the landfilling and incineration of organic materials, in favor of their reclamation. In this context, our team has developed a geospatial decision-support prototype for optimizing the organic waste recovery chain (Optim-O), applied to the case of two pilot areas: Quebec City and the Rivière-du-Loup region, where biomethanization plants have been installed. However, these facilities face challenges related to the supply of organic materials, particularly in terms of quality, quantity and logistics. To further these efforts, the present project aims to develop a geospatial digital twin to support the organics value chain on a local and regional scale. It will harness various spatiotemporal and thematic datasets on organic material deposits and their collection, transport, treatment and distribution processes, to better optimize the value chain for these materials. Specific objectives include the development of a platform for the Quebec City region, with functionalities to demonstrate its usefulness in value chain management, as well as its future extension to the entire province. This project is being carried out in collaboration with the research team and several partners, including Stratzer, a leader in the assessment, planning, operation and optimization of waste management in Quebec, and Primodal Inc. an expert in water and waste treatment in Quebec.
