Scaling up Saskatchewan’s potential

Edgar Martinez knows how to make connections, both scientifically and personally.

On the science side, Martinez is an engineer who has worked on projects ranging from biomedical devices to canola seeds.

On the personal side, he has served as the vice-president Student Affairs for the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), and having been a teaching assistant for four years, also received the College of Engineering’s Remote Teaching Award in 2021.

Until recently, he was also a full-time student, very close to achieving his PhD, and a full-time University of Saskatchewan (USask) staff member: he was appointed co-ordinator of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources’ (AgBio) Bioprocessing Pilot Plant (BPP) in February 2022.

One may wonder when he sleeps.

Originally from Mexico City, Martinez came to USask as an international student already armed with a Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering from the Universidad Panamericana in his home city, where he also worked as a hospital biomedical technician.

Upon arriving in Saskatoon, he took English courses at the university’s Language Centre and then was accepted to study for a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

Supervised by mechanical engineering professor Dr. Chris Zhang (PhD), Martinez worked with human cells in microfabrication and created a biomedical device. Based on his success, Zhang offered Martinez a continuation to a PhD.

“He saw that I was interested in small particles, and he thought maybe I could apply that knowledge to canola seed,” said Martinez.

Zhang contacted AgBio’s Dr. Martin Reaney (PhD), who became Martinez’s co-supervisor, “and that’s how I ended up where I am right now,” he said.

“I love the university. I have seen the university in different capacities. I was the vice-president for the GSA and so I have seen the university from several points of view . . . I have had that

privilege of being involved in numerous roles during my graduate studies. The university feels like home.

“From the beginning, the university has opened doors for me. It’s a place where I feel welcome.”

BPP supports researchers

The Bioprocessing Pilot Plant’s mandate is to support researchers, both from across campus and externally, with a range of bioprocessing research activities.

The research facility, located on the sixth floor of the AgBio college, is equipped with state-of-the art equipment to isolate, recover, and purify plant and crop constituents.

However, the plant is not solely in place for crop and food development. Students and faculty from various disciplines are also engaged in the design of drugs, vaccines, bioproducts and other human and animal health advancements.

Martinez runs the show, with supervision from Associate Dean Research and Graduate Studies Trever Crowe.

“I provide assistance with research projects, I provide training for students, and training also for external stakeholders. For example, we have contracts with companies who use our services and equipment here,” Martinez explained.

“We work mainly for Saskatchewan companies, but we can also have national and international projects,” he said, noting these companies pay for the training and use of the plant.

“The main goal is to support research in the College of AgBio and for other units such as the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.”

In a completely unrelated coincidence, and a good example of the plant’s usefulness, Martinez himself used the BPP for his own PhD project which focused on methods to dehull canola.

Increasing the value of an important prairie crop

Today, canola crushing—a crucial industry on the Canadian Prairies—simply smashes the entire seed, oil-bearing kernel, husk and all.

Canola seed, Martinez explains, has protein content of about 30 per cent, but the remaining meal if hulls are removed can reach protein concentrations of up to 50 per cent.

“Unfortunately, that (meal) protein is usually waste because after oil extraction, the meal is mixed with the hull,” said Martinez.

“The hull has lots of fibre and that fibre cannot be digested by humans, or chickens or fish; it can only be digested by ruminants.”

Dehulling, or removing the external shell, therefore leaves a meal with a high quantity of protein and low fibre.

“That protein can be purified and used as a food ingredient for humans or for animal feed,” he said.

There are two types of dehulling—after oil extraction, or tailend dehulling, and front-end dehulling. Martinez’s research focused on the latter.

“The challenge is that the seed is very small—two millimetres in diameter as an average—and there is a very tight connection between the kernel and the shell.”

He offers a comparison to peanuts, wherein the meat is not attached to the shells.

“Here the canola seed is in physical contact with the hull. Whatever you do to the hull, the damage will transfer directly to the seed.”

For that reason, he sought a method for tempering the seed before applying physical force to it.

“We added heat and moisture, and we were able to separate the seed internally from the hull. We were able to create a gap, just like in peanuts, without applying any force to the seed. That little gap between the seed and the hull is very small; it is a few microns. But it protects the seed so we can apply some force without transferring that force to the embryo, to the kernel.

“We don’t want to break the seed or cause damage because as soon as we break the seed there is some oil lost.”

Having measured the gap between seed and hull using X-rays, he then used rollers to break the hull in half. Once separated, the kernels could be separated from the broken hull with blown air.

His project was based on analyzing one seed at a time to determine a method that could be scaled up, and that is a major aspect of the BPP: doing the research, yes, but also figuring out how to scale up the technology.

Martinez has published his findings and defended his dissertation in September. His project now complete, Martinez finds that managing the BPP is advancing his knowledge in other ways.

“Although my PhD was on one specific project, I now am involved in several projects. My background is in machines, but I’m learning more about processing food and chemistry.”

And the BPP is another demonstration of how USask colleges work together and intertwine.

“We cannot be isolated. The problems are so complex; they are interrelated,” said Martinez.

“We are working on promoting the space and making it available for everyone. We are here to support more research in the college, and other colleges.”

Agknowledge, Fall 2023