OTTAWA — A fledgling Quebec biotech firm that turns food waste into detergent has earned accolades from the Governor General as it prepares to partner with bigger players.

Dispersa is preparing to commercialize the world’s first proprietary waste-derived biosurfactants, called PuraSurf, which emulsify oil and grease. Surfactants are molecules that both attract and repel water, allowing them to engulf oil particles. They are found in countless household products, including shampoos, cleaners and cosmetics, as well as in industrial processes. Unlike similar products made with traces of petroleum, Dispersa’s bio-version is a byproduct of microbes that feast on discarded sugar, oil and grease from fast food restaurants and other sources.

The waste is fermented like beer, creating a soupy broth that disperses oil particles in water.

“We separate and remove all of the microbes, the impurities, and in the end what we have is…our biosurfactant, produced by our microbes and made entirely of waste,” the company’s founder and CEO Nivatha Balendra told The Logic. 

Balendra, 29, is one of six winners honoured at the Governor General’s Innovation Awards Thursday. The award is granted to Canadians whose innovations are deemed “truly exceptional,” with a positive impact on quality of life in Canada. The awards don’t come with a cheque, but are intended to recognize work that makes an impact and to inspire future entrepreneurial innovators. Dispersa’s work was nominated by Ingenium, the Crown corporation that oversees three national science-related museums in Ottawa.

Other winners include GHGSat president Stéphane Germain, whose Montreal-based company created the first commercial carbon dioxide sensor that monitors industrial emitters from space, and Dr. Milica Radisic, a University of Toronto researcher who developed a “heart on a chip” that allows researchers to test drugs and study heart disease using patient stem cells. 

The award comes just as Dispersa, based in Laval, Que, prepares to take a major leap. The company closed $5.8 million in seed funding in February, led by Halifax-based Nàdarra Ventures. The company plans to use the funds to scale up production and partner with well-known household cleaning product brands. 

“You could think of your favourite cleaning product brands that you use to clean your surfaces at home, your walls, your floors, your tables,” said Balendra, who expects to announce the brand partnerships this year. “These are the types of brands that we’ve partnered with, as well as home care brands like your favorite hand soap or the dishwashing liquid, or the detergent that you use to wash your clothes.” 

Balendra first started developing the technology as a way to clean up oil spills in 2013, after a train derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Que., spilling six million litres of petroleum and killing 47 people. 

“The premise for me was, how do we make this ingredient accessible and safe for healthier communities and a healthier planet?” she said. 

She founded Dispersa in 2019, and while the company has focused on using the product as an ingredient in soaps and detergents for now, Balendra hopes to eventually see it replace conventional surfactants in products and manufacturing processes to make everything from face cream to ice cream.

“It all goes back to how could we create the greatest impact?” she said. “Creating the greatest impact for us means finding our ingredient in as many industries as possible.”