Each year, Caldwell Partners International chooses 40 Canadians who were under 40 in the past year to honour for their outstanding achievements. Click here to learn more about the program, and find more winners in the list below.
Much of the materials we use are made from non-renewable and environmentally harmful petrochemicals.
Dr. Narine’s lab aims to change that by using chemistry and physics to turn renewable plant resources into safe edible, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and industrial products.
“We have the opportunity to remake our world and do it right,” he said.
The work of the Biomaterials Research Program he directs at Trent University is focused on oil seeds. “We take oils and fats and convert them into a wide variety of materials, including food,” he said.
But, he cautions, “It’s not okay to just do scientific research and make whiz-bang products. It has to be coupled with social and business considerations.”
So his program looks at the bigger picture and works with other groups, for instance on how to benefit rural communities by expanding the use of what they grow beyond food. There are also issues like not supplanting food crops with biofuel crops and taking into account water and land use. And the group is working with other countries, including Israel, India and in South America, to commercialize products.
We only use about 20 to 30 per cent of crops, he says, adding that much can be done with what is now considered waste.
One of the lab’s group of patents is around making zero trans fat margarines and confections with significantly lower saturated fat than existing products.
They also have patents on using the plant oils to make polyurethanes to replace the synthetic version that can range from foam to seals and adhesives.
The group also created the technology to produce the next generation of lubricants, such as engine oil, from plant oils.
In the area of biomedicine, the lab has developed bio-based plastics that can be used for things like joint replacements and dental implants.
Dr. Narine is from Guyana and came to Trent University to do his undergraduate and master’s degrees in chemical physics. He then went on to do his PhD in food science and materials physics at the University of Guelph.
After a stint in industrial research and development in the United States, the University of Alberta recruited him and he spent nine years doing research on biologically derived materials. Then Trent came knocking.
“I was always interested in going back but I didn’t know how to help Guyana,” he said.
But through an agreement with Trent, he has been volunteering since 2005 as the director of the National Institute of Applied Science and Technology in Guyana and commutes once a month.
One of the issues Guyana has is that it imports all of its fossil fuels, but has arable land, water resources, low population density and available labour.
So the institute developed local technology for biofuels and there’s a community in the hinterland that has been operating solely on biofuels produced from palm oil since 2006, employing 120 people, he says.
Another project of the institute has been to convert waste oil from restaurants into biofuel.
Yet another project has been to look for pharmaceutical potential in the rain forest of the country as a way of exploiting its resources without cutting down trees.
Other projects have been using coconut fibre and local clay for low-income housing.
“Our society is grappling with a never-ending list of things that threaten our survival. We have to have a different way of dealing with all the crises we face, and appropriate technology is more important than high technology,” he said.
Dr. Narine is the father of triplets and plays Indian drums. He is also an avid motorcyclist.
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