Innovative Japanese wastewater treatment technology being evaluated at UCalgary for use in cold climates and rural communitieshen Ken Matsuda to...

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Innovative Japanese wastewater treatment technology being evaluated at UCalgary for use in cold climates and rural communitieshen Ken Matsuda to...
Innovative Japanese wastewater treatment technology being evaluated at UCalgary for use in cold climates and rural communities
hen Ken Matsuda took his first water treatment job in Asia, he was focused on securing access to clean drinking water for those who need it. Growing up in British Columbia, he saw first-hand the challenges of sourcing clean drinking water in rural and Indigenous communities and wanted to be part of a solution.

What he learned was that he first had to think about the communities upstream, whose sewage was flowing into the rivers that would eventually reach another community. Treating that polluted water was a massive burden on downstream communities.

While helping to install small-scale wastewater treatment units in the Philippines, Matsuda had the spark of an idea. The Japanese-made units he was installing, the FujiClean Jokaso, were solving similar problems to what he saw back home. Could they work in Canada too?

Thanks to a partnership between UCalgary, Japan Sewage Works Agency, FujiClean and Matsuda’s company LM Wastewater, and funding from Alberta Innovates, we’re going to find out.

Pilot will evaluate small-scale wastewater treatment technology in extreme cold
In August 2025, the FujiClean Jokaso pilot launched at Advancing Canadian Water Assets (ACWA), UCalgary’s research facility embedded in the City of Calgary’s Pine Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility. The project team is evaluating the Jokaso for use in cold climates, to assess if the technology can be used in rural communities, instead of septic tanks or lagoon systems.

“What makes this unit ideal for rural communities is the compactness of it,” says Matsuda. “It’s like having a municipal wastewater treatment facility packed into one 40-foot shipping container — it’s groundbreaking.”

The Jokaso operates with the same biological processes used in municipal wastewater treatment. Wastewater moves through five chambers, where solids are broken down and disposed of, and the water is treated via filtration, clarification, and disinfection. The resulting effluent is clean enough to safely re-enter water sources.

“If the pilot is successful, the Jokaso unit could improve quality of life for small and remote communities by providing access to simple technology that works better than existing systems,” says Christine O’Grady, executive director of ACWA. “It has the potential to advance best practices for source water protection and water treatment in Alberta and across Canada.”

Why ACWA?
When Matsuda initially approached FujiClean and the Japan Sewage Works Agency, Japan’s national wastewater treatment agency, about the potential in the Canadian market, their main concern was winter.

Attached link

https://ucalgary.ca/news/innovative-japanese-wastewater-treatment-technology-being-evaluated-ucalgary-use-cold-climates-and

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