Turning CO2 Into Useful Products

Back in 2017, to stimulate CO₂ reduction using carbon utilization and promote value-added economic development, it was announced that the Enmax Shepard Centre will host the new Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre (ACCTC). The semi-commercial CO₂ capture and conversion centre will first be used by the finalists of the global $20 Million Carbon XPRIZE contest demonstrating innovative ways to convert CO₂ emissions from the energy industry into valuable and useable products.

This collaboration between the governments of Canada and Alberta, Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), Shepard, and InnoTech Alberta allows the ACCTC for companies to demonstrate new technologies in a full-scale production setting.  This will demonstrate innovative ways towards the development of an eco-friendly economic sustainable environment using fossil fuels.

The NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE began back in 2015 and from the 27 semi-finalist teams, the ten finalist teams were selected in April of 2018. The contest is currently underway with 2 groups of 5 teams competing at either the Wyoming Integrated Test Center or the Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Center. The winning team will be judged on how much CO₂ they convert and the net value of their products produced.

The five teams competing in Calgary are Carbon Upcycling Technologies/Newlight, C2CNT, Air Co., CERT, and Carbon Cure. At Wyoming, we have C4X, Breath, Dimensional Energy, Carbon Capture Machine, and CO₂Concrete competing. They will be competing till the end of summer with the winners being announced in the coming Fall of 2020.

In Calgary, Carbon Upcycling Technologies (CUT) is already using the pollution of today to build the materials of tomorrow. They are providing CO₂ derived nanoparticles that are used in plastics, rubber, coatings, epoxy, adhesives, concrete, lithium-ion batteries, and pharmaceuticals. Another Calgary team, C2CNT, produces carbon nanotubes that can be used as a lightweight ultra-strong and cost-effective replacement for metals, bullet-proof textiles, and stronger cement-composite building materials. The nanotubes can also be used in applications with industrial catalysis, batteries, and nanoelectronics.

 Many companies and entrepreneurs are working on carbon capture and utilization (CCUS) by collecting CO₂ from the industrial exhaust and making any number of useful and valuable products. The range of products is endless. They are manufacturing food, vodka, watches, bio-fuel, yoga mats, building materials and even toothpaste virtually out of thin air. CUT  is in the progress of producing consumer products, including yoga mats, with captured carbon. The use of fossil fuels to generate energy can be converted into an eco-friendly sustainable economic model.

 This new technology of producing many of our needs and cleaning up the environment would be a perfect opportunity for governments to begin laying the groundwork for a Local Eco-Friendly Sustainable Economy. The Swiss-designed technology used to build the carbon capture unit at the Shepard Energy Centre was recently locally built in Edmonton by ALCO. It is time to capture and use the CO₂ from all our energy and manufacturing plants and build a new local job-creating eco-friendly sustainable economy that will endure during times of crisis.